captmeatballs

Amazing article. I love reading well documented history. Thanks for sharing, is your book on Amazon?

Do you want a picture of my passport? I can easily provide it. I didn't say that it was Bernie's ideas what ruined my country, just that the kind of policies he preaches have been applied here for decades. Don't take my word for it, just look for any of Cristina Kirchner's speeches, and you will see.

It's pretty worrysome. And it's not just the economy that's tanking. The way the government is limiting more and more freedoms every day is quite concerning. I think you guys have a much stronger tradition of upholding freedom, so I might move there once restrictions are lifted.

How is it living there? I'm from Buenos Aires, but I'm seriously thinking of leaving. Being close and much freer Uruguay is a natural choice, but I'm not entirely sure. Would you recommend emigrating to Montevideo?

The country is Argentina. Once we had one of the highest GDPs per capita on Earth. But we have slowed growth so much, and created so much volatily with government overspending and by having a huge public sector, that we have become poorer and poorer.

You should read about it. We have applied all the brilliant ideas from the left: universal healthcare (which even provides free in vitro fertilization), ubi, high taxes on the rich (and the middle class tbh), free college, a massive public sector that employs millions upon millions of people, a state run pensions system, millions of regulations .. it's Bernie's wet dream. But it just doesn't work. It's so prohibitedly expensive to run those programs that taxes are super high, and the government still runs into huge deficits they pay for with debt (when we are not defaulting on previous debt), or printing money. Needless to say our inflation is above 50%yoy, salaries get lower every month, and there is simply no way we are going to recover, because every time there is a crisis (which is quite often) the likes or Krugman praise our government, they double down on these lousy policies, and things get worse.

Come to Argentina. We have been consistently applying keynesianism for 50 years (with a small break in the early 90s), and I assure you, it doesn't work.

If it really is, then we should brace ourselves for less growth, more instability, and more poverty. I live in a country that has tried all these hacks the progressives are pushing so hard to adopt, and have already lived a hyperinflation, at least three massive recessions, a "terminal crisis", two defaults, 6 years of stagflation, and have seen poverty grow from less than 10% to more than 40% in my lifetime. It would be unfortunate for the world to follow this path.