I completely agree with you about Menem and his supposed "neo-liberal" administration. It doesn't matter what kind of "system" you use - if the populace is used to corruption, and the people in power continue with corruption and no one holds them accountable, you will have nothing better than what you had under Menen - or Cristina. Or the military. People like Cristina will cook the books to make things look good - but all you really have to do is apply a little logic (like looking at graphs critically instead of accepting that the government says things are good and accepting that) and take a good, hard look around.
The only issue I have with what you're saying (I know, you were making a simple statement and probably mean pretty much what follows, I'm just clarifying) is that one would be putting a responsibility on the government (State) to create jobs. The only jobs the government (State) creates is government jobs. Government jobs add nothing to the economy, but rather take from it (which is what I believe you were saying).
It is entrepreneurs who create jobs. Usually these are people with money (don't have to be rich!) and an idea to provide a service or product, which the government should have absolutely zero hand in. The easier it is to create even one job, the less people need in order to be entrepreneurs and remove the requirement that it be only the rich or reasonably well-off who create jobs.
Of course, I believe in no State, but that's OK I know that's a dream, and it doesn't have to go that far to benefit the people - a minimal government would suffice in the short term (problem is, governments always grow and become tyrannies to one extent or another by their very definition, which is why I'm against government in general).
What should the government do to allow jobs to be created? Get the hell out of the market as much as they possibly can and provide a solid legal framework that is the same for everyone. The closer you can get to that point, the better off everyone is going to be.
But here and most other places in Latin America (and now too many in the US at least), people don't want to work for what they get. They want Big Brother to set things up all nice and neat so they don't actually have to contribute - they think that all the money the "rich" have (and I'm considered rich here, which is completely ridiculous) just needs to be distributed so everyone can have some and everyone will be happy. This may be possible in the future when everyone can have their little nanotechnology machines that will create whatever they want without worrying about labor, production, shipping, etc (although still one will have to worry about getting raw materials), but until then we poor humans have to work for what we want.
The more strain the people who don't want to work put on those who do, the less everyone gets. Or the more those in power listen to those with money and slant things so those in power and those who have money can have things they way they want, the worse it is for everyone else.
I want to work because I know that's what I have to do to get what I want, although it would be lovely if I didn't have to. One day I plan on being rich in spite of the governments of the world, and I am busting my ass every day to make that happen, not waiting for the government to set up some kind of twisted wealth redistribution so that I can have a bigger piece of a single pie (that would shrink anyway).
Most people just want to do the minimum they can to survive, and that's OK with me, as long as they realize that doing the minimum means they get the minimum and don't start looking to me to put money in their pockets beyond what they work for.
As far as those who truly need help - people need to learn to be human. When one group of people forces another group of people to "help" in spite of their beliefs, it is force, plain and simple, and not at all humanitarian. It is tyranny.
