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I believe you must have spent considerable time in Venezuela in year 2021 to completely grasp at what I said about how expensive it has become.../ what 100 usd can buy in Caracas or in New York or in London or in Buenos Aires or in Bangkok on present Day. Thats what a person with "deep pockets" will consider.
One of the problems in Venezuela is that virtually nothing is produced locally, so even food costs a fortune. For example, roast chicken or a family-sized portion of salchipapas for $20. Most household goods (all imported) go for almost the price you'd find in Colombia or Ecuador (out of reach for almost all Venezuelans). On the other hand, renting an apartment is cheap, less than $400 for a 2-bedroom apartment in one of the best areas of Caracas (El Hatillo).
 
I believe you must have spent considerable time in Venezuela in year 2021 to completely grasp at what I said about how expensive it has become.../ what 100 usd can buy in Caracas or in New York or in London or in Buenos Aires or in Bangkok on present Day. Thats what a person with "deep pockets" will consider.

Well The Poverty Line (for a Family) in CABA is today $140,000 pesos or about US$100 aprox. the WU rate less the Commission ! As a Matter of fact I know few Argies that earn that amount or more ? Diputados make $200,000 ? plus 40 % ? IMHO.
 
That Disco was the first location in CABA w/a carpark years and years ago I think ..of course rebuilt over the years...
 
Well The Poverty Line (for a Family) in CABA is today $140,000 pesos or about US$100 aprox. the WU rate less the Commission ! As a Matter of fact I know few Argies that earn that amount or more ? Diputados make $200,000 ? plus 40 % ? IMHO.

Should read US$1,000, instead of US100.
 
The more I think on it, the more is strikes me that Argentina is the dark future of the western world.

The Europeans saw it first with their similarly ungovernable nations of Italy and Greece (once it returned to democracy). With Portugal, Spain, and even France tilting that way all through the 1980s, the European Union tried to save Europe by removing the ability of national governments to adopt Argentine-style tax/spend and anti-productive policies. The Euro and monetary role is the most famous mechanism for this, but Brussels has been gradually assuming various national governments' powers for decades, narrowing their fiscal marge de manoeuvre.

At the same time, World Bank/IMF and a host of other institutions and arrangements (GATT/WTO/regional trade agreements with enforceable settlement dispute mechanisms) - essentially the entire neoliberal system - took this national. People called it coca cola capitalism and rioted and the rest, but at some basic level, it was all designed to prevent your Venezuela/Argentina type scenarios by folding countries into extra-national rule systems for trade, taxation, etc.

Whatever the successes, this schema - which prioritized stability and growth as the basis of shared prosperity - is clearly on the wane, and national governments led by populists is the order of the decade.

As the neoliberal system breaks up, two great populist coalitions have already taken shape in most western nations: on the left, it's class politics supercharged by a equality-of-condition rather than opportunity (aka 'equity') mobilizing call; on the right, it's the last stand of a (sometimes incoherent) coalition of old national identitarian groups in the various nations.

The populist left is obviously going to win just as
it has in Argentina. The simple fact is that if you promise people free stuff, paid for by wealth you take off wealthy individuals, 'greedy businesses,' banks, 'big tech,' etc. they're going to vote for you. The internet is a grievance-making machine, and it will only progress. Even the US is doomed.

What we're seeing here in Argentina is the future of the west, and why the Asians will run the 21st century.
 
The more I think on it, the more is strikes me that Argentina is the dark future of the western world.

The Europeans saw it first with their similarly ungovernable nations of Italy and Greece (once it returned to democracy). With Portugal, Spain, and even France tilting that way all through the 1980s, the European Union tried to save Europe by removing the ability of national governments to adopt Argentine-style tax/spend and anti-productive policies. The Euro and monetary role is the most famous mechanism for this, but Brussels has been gradually assuming various national governments' powers for decades, narrowing their fiscal marge de manoeuvre.

At the same time, World Bank/IMF and a host of other institutions and arrangements (GATT/WTO/regional trade agreements with enforceable settlement dispute mechanisms) - essentially the entire neoliberal system - took this national. People called it coca cola capitalism and rioted and the rest, but at some basic level, it was all designed to prevent your Venezuela/Argentina type scenarios by folding countries into extra-national rule systems for trade, taxation, etc.

Whatever the successes, this schema - which prioritized stability and growth as the basis of shared prosperity - is clearly on the wane, and national governments led by populists is the order of the decade.

As the neoliberal system breaks up, two great populist coalitions have already taken shape in most western nations: on the left, it's class politics supercharged by a equality-of-condition rather than opportunity (aka 'equity') mobilizing call; on the right, it's the last stand of a (sometimes incoherent) coalition of old national identitarian groups in the various nations.

The populist left is obviously going to win just as
it has in Argentina. The simple fact is that if you promise people free stuff, paid for by wealth you take off wealthy individuals, 'greedy businesses,' banks, 'big tech,' etc. they're going to vote for you. The internet is a grievance-making machine, and it will only progress. Even the US is doomed.

What we're seeing here in Argentina is the future of the west, and why the Asians will run the 21st century.
You make good point Pierre. It all came together in the last two paragraphs of your post.

China / Asians will rule the 21st century as it unfolds. The main reason will be shear size of their population mobilizing into a formidable working group and the communist style government cracking down on social media. Take away the people's voices and keeping them in line = all on the same pare with no infighting.

The west is coming undone by the inability to get along and there are two many different, smaller groups with too many individual voice. Not the stuff of a team concept. The Asians have team - they should win the next decades.
 
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