Macri's Challenge

[sergio]

At the risk of raining on the parade I want to express a few concerns:

Macri must show that the rule of law matters, not only judicial security (important to investors) but the right of people to live without fear of crime, to live without constant and unreasonable protests etc. Macri has to stand firm and not cower like Fernando de la Rúa but he must:

Do something serious to alleviate poverty and imporove the lives of the poor. Cristina bought votes with endless "subsidies" that did no more than crerate stopgap measures. Macri needs to find ways to train people for jobs. The government must give people the means to improve their lives in a lasting way. Public works projects might help in this respect but whatever he does, Macri cannot ignore the interests of the majority of the population.

Support the middle class. Endless tax hikes erode the middle class. The middle class needs to grow, not contract. Reducing taxes on agricultural exports is fine if it benefits the society as a whole, not if it is just a boon for a small sector of wealthy landowners. The middle class is a lot larger and needs relief too. Macri needs to remember this if he wants to succeed and stay in office.

My fear is that the economic elite of the country see the Macri victory as a huge success and will lose sight of the fact that it was a narrow victory and one only made possible by the deperation of enough people to cause them to vote for someone whom many Argentines view as an uncaring neoliberal interested only in the advancement of corporations and investors. Macri must avoid this trap. He can do so only by demonstrating that he has a vision and a plan that will help everyone. In this way he will show that he truly loves every citizen as he stated repeatedly on the balcony of the Casa Rosada.

Argentina is at a crossroads. I am convinced that this is a last chance to change course. Mauricio Macri faces many challenges. Does he have the will to do what is right or will he favor a small sector of the nation?

 

[Noesdeayer]

Sergio:
Very well said.I am also convinced that this is a last chance to change course.My gut feeling is that Macri does have the will to favor what is good for the entire nation.It will take time and every one's effort to do it He can not do it alone.I do not want to overdramitize but this is indeed a moment of truth for Argentina.

 

[ElQueso]

I don't believe that Macri should drive the government to train people and alleviate poverty. Macri should change things related to corruption, infrastructure and education, making things more fair for everyone. He should be unraveling the crap that the last 12 years brought without giving advantages to people who have money beyond what their money should buy them in a normal market.

Where would he get the money to train millions of people? There are millions of poor here. Does he decide what industry should get newly-trained workers? The more variety in training the more money it would cost, though the less variety the less good for the country. Where would he get the jobs that those re-trained people will work? Where will he get the money to alleviate the poverty? These are not simple questions with easy answers, though Cristina seemed to think she had them. The roots lie in many decades of bad ideas and mismanagement and won't be fixed by a "jobs program" and "money for the poor". I'm not putting quotes on those two phrases because that's exactly what you were saying, Sergio, but rather, the prevailing sentiment that seems to exist here in Argentina and many other places related to the government's "responsibility" to "provide" for its people.

The rich and big business can certainly afford to pay more taxes, but even if they took the burden off the middle class is that even really fair or a good idea? The rich are humans as well, they have their own motivations - get money out of them by encouraging investment instead of continuing to cause them to want them to hide their money and not invest it in their own country. Reasonable taxes in a functioning economy should be enough to support a government that isn't trying to subsidize the population, at least in a country that isn't wealthy from something like North Sea oil as an example. A country like Argentina needs to operate from its own output and Vaca Muerta isn't the answer. Nor putting forced heavy burdens on the rich, simply because that's where the money is, and redistributing it to "the poor".

Not to mention that continuing to single out "the rich" as the people who must pay because historically the landowners and others who have money have created poor conditions is only going to continue the "us against them" attitude of class warfare that currently exists here. I don't think the majority of people who have money sit at home and dream of ways to keep everyone else from having it (although I'm sure there are some who do!) but I would bet that continuing to force them to cough it up for "programs for the poor" simply to relieve the middle class isn't going to fix anything.

I have my own ideas of what he should do, but then again I'm not an Argentino and don't think like one (hell, seems to me I don't think like almost anyone!). But it seems that encouraging him to control things via the government to set the direction of industry and people's lives is not the answer. Cristina tried that and failed because, in my opinion, her ideas were not well thought out and consisted mostly of a motivation of personal power and adoration by the masses. While Macri might be able to manage things better than Cristina and have a much better result, while trying to force such a direction on the country (which would be in keeping with what a lot of the people seem to want, to be sure), what happens when the next Cristina comes along?

I think the worst thing he could start doing now is diverting resources to subsidizing people and forcing industry to go down certain roads, which is what a government training program and "alleviating the poor" would do without a rebuilt infrastructure and work towards real ethics in government and industry. He needs to concentrate on getting basic things like infrastructure and education (not re-training) and corruption dealt with.

And that's my parade-raining - it's going to take more than Macri to make any real difference in this country. Personally, I don't think he can do it because of the people of the country who want something like Cristina, but more honest and softer and nicer. Which I don't think exists (well, I don't know - I still think Massa is a pretty decent candidate from the Peronist side of things, but I have such a problem with those politics!). Macri needs a full 8 years and a follow-up from someone with similar ideas, in my opinion, to break people of the "Peronism" dependency as a father or mother figure who will let them do as little as possible and have enough to buy or rent a crappy home (as I see many) and buy food, beer and mate.

 

[RichardP]

It is a bitter pill to swallow, but without support for corporations and encouraging investment, I don't see how the country can prosper.

Job training is a good idea for people who actually want to work.

 

[Rich One]

It is a bitter pill to swallow, but without support for corporations and encouraging investment, I don't see how the country can prosper.

Job training is a good idea for people who actually want to work.

Job training is great but first there has to be jobs to fill. Other than engrossing the ranks of Government workers???

 

[Rich One]

At the risk of raining on the parade I want to express a few concerns:

Macri must show that the rule of law matters, not only judicial security (important to investors) but the right of people to live without fear of crime, to live without constant and unreasonable protests etc. Macri has to stand firm and not cower like Fernando de la Rúa but he must:

Do something serious to alleviate poverty and imporove the lives of the poor. Cristina bought votes with endless "subsidies" that did no more than crerate stopgap measures. Macri needs to find ways to train people for jobs. The government must give people the means to improve their lives in a lasting way. Public works projects might help in this respect but whatever he does, Macri cannot ignore the interests of the majority of the population.

Support the middle class. Endless tax hikes erode the middle class. The middle class needs to grow, not contract. Reducing taxes on agricultural exports is fine if it benefits the society as a whole, not if it is just a boon for a small sector of wealthy landowners. The middle class is a lot larger and needs relief too. Macri needs to remember this if he wants to succeed and stay in office.

My fear is that the economic elite of the country see the Macri victory as a huge success and will lose sight of the fact that it was a narrow victory and one only made possible by the deperation of enough people to cause them to vote for someone whom many Argentines view as an uncaring neoliberal interested only in the advancement of corporations and investors. Macri must avoid this trap. He can do so only by demonstrating that he has a vision and a plan that will help everyone. In this way he will show that he truly loves every citizen as he stated repeatedly on the balcony of the Casa Rosada.

Argentina is at a crossroads. I am convinced that this is a last chance to change course. Mauricio Macri faces many challenges. Does he have the will to do what is right or will he favor a small sector of the nation?

Well said ...BUT can the country be run mainly with Corporate Executives the Ones mentioned by D'elia as "Blancos" or require also some like El Negro Moyano...?? D'elia mentioned he hates Blancos , he prefers morochos like him??

Macri Will Bring Phenomenalt Corporate and Agro Industry Expansion BUT Will the Trickle-Down Economics WORK?

 

[sesamosinsal]

BUT Will the Trickle-Down Economics WORK?

Has it ever?

 

[Noesdeayer]

If economic investment,good education and on the job training are done as they should it could work quite well.But it must be monitored by Congress the Judiciary the media and the public at large.It must be a combined group effort .I admit that this would be something new for Argentina.However,I feel that people are up to and ready for a real change
.It wouldn't be "trickle down" either, but rather, "bottom up".The election results have shown that there is enough of a beginning of "hartazgo"-being fed up-with populism to grow on in order to make it work.
O.K. It may sound corny.But this could be the start of something new..

 

[wineguy999]

Job training is great but first there has to be jobs to fill.

I hate to sound like a Republican, but it is true that a stimulated economy produces jobs. Just opening the gates to trade should have a positive effect on the economy, and personally - for those willing to work.
Everyone knows there are many agricultural products that are waiting to be exported, from crops to wine. Allowing imports potentially opens new businesses, opportunity, etc.

 

[sergio]

At the risk of raining on the parade I want to express a few concerns:

Macri must show that the rule of law matters, not only judicial security (important to investors) but the right of people to live without fear of crime, to live without constant and unreasonable protests etc. Macri has to stand firm and not cower like Fernando de la Rúa but he must:

Do something serious to alleviate poverty and imporove the lives of the poor. Cristina bought votes with endless "subsidies" that did no more than crerate stopgap measures. Macri needs to find ways to train people for jobs. The government must give people the means to improve their lives in a lasting way. Public works projects might help in this respect but whatever he does, Macri cannot ignore the interests of the majority of the population.

Support the middle class. Endless tax hikes erode the middle class. The middle class needs to grow, not contract. Reducing taxes on agricultural exports is fine if it benefits the society as a whole, not if it is just a boon for a small sector of wealthy landowners. The middle class is a lot larger and needs relief too. Macri needs to remember this if he wants to succeed and stay in office.

My fear is that the economic elite of the country see the Macri victory as a huge success and will lose sight of the fact that it was a narrow victory and one only made possible by the deperation of enough people to cause them to vote for someone whom many Argentines view as an uncaring neoliberal interested only in the advancement of corporations and investors. Macri must avoid this trap. He can do so only by demonstrating that he has a vision and a plan that will help everyone. In this way he will show that he truly loves every citizen as he stated repeatedly on the balcony of the Casa Rosada.

Argentina is at a crossroads. I am convinced that this is a last chance to change course. Mauricio Macri faces many challenges. Does he have the will to do what is right or will he favor a small sector of the nation?

I am not at all suggesting a continuation of the Kirchner policies. Quite the contrary, I want to see people trained to work. The Kirchners preferred to keep people ignorant and dependent. The government can do a lot to develop job training. The government runs universities. Why can't they also train people in vocations, teach them English etc. The tourist industry suffers because of widespread lack of English skills. The infrastructure needs rebuilding . Argentina used to manufacture its own trains. What happened? There is a lot that government can do, not only by itself but working with the corporate sector to uplift the poor. A change of attitude is needed for sure, not only among the people but by the government. Macri will not last if he ignores the middle class and the poor. He needs to show that he cares. He cannot just increase taxes for the middle class while favoring corporations and the agricultural industry. There must be a balance.