Right Vs Left

I am not even vaguely opposed to free trade, or capitalism. I have been, in fact, a corporation for 20 years now. But I do not believe that "capitalism" is one thing- it is a one word description of dozens of different economic policies that can be implemented in and infinite variety of ways. Most European countries, in fact ALL developed countries, have a mix of tariffs, duties, trade restrictions, government support of specific industries, and government / labor agreements.

The devil, as always, is in the details.

No country practices true "free trade".

Argentina could do better.

The initial agreement between the ogliarchs, the government, and the sindicatos was made 80 odd years ago, and the global economy, and Argentina, were very different places.
The labor force was mostly recent immigrants, who had relatively little education, and were poor. Now, we have an argentina with a much more educated workforce, and industrialized agriculture and manufacturing that does not require thousands of manual laborers.

But the export model is still based on 1950s realities.
Nobody ever does well exporting raw materials.
Value Added is where its at- look at the Chinese, who have been raising wages 10% to 15% a year for a decade now, and using government mandates to offshore cheap manual labor factories to Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. They figured out a long time ago that investing in high tech value added exports is better for everybody.
But not here- we still have the soybean farmers running the economy. Because they are rich, and their parents were rich, and their kids went to Harvard.

The Aerolinas history is a good example- nationalized/privatized/nationalized/privatized, and repeat. Each time, privatize the profits, nationalize the losses.
The sindicatos assisted in the dismantlement of the national rail network, and still to this day resist modernizing it- even though, globally, its clear the future is in high speed rail, not in 50 year old Diesel Mercedes trucks driving 100km an hour on Ruta 3.
Argentina has a unique situation where the rail right of ways are all still there, easily reclaimed, at a fraction of the cost of building national network of autopistas.
And yet- nada.

Or, we see a push by a couple of wealthy guys to export lithium so the chinese can make money making electric car batteries to sell back to us.
Argentina has a good engineering education system- freelance argentine software engineers work online for global customers. Many expat argentine engineers work globally. There is no reason the government couldnt set up a state agency to develop battery manufacturing with local lithium salts, and export a high value added product.

This is not a capitalist versus socialist issue.
Its a problem of traditional power structures resisting change.
And taxing soybean exports, as the K government did, is a stupid way to keep things running.
I agree with a lot of the things you say in your post.
My point is, Argentina’s model can not be described as liberal. Even in Europe the left leaning socialist / social democratic governed countries are much more open to free tade, have a far higher degree of economic freedom (admittedly it has also to do with the EU, which does not allow much prohibitive measures).
 
I agree with a lot of the things you say in your post.
My point is, Argentina’s model can not be described as liberal. Even in Europe the left leaning socialist / social democratic governed countries are much more open to free tade, have a far higher degree of economic freedom (admittedly it has also to do with the EU, which does not allow much prohibitive measures).
I am not trying to describe the economic system as anything.

I dont think it resembles any other country that much.

Which is part of the reason I like it so much.

The economic, geographic, and cultural isolation has shaped a pretty unique situation.

Economic Freedom, again, is a very slippery term. The US is supposedly "free", but 40% of the wealth there is inherited. Free for me, but not for thee.

Anyway, I would like Argentina to get better, without tossing its citizens to the jaws of international "capitalism".

And there are a multitude of paths available.
 
Back
Top