Posted on 01/07/2012 2:32:29 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
In the early 20th century, Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. While Great Britain's maritime power and its far-flung empire had propelled it to a dominant position among the world's industrialized nations, only the United States challenged Argentina for the position of the world's second-most powerful economy.
It was blessed with abundant agriculture, vast swaths of rich farmland laced with navigable rivers and an accessible port system. Its level of industrialization was higher than many European countries: railroads, automobiles and telephones were commonplace.
In 1916, a new president was elected. Hipólito Irigoyen had formed a party called The Radicals under the banner of "fundamental change" with an appeal to the middle class.
Among Irigoyen's changes: mandatory pension insurance, mandatory health insurance, and support for low-income housing construction to stimulate the economy. Put simply, the state assumed economic control of a vast swath of the country's operations and began assessing new payroll taxes to fund its efforts.
With an increasing flow of funds into these entitlement programs, the government's payouts soon became overly generous. Before long its outlays surpassed the value of the taxpayers' contributions. Put simply, it quickly became under-funded, much like the United States' Social Security and Medicare programs.
The death knell for the Argentine economy, however, came with the election of Juan Perón. Perón had a fascist and corporatist upbringing; he and his charismatic wife aimed their populist rhetoric at the nation's rich.
This targeted group "swiftly expanded to cover most of the propertied middle classes, who became an enemy to be defeated and humiliated."
Under Perón, the size of government bureaucracies exploded through massive programs of social spending and by encouraging the growth of labor unions.
High taxes and economic mismanagement took their inevitable toll even after Perón had been driven from office. But his populist rhetoric and "contempt for economic realities" lived on. Argentina's federal government continued to spend far beyond its means.
Hyperinflation exploded in 1989, the final stage of a process characterized by "industrial protectionism, redistribution of income based on increased wages, and growing state intervention in the economy..."
The Argentinian government's practice of printing money to pay off its public debts had crushed the economy. Inflation hit 3000%, reminiscent of the Weimar Republic. Food riots were rampant; stores were looted; the country descended into chaos.
And by 1994, Argentina's public pensions -- the equivalent of Social Security -- had imploded. The payroll tax had increased from 5% to 26%, but it wasn't enough. In addition, Argentina had implemented a value-added tax (VAT), new income taxes, a personal tax on wealth, and additional revenues based upon the sale of public enterprises. These crushed the private sector, further damaging the economy.
A government-controlled "privatization" effort to rescue seniors' pensions was attempted. But, by 2001, those funds had also been raided by the government, the monies replaced by Argentina's defaulted government bonds.
By 2002, "...government fiscal irresponsibility... induced a national economic crisis as severe as America's Great Depression."
* * *
In 1902 Argentina was one of the world's richest countries. Little more than a hundred years later, it is poverty-stricken, struggling to meet its debt obligations amidst a drought.
We've seen this movie before. The Democrats' populist plans can't possibly work, because government bankrupts everything it touches. History teaches us that ObamaCare and unfunded entitlement programs will be utter, complete disasters.
Today's Democrats are guilty of more than stupidity; they are enslaving future generations to poverty and misery. And they will be long gone when it all implodes. They will be as cold and dead as Juan Perón when the piper must ultimately be paid.
This article illustrates why an educated citizenry is so important. Those who know and understand history like Argentina won’t fall for the siren songs.
Believe it or not, when Medicaire was enacted in 1965 - President Johnson claimed that it would save money. Was he lying? Maybe not, though it didn’t turn out as advertised, to say the least.
Good intentions don’t count.
Unfortunately, that precludes a lot of the public school system, the media/news outlets, universities, hollywood, etc. Even more unfortunately, it’s too far gone at this point. Maybe if a groundswell had grown in the late 1960s the ship could have been turned around. Maybe.
I had to do a lot of entertaining in New York when Evita was a hit on Broadway ... I saw it 23 times! (But that’s a good thing because I love the music and still play most of the songs on the piano). But having seen it so much, I almost feel like it was something I actually lived through. And the parallels are frightening. Not a lot of dif between Michelle and Evita ... same ilk.
There is PLENTY to find fault with there. Argentina at least hasn’t become a police state, micromanaging the lives of citizens. Once you get outside Buenos Aires, you’re left alone. Not so in our own country these days. I hope we can turn things around here. We’re running out of time.
They are alike in their screw-you socialism. But at least Evita didn't look scarey and wrong.
Yes. We’re about to see some of the consequences of throwing away tenets like those in the Monroe Doctrine. Globalist business, government and academic leaders have brought us toward a moment of learning something important. Our USA was not intended to be like Europe.
There are zoning “laws” (ordinances) against manufacturing anything in many jurisdictions, including many very remote areas. There are many other regulations against trying to compete on a small scale with the global monopolies, and implementations are aided by your local NIMBYs (mostly pensioned or employed by government or government-linked companies). See what happens to our country’s natural resources in the near future.
BTW, global business constituents and local socialists destroyed the economy of Argentina and made the country’s natural resources and manufacturing off limits to Argentina’s citizens. One of the many culprits was Benetton (Italian concern—textiles, agriculture, etc.).
And BTW, in case you didn’t notice, the most well known global business investors are quite socialist, politically correct, environmentalist and the like. Imagine seeing your loved ones die of thirst because of water rights ownership by such international bosses (occurrence in another South American country).
Juan Peron...
Played by the wonderful Bob Gunton,with whom I am in love, in ‘Evita’.
*Sigh*.
You saw it? Oh,do I envy you!
I’d give my right arm to see Bob Gunton on stage.
I love him.
I am totally infatuated with him.
He was great, but of course Patti LaPnne was my fav. A wonderful experience but as I said, when you see the parallels to M Obama, it’s amazing.
How close were you?
Who would have thought that the warden from ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ could sing?
Oh,I wish I could see him on stage,especially back then.
I bet he was even more handsome close up.
At least Patti LuPone is attractive...
Michelle Obama,not so much.
At least Patti LuPone is attractive...
Michelle Obama,not so much.
All over the theater with all those I saw. We were in the second row once. But the most amazing evening... Went to the restroom during 2 nd act. Nobody there or in the parlor area except a little old man with a cane sitting by himself. I gave him a double take on the way in but on the way out I just walked up to him and introduced myself, wondering who he was. He looked familiar. He didnt get up but shook my hand and said, “pleased to meet you, I’m Javits, Jacob Javits”. No security just him sitting there. Always wondered why.
Who is he?
I just looked him up on Wikipedia. I didn’t know who he was!
So you sat in various areas when you saw ‘Evita’?
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