The Case For President Sergio Massa

[wrangler]

Besides thinking that electing Milei would be an economic debacle, more importantly, I feel he will take our rights away. I cannot accept that. Although I am not a Peronist, I will vote for Massa, as I know a lot of people will also. He is considered the lesser of two evils.

 

[toongeorges]

It's interesting that the left was always seen as being anti-establishment, revolutionary, wanting to tear down the system, "crazy," and now it's the extreme right occupying that position. Say what you will about leftist revolutionaries, at least some (certainly not all) of them were idealists with legitimate concern for the people. The radical right is just interested in destruction and watching things burn in the chaos. There's not a single extreme right leader in history who has ever given a shit about people, only their own wealth and power and to increase the wealth and power of those in a position to facilitate their demands.

The left in South America has never fully understood:

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

Find the history and the full text of the declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen of 1789, quoted in the preamble of the Constitution of the Fifth Republic.

www.elysee.fr

Sadly, the left in Europe is also becoming more populist.

I would not call the left in South America idealist, it is more about feeding off people's frustration, polarizing society between rich an poor and stealing from the rich. No such ideologies as everyone (poor and rich) are equal and should both be taken care of at the same time, the right to property is inviolable and sacred, liberty consists in being able to do anything that does not harm others and so on.

The left in South America consists of leeches, they do not earn my respect. I am not telling that the right is better. Politics in South America is not about ideology where men stand up for their rights, it is about populism where opportunistic politicians exploit frustrations to game the system. It does not benefit anyone and ultimately it is the responsibility of the people who lack the ideology to stand up for their rights.

Times were more difficult during the French (or American) revolution and this brought out the best in people. We are missing people who value the right things.

 

[gringoexpress]

In practice how viable is closing down the unapproved channels and Cuevas?

No need to close them. With a digital peso, every transaction is visible on the blockchain. You click a button and can sort by certain criteria (what a normal whatever business earns per peso of revenue, number of clients, average sale per ticket, etc) and see which ones are outside the norm, and bam! You've just found your cuevas, regardless of what pretense they are operating under as a legal business to blanquear their revenues. No need to close them, you just block the transactions they're using to move money around, or block them out of the system.

Why do you think the government refuses to print larger bills? They don't need to ban paper money, they just need to let inflation continue (Argentina's politicians are great at that) and eventually it becomes unfeasible to use paper money in day to day transactions. This is similar to what happened in Venezuela, except CBDC technology wasn't really ready at the time (Venezuela tried it anyways, it failed). Now the technology is pretty workable. Everyone gets forced into using digital pesos, and BAM! Locals getting paid in pesos are still broke, they can't change their pesos into anything of value, and expats are paying the dolar oficial.

With cash effectively eliminated, this all becomes trivial to do. With the digital peso, Massa will be able to stamp out the dolar blue. This probably does not mean anything positive for any of the expats on this board.

 

[Redpossum]

No need to close them. With a digital peso, every transaction is visible on the blockchain. You click a button and can sort by certain criteria (what a normal whatever business earns per peso of revenue, number of clients, average sale per ticket, etc) and see which ones are outside the norm, and bam! You've just found your cuevas, regardless of what pretense they are operating under as a legal business to blanquear their revenues. No need to close them, you just block the transactions they're using to move money around, or block them out of the system.

Why do you think the government refuses to print larger bills? They don't need to ban paper money, they just need to let inflation continue (Argentina's politicians are great at that) and eventually it becomes unfeasible to use paper money in day to day transactions. This is similar to what happened in Venezuela, except CBDC technology wasn't really ready at the time (Venezuela tried it anyways, it failed). Now the technology is pretty workable. Everyone gets forced into using digital pesos, and BAM! Locals getting paid in pesos are still broke, they can't change their pesos into anything of value, and expats are paying the dolar oficial.

With cash effectively eliminated, this all becomes trivial to do. With the digital peso, Massa will be able to stamp out the dolar blue. This probably does not mean anything positive for any of the expats on this board.

That's a really scary scenario

 

[toongeorges]

No need to close them. With a digital peso, every transaction is visible on the blockchain. You click a button and can sort by certain criteria (what a normal whatever business earns per peso of revenue, number of clients, average sale per ticket, etc) and see which ones are outside the norm, and bam! You've just found your cuevas, regardless of what pretense they are operating under as a legal business to blanquear their revenues. No need to close them, you just block the transactions they're using to move money around, or block them out of the system.

How will Argentina block transactions, will they e.g. buy 60 000 000+ Ethers to control a majority of the decision power on the Ethereum blockchain? This would definitely drive up the price of Ether and even if Argentina had 100 000 000 000+ USD to spare, maybe there are other priorities? Argentina is going to make a digital peso? Haha, maybe they can pay out the ñoquis with them, other people will just keep using stablecoins pegged to the USD as USDC, USDt and DAI. Argentina can see which accounts contain cryptocurrencies, but they cannot see which account belongs to whom, unless you reveal it. As if Argentines are now revealing all their bank accounts. If you have an account that is revealed, you can still use a mixing service as https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_Cash for people to lose track where you send your money to.

They may introduce a digital peso with the constraints they choose, but it does not mean that people will use it. After all, the first popular blockchain, Bitcoin was created with the sole purpose to make central banks and their currencies obsolete or at least to provide an alternative. Governments that think that they can control how cryptocurrencies flow do not really understand what is happening.

If they push the digital peso idea too far, they may make Milei's dream come true: officially no one earns anything, but in practice everyone uses a currency not issued by the central bank and the central bank's digital pesos are worthless, so no deficit anymore.

 

[Reply Guy]

How will Argentina block transactions, will they e.g. buy 60 000 000+ Ethers to control a majority of the decision power on the Ethereum blockchain? This would definitely drive up the price of Ether and even if Argentina had 100 000 000 000+ USD to spare, maybe there are other priorities? Argentina is going to make a digital peso? Haha, maybe they can pay out the ñoquis with them, other people will just keep using stablecoins pegged to the USD as USDC, USDt and DAI. Argentina can see which accounts contain cryptocurrencies, but they cannot see which account belongs to whom, unless you reveal it. As if Argentines are now revealing all their bank accounts. If you have an account that is revealed, you can still use a mixing service as https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_Cash for people to lose track where you send your money to.

They may introduce a digital peso with the constraints they choose, but it does not mean that people will use it. After all, the first popular blockchain, Bitcoin was created with the sole purpose to make central banks and their currencies obsolete or at least to provide an alternative. Governments that think that they can control how cryptocurrencies flow do not really understand what is happening.

Lol the peso won't be a ERC-20 token.

It will be a private ledger which the government has full control.

 

[toongeorges]

Lol the peso won't be a ERC-20 token.

It will be a private ledger which the government has full control.

The government having full control over something no one uses, great!

(except those who receive subsidies, but then it would be better to just stop handing out subsidies instead of giving people digital pesos that are worthless).

 

[dlish]

The first people who'll be screwed if this digital peso happens is all of Massa's 1% buddies; no way they want all their money tracked.

 

[lunar]

The government having full control over something no one uses, great!

You will be forced to use it. They will say: "Starting next month, all salaries will be paid in digital peso. You can access your money using our convenient Central Bank Wallet app, which offers payment capabilities via QR codes, similar to MercadoPago, and instant transfers to other people." And they will gradually take paper pesos out of circulation.

 

[Reply Guy]

The first people who'll be screwed if this digital peso happens is all of Massa's 1% buddies; no way they want all their money tracked.

Exactly for that reason there will always be work arounds - especially for the 1%.

They will have their off shore accounts, crypto portfolios, while the poor receiving subsidies won't be able to spend their money freely, but will be forced to buy Tonadita brand dairy products because the owners are friends of some government minister.