South American Politics thread - Page 32

On August 14 2019 23:41 JimmiC wrote:
Very true, do you think there is anything that can speed up the process? If the less corrupt nations passed laws that companies would be held accountable if they participated in corruption else where would that help? Or would those companies just not get any work in those nations?

It does feel almost like tipping waitresses is here, for a long time we paid waitresses so poorly that the only way they made ends meat was through tips, now they get a decent wage (15 an hour) but the tips have remained so now they get paid quite well. My worry is that even if you upped the salary of the people the corruption is so accepted and so ingrained in the culture.

While I agree that some oversight and severe punishments would help, so far whenever a new government gets in they claim this is what they are about, but really it is about removing the other guys corrupt people and replacing them with his own loyal corrupt guys.

On August 15 2019 03:42 GoTuNk! wrote:


You need a smaller government, and for that you need a general belief among people that you can and will solve your problems, not the government. Big government = more money to loot. Not to mention taxes drowing people and companies.

We have 5-6 people working in the private sector for every person dependant on government, while Argentina has close to 1-1 ratio. This is why Chile has a 10% poverty rate, and Argentina is bordering 40% and growing.

On August 16 2019 09:57 GoTuNk! wrote:


Well that's because you seem hell bent on this "corruption" as Argentina's main problem. It's not; it's a symptom.

The country has, for years on end, had a government that spends a lot more money than it makes, funding it by either printing money (causing inflation) and by getting loans from the FMI they will soon default and really crash the economy. Their taxes are too high as of now, and there is no way revenue would go up if they raised them.

They also put all kinds of tariffs in imported products, making the general cost of goods even higher.

Cutting government spending is the only solution, but they have a 100 year history of not understanding that. No country, even countries with big governments, run those kind of insane deficits. They run big governments because they could first afford them, and keep some sort of financial balance.

On August 16 2019 22:30 GoTuNk! wrote:


The US debt is a problem, however the country is in a unique position because it controls the international standard currency, has a continuously growing economy, etc etc. Morever, it's deficit is funded only on debt that it is still expected to be able to pay, not on printing and causing inflation. The US economy basically makes the world spin, they can "afford" to have big debt, for now. The government does not default payments and won't anytime soon.

Argentina on the other hand prints money to pay it's unsustainable programs, has no trade to lower the costs of good, has shit productivty, innovation, etc. As I said, certain countries can afford certain things, but a country with barely anything valuable cannot.

The US government is basically a rich guy that expends a lot of money, the Argentinian government is a poor guy that expends a lot of money and multiple debtors will come down knocking doors soon.

You know which other other country started printing money to pay welfare it could not fund? Venezuela.

Corruption is bad but other countries in south america with higher perceived corruption do not have imploding economies. Peru has been improving for 20 years, and Paraguay doesn't seem to be imploding as of now.

Finally I would say I'm more likely to say I'm right because I didn't pick up on this Argentina thing now, I've been saying it for ten years. I will also predict now shit will be a A LOT WORSE in 3-5 years.