An Italian car of a country: Argentina looks great but just doesn't work

The San Francisco Chronicle ^ | December 27, 2018 | Anthony Faiola, The Washington Post

[2ndDivisionVet]

Like a grand dame fallen on hard times, Buenos Aires was dimmed by economic collapse. In between its Paris-like cafes and wrought-iron balconies stood the blight of boarded store fronts. On its great boulevards, scavengers sifted through dumpsters for anything they could resell.

That was 2002, when I covered the debt default and currency devaluation that had devastated this nation. But it's the fate of the Argentines to live in a vicious loop.

Back this month for the first time in 16 years, I saw a country stuck in what has now become its natural state: crisis. As if living a deja vu, I flipped on the TV to once again hear Argentine newscasters fretting about bailouts, the diving peso and fears of default. Beggars - even more than before - panhandled on the same corner by an imposing church on Santa Fe Avenue. As others had done years before, stores advertised going-out-of-business sales....

[CondoleezzaProtege]

I think they’re due for an election this year...

Don’t Cry for Me Argentina...

[PGR88]

The calls Peron “right wing” - and then describes his nationalizations of most industries, union favoritism, and turn to elitism.

Cristina Kirchner is also described as “Peronist.” Never a socialist, even though her policies were taken form Hugo Chavez, who she greatly admired.

American media have become just pure political propaganda.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Argentina was never able to recover from Peron.

Really sad as it is one of those countries that has everything and they are busy making it into nothing.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Peron was a socialist. Nothing right wing about him or his prostitute of a wife.

She used to walk up to women who had jewelry she admired and tell them that their jewels could feed the poor. Not being stupid the women understood the implied threat and would hand them over.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

It’s not deja vu, it’s vuja de—you’re seeing something that has already happened. And as usual, the SF Gate is taking note for the wrong reasons. This is where they’re driving California and they’re trying to drive the country in that direction.

[Cementjungle]

They were doing pretty well back when I started going there regularly (around 1998). Then Kirchner (first Nestor, then later his wife) took over in 2003. They put the socialist touch on, with a big dose of corruption.

Nestor died, and Cristina is fighting to stay out of prison. The current president, Macri is even worse.

Too bad... I really liked the country. Sadly, it's heading the same path as Venezuela.

[2ndDivisionVet]

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/honor-bound-by-web-griffin/290232/#isbn=0399138625&idiq=3323573

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yep, you can hand it over now or the secret police will hand it over to me after you’ve been shot. Those socialists are great people, this is what a DemonRat wants for America.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Wait, what about the car again?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I traveled there in the 80s both before and after the Junta was in charge. They make small upticks and then slide right back again.

Before Peron they were a first world country but socialism is a sickness that countries rarely recover from. The mind set of "kill my neighbor's goat" never seems to go away.

[familyop]

There were two big problems: socialism and foreign-owned and operated production and exports that funneled most of the profits and natural resources to foreign countries.

[Ragnar Danneskjöld]

Is it a fair statement to say...Spanish-based cultures just do not succeed? I’m trying to think of some, but they don’t come to mind. Have often wondered why that is.

[rfp1234]

Chile was OK for a while.

[tflabo]

Avarice, greed, corruption and ignorance/rejection of God/Biblical principles will ruin any society. America has been ruined too, just not totally yet.

[okie 54]

Argentina is a lovely country it just has too many politicians similar to American Democrats running it

[TheDandyMan]

There was a time when it was 50/50 whether Argentina would adopt Spanish or French as the national language, and their cultural elites were actively working to create a pan-European society (Europe transplanted to S America, as one put it) rather than an Indo-Spanish admixture like the countries around them. Ethnically, most Argentinians are of what would be considered white European descent — IIRC something like 60-65% of the population, while less than 30% are Mestizo and barely 5% native Indian. Their constitution still explicitly favors immigrants from Europe, despite pushes to remove such language every time they change the constitution.

Point being, Argentina is rather different on paper when compared to her neighbors in terms of cultural basis, but equally disfunctional. It it perplexing.

[Campion]

Chile and Costa Rica aren’t bad. Not coincidentally, both of them are pretty friendly to free-market economics, at least compared to their neighbors.

[hinckley buzzard]

Hispanic culture does not have its roots in the law as the Anglo culture. There is no Spanish Magna Carta or common law, or Constitution that is held in respect. Property ownership is not held as a matter of right as it is in the Anglo based culture. This means that the future is always contingent on the whims of political winds. Hard to get banks to take risks and make investments for the future in such an environment.

[major_gaff]

Excellent series...almost as good as his series ‘The Corps’.