Hey guys, I'll rant for long this time
This is just the first post of the series, hope you enjoy it.
Argentina is a country that is screwed up since a long long time.
Our
constitution is a bad copy of the ones from United States and France,
countries that declared their
independence a few years before us.
For
instance, in the article 21 it says that “every citizen has the
obligation to arm itself to defend the country
and/or the constitution”
that’s fantastic, but then it’s screwed as it continues “in accordance
to the laws
dictated by the congress or decrees by the executive”.
So, you can defend the constitution only if the ones who are violating it allow you… pretty contradictory if
you ask me.
Then
article 25 says that the government can’t restrict or limit the
immigration of any foreigner with good
intentions and will to work.
Reality shows that this open borders policy allowed and continues to
allow the
immigration of tons of bad people, like WW2 war criminals,
terrorist, drug dealers and entire families from
countries in the region
looking for a government to provide them houses, health and education.
In
Argentina people thinks that the government has the obligation to
provide you with houses, work, free
education and free health services,
so there are tons of people who continually do protests, cut streets and
highways etc asking for what they think is their right, most of times
that people is used with political goals by
the opponents of the party
that has the power at the moment.
Long history short, I never saw
or read about a good government in this country, we had a collection of
demagogues populists, military dictatorships and utterly useless guys.
The inflation
I was a child but I remember the hyperinflation…
In the picture you can see the inflation numbers, in the ‘89 we had like 8000%
The
stores changed the prices of their products multiple times a day, so
when the people got their salary
they went running to the stores to
spend it all in food.
I remember the bills starting having so fucking
many zeroes in them that the people started calling the bills by
their
color because they had no clue how to read those numbers, everyone was a
millionaire at that time
So, the riots started and Alfonsin, the president at that moment had to leave.
Then
Menem won, and the country was somewhat stabilized, but the price of it
was the destruction of the
national industry, the unemployment started
to grow like crazy, and in 2003 it was more than 20%
In 2001 was
the big crisis when the riot started and finished with the president at
that moment, De La Rua,
resigning. The country hit rock bottom at that
moment.
There was a ton of people that had not work, the banks run
out of dollars so all the deposits were retained
in what is known as “El
Corralito” so you couldn’t retire or use your savings, there was a
small quota of
money you could get monthly.
The states governments
didn’t have any money either, and the federal government didn’t send
any, so they
started emitting bonds that were used as normal money.
It was in those years when
bartering started, in each town started to appear the “bartering clubs” where
people offered services or things to exchange.
That
helped a lot of people to pass those hard times, but it also was used
by delinquents in order to sell stuff
that previously was impossible,
like forks, doors, cups, toilets, you mention it.
At that time I was
living in a small city on the sea shore, so there were a lot of houses
that were only
occupied in summer, those houses were completely emptied.
So
the government tried to enforce some controls on the bartering clubs,
but they continued until the
situation somewhat stabilized and then they
closed.
2001 was a hard year, but this wasn’t Mad Max, the people kept
going to work everyday, schools and
stores opened, we still paid taxes
and the police could detain you and send you to jail just like always.
The
rioting was in some specific places in the federal district, the rest
of the country continued as always,
shitty but working.
The
insecurity on the streets grow, but that’s the product of years of
abandonment and lack of education and
culture of work, drugs have a big
part on it too.
In 2003 50% of the country was under the line of
poverty, that means that 50% of the country didn’t have
the money to
live a standard life, and there was a 25% of indigence.
Because
of that the “Villas”, similar to the favelas in Rio, started to multiply
and continue to grow everyday
non stop. In there the state has no
presence, and drug dealers and delinquents rule.
Now everyday
people is killed in car robberies and everyone lives scared, even
smaller cities and towns
started having serious security issues.
I could talk about that for a long time… let’s finish this part in here, I’ll add more later.
What
I can tell you is that things aren't like in the book Patriots, when
there is an economic collapse, the shit
doesn't hit the fan to everyone
at the same time, there isn't a clear line between SHTF and no SHTF.
People
tries their best to continue with their usual life, because they have a
wife and sons to feed, and if you
get your ass killed or in jail
they'll be alone when they need you the most.
You start living
cheaper, you stop spending on useless crap, some people grow food in
their gardens, or rise
animals to eat, or look for new ways to get some
money, like collecting used paper to sell it to recyclers.
Some
people does crazy things, like and old man whose son was sick and needed
the money for medicines,
so he bought a deactivated grenade and went to
the bank to tell the manager that if they didnt give him his
dollars
everyone would die. The old man got his money, but a few days later was
arrested.
