#56: Argentina Dispatch
No one uses coins anymore. They’re useless here, at least as currency. Nothing you might buy or get change for would ever require so small an amount. The shopkeeper would sooner offer a caramelo. And coins are scarce. The metal is worth much more than the nominal value, so minting stopped in 2022. I hear there’s a robust trade in melting them down for the nickel and copper.
Nowadays a street juggler, say, will be working for bills—probably 100 peso notes (US $0.10 as of today). But I can’t bring myself to respond with anything less than 500 pesos. That sounds like a large number, ostentatious even. Everyone knows how far those bills have fallen, but they’re still crisp and shiny. And we all remember what 500 used to mean. Not all that long ago it would’ve bought a decent pair of new shoes, or a 27” monitor, or a week’s worth of food for a family. Now it’s flapping in the breeze at a driver’s side window. One of those peach-colored 1000 peso notes will buy you one green lechuga (lettuce)—local slang for the basic unit of that well-spritzed monetary hegemon, the US dollar.
Except these days I don’t see as many jugglers in the streets. I see indigence, exhaustion and deep anxiety. I also see protests. Yesterday a group of twenty-something students ran out to lead us drivers in support of the public university system. They were not asking for money, just our energy and solidarity, holding up signs inviting us to honk our horns. I’d say about half the cars around me responded positively. I did. The students were back at the sidewalk before the light turned green. It was a well-run picket. They’re getting ready for “23A”, nationwide protests on April 23. I’ll be there.
Audio: A Juggler Out In Traffic (from Not Far Now)
Like so many state-funded institutions, the budget for the University of Buenos Aires (UBA)—still, despite everything, one of the top universities in Latin America—is being slashed by the new administration of Javier Milei, a 19th-century caudillo-coiffed, anarcho-capitalist, right-wing libertarian who took the meaning of dogmatic to new places by cloning his beloved bullmastiff and naming three of the resulting animals after his favorite economists: Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard, and Robert Lucas. During the campaign, he wielded a chainsaw from the podium to illustrate what his philosophy of government would be. Milei is more arsonist than lumberjack, but I suppose he didn’t want to risk going up in flames on the campaign trail. In any case, the electorate should’ve had no illusions about what it was voting for.
Tucker Carlson flew down to interview the candidate, eat beef, schmooze, and exchange baseball caps with a winery owner. Someone had produced a local version of the MAGA hat, subsituting “Argentina” for “America”. Amazing! The acronym remains the same! The argentine version is blue and in English. After Carlson’s departure, Gadsden flags started appearing around town. They are yellow and in English. Hegemony is not just monetary. But then we knew that.
But support for Milei (or hold-your-nose resignation) didn’t come out of nowhere. Previous governments had left the economy—I mean, the country—in a shambles. But Milei’s attitude toward budget-slashing goes well beyond single-minded fiscal enthusiasm. There’s a pathological component, a desire for revenge, for payback. He wants to break things.
A few months before the election, he appeared on a popular political television show to talk about his plans. By way of demonstration, each ministry of the Executive Branch was represented by a strip of blue tape on a white board. One by one he pulled them off like band-aids. “Ministry of Culture: gone! Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development: gone! Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity: gone! Ministry of Public Works: gone! Ministry of of Science, Technology and Innovation: gone! Ministry of Labor and Social Security: gone! Ministry of Education: gone!! Ministry of Health: gone!” When he got to Education he made a crack about “indoctrination”. This is not only about the economy.
But the fiscal crisis he rode in on is real. It would be impossible to overstate the disfunction. Here’s some anecdotal evidence. The parking space we began renting in 2005 for 130 pesos per month now costs 65,000 per month (around US $43 and $75, respectively). I have receipts. Our gas bill just tripled from one period to the next, and not because we’re doing more cooking. Meanwhile, other people have real problems.
Shopkeepers would rather remove merchandise from sale than sell it and have to restock. Translation: the earlier retail price is less than the subsequent wholesale price. And then there are the very bad numbers. In May of 2001, 21.5% of households lived below the poverty line. That figure has risen to almost 42% in 2024. Others put it above 50%. This is the situation Milei harnessed in service of his crusades.
Those students? They’ve still got the fire and the hope. As for us drivers waiting at the light, apart from honking in solidarity, what do we have for them? How do we respond from our bubbles? Do we keep limiting our allegiances to kinship and tribe? I’ll admit to seeing the attraction of that narrower solidarity. Within one’s group—friends, family, colleagues—Argentines take care of each other. They are loyal and generous. It can be quite breathtaking. But it’s no substitute for an effective national polity. And I fear the whole point of the chainsaw was to send the message that there will be no polity—just authoritarian lurching, manichaean tantrums, and breaking things.
Somehow "like" doesn't seem an appropriate response to this essay. It was interesting and informative, but too disturbing and worrisome to say that I "liked" what I read. Conditions like this lead to desperation and rebellion if they go on too long. It all sounds pretty grim. Stay safe down there.
Thanks for this somehow simultaneously brief and detailed dive into the situation. You’ve referred to many of the elements before, but this post sticks it all together. What you don’t do, of course, is speculate about specific future happenings, and I can see why. Are there any positive signs, though? Of course, that would probably be an entire new post, so you may not want to put the time into laying it out, of course.
I feel a kinship with this post. I’m back in east Ukraine, 20 miles from the front line, hanging out with my friends who make bombs in their living room and trying to explain it in an accessible way on Substack. Sometimes people who are deeply committed but not 100% part of a place are in the best position to bridge the gap between locals and puzzled observers.