Poverty in Argentina

[FallenAngel]

The commodity boom that enabled Argentina to experience a taste of a better life was very dangerous because it masked the damage being done by their horrible economic policies. Fortunately it seems the tailwind of the commodity boom is long over and now there exists only the headwind of the bad policies. Perhaps when poverty is 80% the country will finally be able to make reform or at least the few sane people left will finally migrate out to greener pastures letting the people who promote bad policy experience their own consequences.


The worse outcome is when a country experiences short-term success with bad policy. This can allow those bad ideas to spread as people begin to associate the short-term success with the bad policies not realizing the long-term result is economic depression. I fully expect Argentina will be lost in a feedback loop of misery for at least a decade as it fails to associate it's bad policy with it's misery, but maybe it can at least serve as an example to outsiders who will vote against bad policies for fear of ending up like Argentina.

 

[Ceviche]

In Argentina you have people living in old apartments in pretty neighborhoods like Palermo that they inherited, yet they are without a peso to spend on food to feed themselves.

Nailed it.



Almost every person in age range of 25-40, I know has inherited his/her apartment

 

[Alpinista]

Nailed it.



Almost every person in age range of 25-40, I know has inherited his/her apartment

How could an Argentinian possibly save enough money to buy her/his own apartment in Palermo or anywhere else nowadays?
It is nearly impossible to save 100k usd over 15 years even if you have a good job and live a modest life.

 

[UK Man]

Almost every person in age range of 25-40, I know has inherited his/her apartment

It's also very common in Spain and probaby Italy as well....therein lies the problem. Here where I am every second house seems to be either abandoned or falling to bits. When I asked my wife why she says it's the archaic and complicated inheritance system here.

 

[Ceviche]

How could an Argentinian possibly save enough money to buy her/his own apartment in Palermo or anywhere else nowadays?
It is nearly impossible to save 100k usd over 15 years even if you have a good job and live a modest life.

Not true. I also know people who have taken mortgage loan in pesos at 7% fixed rate of interest while the peso has depreciated like 100% and been a win-win for them.

 

[antipodean]

The commodity boom that enabled Argentina to experience a taste of a better life was very dangerous because it masked the damage being done by their horrible economic policies. Fortunately it seems the tailwind of the commodity boom is long over and now there exists only the headwind of the bad policies. Perhaps when poverty is 80% the country will finally be able to make reform or at least the few sane people left will finally migrate out to greener pastures letting the people who promote bad policy experience their own consequences.


The worse outcome is when a country experiences short-term success with bad policy. This can allow those bad ideas to spread as people begin to associate the short-term success with the bad policies not realizing the long-term result is economic depression. I fully expect Argentina will be lost in a feedback loop of misery for at least a decade as it fails to associate it's bad policy with it's misery, but maybe it can at least serve as an example to outsiders who will vote against bad policies for fear of ending up like Argentina.

While I agree that short term success is not always a recipe for long term development, the taste of the “good life” for Argentina was in the early part of the 20th century when Argentina was just like Canada, Australia or another wealthy new world country. Since then it’s been in constant decline with occasional short lived growth spurts, but even with those spurts the country only “recovers” to a level that’s a little bit worse off than it was before on the whole making it a lost battle to to go back to “how it was”.

 

[Alby]

That was a bit childish, wasn’t it? It’s not personal and it’s not an anecdote. You’re going to have to do much better than that.

I’ll just leave you with two Google Earth map references, one leaving Lima to the south and the other to the north, where anyone can find the photos of the wicker shanty villages:

12°26'31"S 76°45'24"W · 139 m
11°45'04"S 77°08'48"W · 55.3 m

I’ve yet to see anything similar here in Argentina.

There is no doubt that extreme poverty exists in Peru, but this video puts a some context around the phenomenon today of the wicker homes, particularly the first 90 seconds.