a hundred years ago, argentina was on par with the u.s. they had the same standard of living, roughly the same per capita income, the same military power, etc. at the begining of WW1, argentina was the third most powerful country in the world, with a dynamic economy and a wealth of resources.
the populist movement that started around the world about that time hit there also. the impulse was/is to redistribute the wealth down scale to support the middle class. we hear the same argument today.
we had the benefit of being the last dog in the arena after WW2 so we had a stall in the movement. argentina got perone. by that time their economy was in a downward spiral and the wealth of the wealthy was about used up. so....they started going after the middle class if they had property.
their tax base continued to shrink as a percent of gdp so they started adding zero's to the currency after decoupling from the dollar.
we all know what happened after that.
i have watched the daily parade of widows to the memorial to "the disappeared" in buenos aires.
they are now out of bankrupcy, but are repeating their confiscitory ways.
"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."
(Alexis De Tocqueville)
