Argentina as international object lesson in living within one's means

There are 7 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 2,807 times. The latest Post () was by Splinter.

1st Official Post

    This opinion writer uses Argentina as an example, and a warning, for Ireland -- and, by extension, for the rest of the world. In his words, "A century ago Argentina was one of the world’s richest countries. Then dictatorship, populism and economic mismanagement led it astray. Ireland is now a rich country. The lesson from Argentina is that we must take nothing for granted."


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/art…rgentina-crisis-ndfp3p3w2

    Quote from Rice

    This opinion writer uses Argentina as an example, and a warning, for Ireland -- and, by extension, for the rest of the world. In his words, "A century ago Argentina was one of the world’s richest countries. Then dictatorship, populism and economic mismanagement led it astray. Ireland is now a rich country. The lesson from Argentina is that we must take nothing for granted."


    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/art…rgentina-crisis-ndfp3p3w2

    The article is behind a paywall, but the intro says all we really need to know. What basic lessons! And so seldom heeded.

    I always thought that since 1946 (Peron's era) we were installed the idea of living beyond our own means and incomes. We inherited, as a result of the II World War, a great amount of credits from many countries of the world, and we lavishly distributed this treasure giving the people a standard of life more than necessary.

    Instead of promoting investments in many areas that we lacked, since we were only producing agricultural commodities, all went to spend money wihtout the minimal concern about what the world would ask from us. No people can live with a succesful idea more than one or two generations. That succesful idea was to become a producer of only cattyle and grains., but this would not last.

    The worst is that work ethics, who our first inmigrants had, now had been vanished.

    There's a populist process that plays out over and over again in different countries, different eras, but always this: government confiscates wealth from whoever has it in the name of the poor and downtrodden. Said government then redistributes the confiscated wealth - but keeps some or most for themselves and friends. This could work for a long time if the looters were smart enough just to skim, and leave enough so that the wealth producers can continue to produce.


    But they never do. There's never "enough" for these people, so they keep taking and taking until there's nothing left. Now it's time to blame everyone else, especially outsiders, for ruining the economy.


    Venezuela is just the latest and most horrible current example, but there will be more.

    • Official Post
    Quote from Carlos

    The worst is that work ethics, who our first inmigrants had, now had been vanished.

    You hit the nail on the head there Carlos and a case in point is the 'chanta' bloke who has been repairing our roof for the last couple of weeks.

    Fair enough, it's rained a lot recently, but when those dry weather windows have appeared he's turned up for three or four hours and then buggered off again with the excuse that he's tired of climbing up the stepladder. Or I later find him dossing around in the plazoleta with the other layabouts.

    To make things worse and since he's practically finished the principal work, he's trying to screw us for another $5000, which was not part of the agreement. Added to which, getting a written quote out of casual workers like these is like flying to Mars.

    I usually have an instinct about untrustworthy people and a bell rang with him, but we need the work done quickly as the roof was in danger of collapsing.

    Sorry for going off topic, but we try to live within our means only to find that others conspire against it.