Is President Kirchner Improving The Lives Of Argentinos?

[Napoleon]

Yes and no. The problem is the huge tax evasion.

I absolutely agree with Bajo_cero2 on this issue.

If all owed taxes were collected (or even 80% of them), then the government wouldn't be in nearly the boat without a paddle that they are. But it's the simple fact that NO ONE trusts the government that leads to people feeling justified for not paying taxes.

Back in 2008 when I was teaching English, I had students telling me that they preferred to be paid 100% en negro because the government would just steal their pensions if they were paid en blanco. Then a couple of months later CFK went and stole all of the dollars in the Private Pension Funds. It's not like people are making these things up. They have instance after instance where the government has stolen from them (suitcases of laundered US Dollars from Venezuela...) and even talks of flooding the market with up to US$20,000,000,000 before some election in 2013 or 2015 (which one wasn't clear). Futbol Para Todos, Aerolineas Argentinas, some old boat in Africa, transporting an entourage of ~100 to watch the president explain to an Argentino older than she is how to drink mate...

It's a little understandable that some people might have reservations as to how this administration might spend their tax money.

But YES, not collecting the taxes that are owed to the government is what creates the greatest strain on this current administration... especially when they are spending money as fast as they can print it.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Trennod, if you under estimate the tax evasion in argentina you really don t understand this country.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Napoleon, menem and de la rua used to take international loans to keep people happy selling those dollars in the market at a cheap price. The debt grew up 90 billions.

The K, instead, use the dollars the country have for paying the debt.

Nobody likes to pay taxes and everybody is gong to try to justify him self.

 

[Napoleon]

Napoleon, menem and de la rua used to take international loans to keep people happy selling those dollars in the market at a cheap price. The debt grew up 90 billions.

The fact that these people aren't in jail, nor those responsible for 51 Train Deaths & over 700 train injuries (plus two assassinated witnesses) adds to the distrust.

That being said, Dick Cheney should be serving about 1,000 years in prison rather than receiving a heart transplant at the age of ~70... but that's for another thread.

 

[Matiasba]

Mercopress doesn't seem to agree with you Matias: http://en.mercopress...mate-11-million

Mmmm the UCA laboratory?

Look, there are tons of private consultants and laboratories that measure poverty, inflation, etc; the problem of these numbers being manipulated by the government is that they politicized everything, because all private consultants are now by definition opositores, and to them they make that numbers. Besides, the government has the best instruments, infraestructure to measure, so they created a situation where you must believe only one of those numbers. The problem is the political intention you can find in both sides. But fortunately exists also the HDI of UN, or the World Bank, that can measure this very well. I know you can tell me the World Bank also has political interests here, yes, they do, but I could say that one thing is the economic policies they fight for, and other is the diagnosis they make, so they have very good instruments too to have good numbers. And they are not precisely Kirchneristas, in fact, thay are far from that and the econocmic polcies they want are the opposite this government does. But still they show good numbers from Argentina.

But above that is the common sense, you have to be very fool or ignorant to deny the economic and political growth the region have been experimenting since the 2000s, and that might be closely related with a big improvement of the whole socio-economic situation of each country and people getting out of poverty. Almost every Latin American country have been growing for like 10 years!! do you think that that didnt improve the situation of lots of people?

About the tax evade, I want to say something. This is probably one of the more corrupted countries in the world, clearly, but the other day I read an article that said that the amount of money the State corruption takes with politicians, agents, inspectors, and a huge etc, is NOTHING compared to the PRIVATE CORRUPTION: Tax evade, empresas fantasma, puentes with Uruguay, or tax havens like Caiman, etc, NOTHING, the amount is so much bigger!! and I believed it, in this country the upper classes, because of the way they made their money, turbid, spurious in the most of the cases, and the way they sustained it, all of them benefitted by the dicctatorship, where their HUGE dollar debts were magically traspassed to the State (and that multiplied the external debt the State had for 6) they developed an ideology that stats that taxes cannot be paid in this country, that they have more power than the State, than the State cannot limit them.

 

[trennod]

I was trying to make a point. I understand tax evasion is a problem. But, as well there are taxes that simply can't be avoided. IVA is 21 percent. That's high.

I agree with napoleons point, people here don't want to pay tax because they know it just gets stolen and/or used in appropriately.

 

[trennod]

Matias do you have a link to that article you read? I would be interested to have a look at it.

 

[jp]

But, as well there are taxes that simply can't be avoided. IVA is 21 percent. That's high.

Its easy to avoid paying IVA. You can avoid places that charge it as standard or offer to pay cash without a factura.

Half of the economy is en negro. You think they're all charging IVA on goods and services?

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Pecfection is enemy of possible.
Remember that Tekila or Vodka crisis had nothing to do with Argentina but they created a huge crisis here where the chain of payments were lost. My family lost our clothes factory after that. Now you have a huge crisis worldwide and we have average inflacion (in arg) of between 20 up to 30%.

We have billets of 100 pesos, not 1.000.000 pesos like who achieve to have with real hiper inflación (p to 900%).

Ambition does not mean the same thing as perfection. The chickens are coming home to roost now that the poorer sections of society struggle to keep up with food prices. Kirchners support is eroding in the middle class and disenfranchised poor and my guess is that the loyal core will hold up this year she will lose ground at both ends of the spectrum. Can she replace enough with Kampora kids?

I hope not.

You can keep repeating that it was worse before, but I hope for more in the future. I dont yet believe the opposition are less corrupt but I can continuebto hope. There is a strong opportunity for a modern anti-corruption centrist candidate, open to finding a place for Argentina's resource based economy in the world.

Not convinced by the current paranoid populism or macri / scioli's political opportunism.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Ps...I do agree that tax evasion is a chronic problem. Sadly the motivation to pay up and be honest is severely eroded when the scoundrels at the top ferry boat loads of cash out of the country !

Matias, private corruption is not carried out by the very people selected to lead society!