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I currently live in Santiago, Chile, which to my opinion isn't a third world situation... but I was born and lived in Tucumán, Argentina, one of the poorest parts of the country, and a place I usually return to. On the other end of the scale, I've lived in the Netherlands, and I've got family in Switzerland. One of the most importants things you realize when living in the third world, is that happiness is really something that doesn't come with money or luxury. People in Tucumán are usually happier than the guys I've known in Chile, even though Chile is usually presented as one of the most succesful Latin American economies. The problem with Chile is that growth is only measured by GDP growth, and inequality and quality of life isn't really taken into account. As a country, it is trying to "fake" the being a first world country via metrics, instead of via quality of life. Even though Chile's economy is better rated than Argentina's, public services: education, transport, health, etc. are usually better in Argentina than in Chile... and cheaper! In terms of hacking opportunities, I think that e-commerce and delivery is still not 100% solved, with very high costs for shipping, and not enough variety of products. There's a big market for people who would love to have products like the ones from ThinkGeek, but are too expensive to ship. E.g: A t-shirt from thinkgeek costs 15 USD + 45 USD shipping! |