The enhancement of the female body has become commonplace in the 21st century, but breast augmentation is more than just an attention-getter nowadays. In many ways, silicone has become as good as gold.
Tax inspectors in Argentina recently carried out a sting operation designed to take down tax evaders. The biggest targets included professional athletes,
models, entertainers, criminals and plastic surgeons - yes, plastic surgeons.
It’s no secret that breast augmentation has become a worldwide phenomenon, but nowhere has this been more evident recently than in this South American country where tax evasion is rampant. Citizens of Argentina are notorious for paying for even the biggest-ticket items in cash and failing to declare their personal fortunes, so when investigators finally decided to crack down, they needed to pick a target big enough to stand out.
They chose breasts.
Breast augmentation is big business in Argentina - this much is evident after the Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos in Buenos Aires investigated the number of implants imported into the country in recent years in an attempt to determine the yearly earnings of the nation’s many cosmetic surgeons.
The AFIP determined that as many as 125,000 implants valued at $15 million were imported into the country between 2008 and 2009. During those years, it also believes that women spent as much as $170 million on breast augmentation. For the purpose of the investigation into the issue of tax evasion, it is estimated that plastic surgeons in the country evaded some $10 million in taxes.
How have breasts become such big business? For one thing, the world has become a cosmetic place. Typically more than 250,000 American women look to surgery to enlarge their breasts each year. Each surgery costs upwards of a few thousand dollars and typically averages around $6,000. Those, however, are just the basics.
Health concerns centered around the silicone common in implants made headlines when they first came out some 20 years ago. Since then, manufacturers and plastic surgeons have worked diligently to come up with a safer, easier and more natural enlargement experience. The result is the cutting edge of the industry advancing from making the surgery safer to making the surgery less intrusive and even less noticeable.
Women today aren’t settling for getting the size they want. Nowadays they can pay steeper prices for more expensive surgeons who can make the procedure easier, their scars smaller and their silicone less noticeable. The result is the exponential growth of an industry that was hardly even an industry a generation ago.
Breasts alone aren’t responsible for their own big business. Plastic surgery itself is on the rise, and with it the salaries of the surgeons who perform the operations are rising as well. A top-of-the-line doctor with over 10 years experience in the industry is estimated to take home more then $350,000 in yearly income - a number that continues to rise by the year.
Quite simply, the operations are becoming more expensive because the operators are becoming more expensive and vice versa. It’s a cycle that will continue to drive the industry skyward as long as the demand is still there, and it is showing no signs of going away. Breast augmentation appears to be big business that is here to stay.
