Argentina due to get fifth president in two weeks

Financial Times (U.K.) ^ | 01/01/2002 | FT.com staff and Thomas Catán and Mark Mulligan

[PRO 1]

Send Klinton and (Evita) his commie side kick.

[AmishDude]

I'd like to announce my candidacy for Argentina's presidency. Sure, my Spanish is rusty. Sure, I have no experience. But ask yourself this: Can I be any worse than what they have right now?

With that, I also have a campaign slogan. Can somebody translate that into Spanish, please?

[AmishDude]

Aha! So you are my chief opponent, eh?

[weikel]

LOL. I will be El Presidente.

[AmishDude]

You are right. Hillary is definitely overqualified for this. Gas up the airplane and plot a course to Buenos Aires.

[AmishDude]

I promise only 10% taxes and 5% embezzlement!

[weikel]

Damnit I can't go below 5% embezzlement( of all revenue not of GNP) whats the point of running a Latin American country if I can't stuff my Swiss bank account. My taxes will only be a 5% sales tax and I will sell all state owned industries to multinationals( and take a personal commision of course) that should make the country attractive for business again.

[AmishDude]

That's it! I'm dropping out of the race and endorsing weikel.

[weikel]

And I will of course legalize everything except stealing killing etc( enforcing nuisance laws lowers like drugs lowers tourism and cost money) Ill bring in the people the mob had run Vegas in the old days( like Lefty on Casino) when Vegas was good. Ill save on military expenditure by requiring all Middle Class or above people to own an automatic weapon( reduce crime too).

[Cacique]

I posted this elsewhere but it bears repeating.

I left that morass in 1962 and never looked back.

The Peronists under Juan Peron is who started the mess in the first place.

The real reason for the collapse of Argentina has been it's socialized welfare system introduced by the Peronists in the late 1940's. Peron used the vast reserves that Argentina acquired during WWII by selling foodstuffs to establish a welfare state and buy out the support of the working class "Los descamisados" (the shirtless ones). He squandered it by buying out the foreign owned assets, such as the then British owned railway system which was in disrepair. Instead of attracting foreign investment and opening up the economy he nationalized industry. By the time of his overthrow in 1955 the country was bankrupt.

No goverment military or democratic has had the balls to tear down the welfare state. Instead they borrowed from the international markets to make up the budget shortfall to maintain a welfare state they could not afford. The country maintained a lifestyle without having the funds to pay for it. Instead of investing capital in productive activities they squandered it on the welfare system. Now they have to pay the piper and all the people who have been sucking at the tit are now having to realized the tit has dried up.

Argentina will never amount to anything unless it gets rid of the productive people paying for the unproductive. The real shame is the country is an immensily rich country in natural resources saddled by a population that is brain dead. But it will never change as generations of Argentines have been brainwashed into believeing they are a second world country, when in reality they don't even belong in the thirld world.

There is no alternative politically because the choice is between the left (The Peronists) and the farther left (The Radical Civic Union and Frepaso) . There exists nothing tantamount to any legitimate conservative laisez Faire parties

Look carefully at Argentina because that is where the welfare state eventually leads.

[FlyVet]

You're scaring me. Since FDR did the same thing here with his "new deal" and LBJ with his "great society" I guess it's a testament to American people that we haven't fallen that far (yet). We seem, for the most part, to only have the same choices, Left (Republicrats) and Far Left (Marxists called Democrats). I wonder what's holding this place together, paper clips and bubble gum?

[steveisright]

De la Sota may not be your "right wing savior" but in Cordoba he did install more or less a system of tax incentives and again, more or less, supply-side economics. He has to accomodate the extreme left of people there, so he can't go all out, but he has ideas and proof of their efficacy (like economic success in Cordoba until recently). I'd vote for the guy any day if i lived in that forsaken country today!