Socialism and corruption make it happen. You take from the productive at gunpoint and give it to the nonproductive for votes.DB, you'll get no argument from me there.
But that can't be the only explanation for the catastrophic collapse that Argentina is undergoing. What about their neighbor Brazil, for example? They seem to be doing a lot better. I remember reading an editorial in the Wall Street Journal that said Argentina's mistake was that it stuck too long with the policies prescribed to it by the IMF.
Every time they would try to cut back on public spending the citizens would riot. Then they would restore the spending... They spent at a rate far greater than what they collected in taxes. They did so to the point they couldn't make the payments on the barrowed money and their economy collapsed when the currency became nearly worthless. That is what happened…
Japan now has more government debt than GDP… That can't continue.