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Let's see, Uruguay. I'm from California but i've spent a few years living in Uruguay and started and ran a tech business in Uruguay. The country is a special unique place, but it's far from perfect. Let's start with the good things: Good Tech Policies * Laptops for every public school child (over 1 million distributed)
* Free basic (64k 1 gb per month) internet on every phone line
* Good 3G/4G coverage over the country
* Fiber to the home finally provides good broadband
* No taxes for tech companies profits (there are pay roll taxes)
* Free education through university, no exams to get in.
* Goal of %95 renewable electricity production by 2015
* Lots of small startups / exits (about a dozen a year under $10 million USD)
* Strong freedom of information laws
* Good open source / open formats laws for all government data.
Other Positive things * Very little corruption (i never came across any, but people complain)
* Legal Gay Marriage, Abortion, Marijuana, etc... Socially progressive
* Walkable cities, sidewalk cafes, beaches
* GMO's are banned, food is natural and unprocessed.
* Good electoral system, proportional representation
* Politicians care about building consensus and getting stuff done.
* Fantastic & cheap health care system
* Not consumerist, people care more about friends & family than things.
* No traffic / pollution problems related to cars.
* Uruguayans trust their institutions (banks, government, union, church)
* Atheist! Uruguayans are not religious and the state is officially atheist.
But Uruguay's not perfect. There's a lot wrong. The bureaucracy is complicated with more crazy rules than you can imagine. There's lots of paperwork. There's a lack of local credit and asset markets to get investment. You can get a new company easily, but opening a bank account is a real PITA. Credit card processing and things like that re very hard. Inflation has become a major problem in Uruguay and when combined with real productivity gains and a strong currency it means that real prices have risen a LOT. Pay roll taxes are high but salaries are low. That means many Uruguayans are broke. Car's are very expensive, gas is expensive, keeping traffic down, but it's a pain. The quality of things you buy in Uruguay are very very low. Things constantly break, the market is tiny and customs duties are high.Uruguay's biggest problem, ironically enough given their being very socially liberal and open about good public policy, is that Uruguayans are very conservative. There's no desire to try something new or different. This makes Uruguay feel like it's living in the past. Stable families, sunday diners, stay at home housewives, summer vacations in the family beach house or camping in the same place every year, banks are open from 1 to 4pm, multigenerational house holds, etc... Uruguay feels like an alternate history version of the 1950's. Uruguay's a great place to retire. It's not a place with people who want to change the world, or change their own country to keep up with the Joneses. It's got it's own path driven by good public policy and a desire not to rock the boat. It's definitely much better off than any of the other countries in the region. Few poor people, no rich people, decent quality of life for everybody. PS, ignore then trolls. The right wing in Uruguay lost power because they mismanaged the country and are upset that things are getting better. |