Cost of Living in Brazil

[robh]

Originally Posted by RalphJ

Do you use the telephone? Internet? Do these services funciton normally and consistantly? Water? Electricity? Gasoline? Do you have a sewerage system? Can you drink your tap water without getting worms or even at times it causing death? Do you have to send your children to private school fore if you don't the conditions of the public schools and quality of education is abysmal? Can you depend upon your local police for security? Can you get a long-term loan to purchase large ticket items for under 12% per year? Can you get short-term loans and lines of credit in your bank accounts for under 10% per month?


These are realities of everyday life in Brazil that those that don't live here on a day-to-day basis, have families here, businesses, at times aren't aware of.

Read my previous post.

Aracaju must be a real dump without sewage and electricity and tap water that kills .

[RalphJ]

Originally Posted by robh

Read my previous post.

Aracaju must be a real dump without sewage and electricity and tap water that kills .

That's not Aracaju, it's Brazil. Check out Natal, Pipa and surrounding areas and see what percentage has "esgoto". The national average of cities and metropolitan areas that has sewerage systems in Brazil is 40-60%. It's a well-known fact for those that live here. All of the statements I made is in regards to BRAZIL, not just Aracaju. Aracaju, from the latest studies and surveys is amongs the BEST in the country in regards to these things.....afterall, they just won the award as having the "best quality of life in Brazil"!

And this entire country has problems with nearly all infrastructure services, especially electricity. People from the far south to the far north have problems with all electrical products because of the stability and consistancy of their electricity. The people that I know personally, in S.P., Rio, Salvador, Aracaju, Maceio, Recife, Fortaleza, etc, have all, at one time or another, had a computer, tv, refrigerator, etc, that was "queimado" from the power going down all the time or the energy "peaking".

Your statements show how much you are truly familiar with day-to-day life in Brazil. Kind of like the deaths by auto accidents statement saying the U.S. is more dangerous when in fact if Brazil had the same number of autos and motorists the total death toll would be more than 300,000 per year in comparison to 40K for the U.S. They even had a program on Globo, and even making comparisons to the U.S. about this very issue within the last month. One doesn't even need stats to recognize a reality like this.....only spend time in the respective places.

[Dotty]

Ralph,

We have serious issues in Natal with regards to sewerage problems.It is major news at the moment.For every predio that has been constructed and there are many we have had to deal with more and more over flowing of blocked drains and lagoons forming in very nice residential and commercial streets.As you are aware most brasilians if not all do not have house hold insurance or commercial insurance for damage done in the very rainy season of 2008.There isn't anwhere for the rain to go!

Apart from that the stench as mentioned in a previous post is very unpleasant especially when a car decides to wizz past and splash you with rotten water ,yuk not very nice I can tell you!

[RalphJ]

Originally Posted by Dotty

Ralph,

We have serious issues in Natal with regards to sewerage problems.It is major news at the moment.For every predio that has been constructed and there are many we have had to deal with more and more over flowing of blocked drains and lagoons forming in very nice residential and commercial streets.As you are aware most brasilians if not all do not have house hold insurance or commercial insurance for damage done in the very rainy season of 2008.There isn't anwhere for the rain to go!

Apart from that the stench as mentioned in a previous post is very unpleasant especially when a car decides to wizz past and splash you with rotten water ,yuk not very nice I can tell you!

It's not just Natal Dotty, as I'm sure I don't have to tell you, this problem exists throughout the entire country, it's not just regulated to one city, state, or region. The same goes for problems with electricity, the consistancy and quality of a high-speed internet connection, tap water, etc.

[robh]

Originally Posted by RalphJ

That's not Aracaju, it's Brazil. Check out Natal, Pipa and surrounding areas and see what percentage has "esgoto". The national average of cities and metropolitan areas that has sewerage systems in Brazil is 40-60%. It's a well-known fact for those that live here. All of the statements I made is in regards to BRAZIL, not just Aracaju. Aracaju, from the latest studies and surveys is amongs the BEST in the country in regards to these things.....afterall, they just won the award as having the "best quality of life in Brazil"!

And this entire country has problems with nearly all infrastructure services, especially electricity. People from the far south to the far north have problems with all electrical products because of the stability and consistancy of their electricity. The people that I know personally, in S.P., Rio, Salvador, Aracaju, Maceio, Recife, Fortaleza, etc, have all, at one time or another, had a computer, tv, refrigerator, etc, that was "queimado" from the power going down all the time or the energy "peaking".

Your statements show how much you are truly familiar with day-to-day life in Brazil. Kind of like the deaths by auto accidents statement saying the U.S. is more dangerous when in fact if Brazil had the same number of autos and motorists the total death toll would be more than 300,000 per year in comparison to 40K for the U.S. They even had a program on Globo, and even making comparisons to the U.S. about this very issue within the last month. One doesn't even need stats to recognize a reality like this.....only spend time in the respective places.

But you'll get that from someone sitting at a keyboard on another continent that only makes a couple trips a year.

Ralph,

I have been to Aracaju and you can tell it is a planned city (this isn't a compliment btw).

Regarding the discussion about car accidents, I do believe when you explained how you were using the stats that I agreed with you.

I am glad you like Globo and consider it trustworthy as they recently had one of our clients and one of our exclusive developments in Pipa on a program about foreigners buying in Brazil, all very positive.

Something else I know because I actually do travel a lot, both in Brazil and elsewhere, is that whilst Brazil has a lot of problems it has a hell of lot more going for it than most other parts of the world. Lastly, a bit of advice for you Ralph, I have lived in lots of places in the world and I find the best thing to do when all you do is complain about the place you live in, is move somewhere else.

[robh]

Originally Posted by Dotty

Ralph,

We have serious issues in Natal with regards to sewerage problems.It is major news at the moment.For every predio that has been constructed and there are many we have had to deal with more and more over flowing of blocked drains and lagoons forming in very nice residential and commercial streets.As you are aware most brasilians if not all do not have house hold insurance or commercial insurance for damage done in the very rainy season of 2008.There isn't anwhere for the rain to go!

Apart from that the stench as mentioned in a previous post is very unpleasant especially when a car decides to wizz past and splash you with rotten water ,yuk not very nice I can tell you!

Ok, so you had an excessively large amount of rain and there were problems with sewage??? Have either you or Ralph watched the news lately, I bet there is sewage flowing down the streets in the flooded areas of the US too.....

[Dotty]

Rob,

Why don't you come and live here on a full-time basis then you may get a clearer picture.Only last week an elctric cable fell crashing down onto a busy street .Take a look at the papers and research more as you will see that the infrastructure is really 3rd world,but hopfully will get to where it should be and if it does then a number of yrs to sort it out.
I was put off buying a property in Jacuma because it had rained heavily(glad i visited when it was to be honest) and caused enormous crack and flooding in the ground close to the beach not to mention the lagoons forming in the ground.You know what I mean!

Originally Posted by robh

Ok, so you had an excessively large amount of rain and there were problems with sewage??? Have either you or Ralph watched the news lately, I bet there is sewage flowing down the streets in the flooded areas of the US too.....

[robh]

Originally Posted by Dotty

Rob,

Why don't you come and live here on a full-time basis then you may get a clearer picture.Only last week an elctric cable fell crashing down onto a busy street .Take a look at the papers and research more as you will see that the infrastructure is really 3rd world,but hopfully will get to where it should be and if it does then a number of yrs to sort it out.
I was put off buying a property in Jacuma because it had rained heavily(glad i visited when it was to be honest) and caused enormous crack and flooding in the ground close to the beach not to mention the lagoons forming in the ground.You know what I mean!

I hardly see how you can go to an undeveloped site during exceptionally hard rain and then claim the development must be flawed because it was flooded.

Part of building any property or development is dealing with rain, it is called drainage and it is an engineering problem that has been dealt with successfully for the last 3000 years (5000 if you count the chinese).

[debzor]

Originally Posted by RalphJ

Labiofus;

I'm american as well and been living in brazil for a decade. Brazil is NOT cheap. Boy would I love to have $4 a gallon gas.....gasoline here is $7 U.S. per gallon. I'm 42 years old and pay 415 reais per month for health insurance, and that's only hospitalization. The dollar is currently 1.6:1 vs. the real, so you can do the math, that's around $260 per month. A Honda Civic will cost you 70,000 reais, that's roughly $44,000 U.S. Electronics are anywhere from 2.5-5X more expensive than the U.S. and the quality is extremely inferior. Communications...extremely expensive, an international call to the U.S. costs around 1 real per minute including taxes, that's around 63 cents from a landline, cellular is another story and VERY expensive. I could go on and on, but to make a long story short, my life in Atlanta, Georgia before I moved to Brazil was cheaper and I had quality in the products and services I owned/used that in many cases isn't even available here. Brazil being "cheap" is a fallacy. You'll see for yourself.

Hi Labiofus

Like Ralph and Rob, I also live here, although I am British.

People frequently make the mistake of lumping the whole NE Brasil together, and making sweeping statements that they believe applies to the whole area.

Where I live, on a tropical island in Pernambuco, it seems that most thing are cheaper than in the more developed 'touristic' areas.

My new Peugeot 1.6 litre 16 valve mini-SUV cost me under R$50,000 last year; I am older than Ralph but my health insurance is much less for more; I buy alcool for my car (which I can use instead of, or as well as, gasoline) for around $4 a gallon; my IPTU (property taxes) are a fraction of other areas, etc.

However one thing we all share is a (comparatively) sub standard infrastructure. All of Ralph's last post is correct for the whole country, pretty much.

[Dotty]

It was a wise move to go in exceptionally hard rain because it was not just the site ,but all sourrounding areas.I am sure the company will sort out the drainage ,but let's hope it doesn't go in the wrong direction like the ocean.
The Romans built successful draining problems and had the intelligence to understand what they were doing and Brasilians have excellent engineers too,but unfortunately the govenment and politics just do not let it happen the way it should.

Originally Posted by robh

I hardly see how you can go to an undeveloped site during exceptionally hard rain and then claim the development must be flawed because it was flooded.

Part of building any property or development is dealing with rain, it is called drainage and it is an engineering problem that has been dealt with successfully for the last 3000 years (5000 if you count the chinese).