What'$ Happening In Bueno$ Aire$ ?

[Matt84]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]In my barrio Recoleta-South, between Cerrito and Callao,[/background]
Today, I paid $19.00 for 1 red pepper at a produce store. Gift wrap extra.

Recoleta runs from Coronel Diaz N to Callao S. That's technically Retiro, very much downtown, not a residential neighborhood anymore. Walk past the RR stations towards the bus terminal and you'll see the reason for those garage doors (use google street view for a safer experience)
the price of vegetables is ridiculous. There's an old time market in Arenales y Libertad hidden next to the pescaderia that sells exclusively trout and salmon. I now prepare my cash in small bills and coins before I buy vegetables and ask for some courtsy parsley or even celery after I used all the money I had in display. It works because unlike the chain stores, the grocer appreciates being paid in cash and knows half the produce goes to waste anyway. Sometimes I also have the gall to ask for avocados that are way after their prime. The half you can salvage has the same nutty flavor as American Restaurant guacamole. Delicious.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

Google about plata dulce.
I asserted many times that the economy plan is alike Videla's.
This is what is happening.
I m radical but i prefer the less worst: volve Cristina!!!!

 

[joeschmoe1920]

Cambberiu: Quoting your own posts is like smelling your own farts.

 

[camberiu]

Cambberiu: Quoting your own posts is like smelling your own farts.

Good thing I like my own farts.

 

[Noesdeayer]

Camberiu:
It would definitely seem so.Moreover,some of them are so strong that they blot out all those of others in the room.
Slow down a bit,my friend. Devagarzinho,meu amigo.Some thihgs take more time in different places.

 

[ben]

Something like the beginnings of a discussion about fundamental reforms, even if it takes years to implement. A draft of a roadmap for change. Or is even that too much to ask for?

It is too much to ask for. This is not a society which is ready to accept fundamental reforms.

Something truly bad would have to happen - the economy crashing on an unimaginable scale, to Venezuelan levels - for Argentines to let go of their cherished sense of entitlement, compounded by arrogance.

Even the basic of basic changes, the price increases for instance which were both necessary and was foreseen - this sentiment was widely shared on this forum by anybody with a brain, that things will get worse before they get better - is generating ferocious blowback. Ley antidespidos, union action, the works.

Exhibit 1: Just look at bajo's comment above. Do you think he's the only idiot in this country, or is his weltanschauung shared by too many here? Again, educated professionals.

And Macri himself acknowledged - during the campaign - that inflation will go down 'en un par de años'. The point now is simply to survive the necessary painful changes, let things get better first, see inflation start to decrease, have some genuine, private-sector employment increase - then we will first have an opportunity to see whether Macri wants to shake things up fundamentally or not. For now to do so would be suicidal.

Finally, I will note that at no point did I suggest that camberiu's assessment of Macri is incorrect. Camberiu may well be right - as I said many times, time will tell. What I did say, and am still saying, is that the evidence to date by no means obliges one to take such a position.

 

[camberiu]

It is too much to ask for. This is not a society which is ready to accept fundamental reforms.

Than you must agree that Macri is not an agent of transformational change, no? By definition, a "society not ready to accept fundamental reforms" can't elect the harbinger of such reforms. What is left for him to be then? The return to the pre-K status quo.

Something truly bad would have to happen - the economy crashing on an unimaginable scale, to Venezuelan levels - for Argentines to let go of their cherished sense of entitlement, compounded by arrogance.

And the crisis of 2001 was not that event, in your view?

 

[AmigoArtistico]

That is one point, but it goes beyond that. Argentina needs deep constitutional and institutional reforms, and none of that is part of Marci's platform.
The way civil servants are hired and promoted needs to fundamentally change. There needs to be profound political reforms. The entire judiciary system needs to be overhauled.
And Macri should be leading the charge on the call for those reforms. Instead, he advocate cosmetic reforms, which demonstrates once again that he is nothing but a return to the norm, to the status quo of the pre-Ks years.

I think Macri is a realist. I think he would like very much to do all the things you mention, but I think he also knows that it's absolutely impossible to do them with Peronist majorities in both houses of the congress.

Edit: I see a few others made similar comments. Didn't mean to step on any toes.

 

[AmigoArtistico]

1. It is too much to ask for. This is not a society which is ready to accept fundamental reforms.
....

2. Finally, I will note that at no point did I suggest that camberiu's assessment of Macri is incorrect. Camberiu may well be right - as I said many times, time will tell. What I did say, and am still saying, is that the evidence to date by no means obliges one to take such a position.

1. I think the society is ready to accept fundamental reforms. But you will never get those reforms through this congress.

It's also going to be terribly difficult to reform the judicial branch with the likes of the corrupt millionaire judges club and Justicia Legitima (many of them in both groups), and Gils Carbo still putting K-friendly fiscales in key positions.

To have real, meaningful change, you first need to change the congress and the judicial system -- not something that is either quick or easy.

2. I agree.

 

[camberiu]

I think Macri is a realist. I think he would like very much to do all the things you mention, but I think he also knows that it's absolutely impossible to do them with Peronist majorities in both houses of the congress.

So you think submitting a proposal for overhauling the way judges, prosecutors and police investigators are hired, in order to make it impossible to fill those roles with political appointees is a political impossibility? or is it that the current status quo is simply too convenient for him and the political class that he represents?

Here is a sample of the law created in Brazil. Proposing something similar in Argentina is too much to ask?

"

"Art. 37. The direct federal public administration , in any of the Union's powers , the Federal District and the Municipalities shall obey the principles of legality, impersonality, morality, publicity and also the following:

1 - The public offices are accessible to all Brazilians, as long as all the requirements established by law are met.
2 - investiture in a public office or position depends on prior approval in a public competitive examination of tests or of tests and titles

How hard or politically outrageous would be to propose a similar law in Argentina? Who in Argentina would oppose a law that gave every Argentine citizen equal shot at a government role (Judge, prosecutor, police investigator, clerical staff) via an impartial, public battery of exams and tests?