Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Buenos Aires, Argentina…
It’s not for the faint of heart, this southern land… neither for the short of patience..
Political chaos… economic nincompoopery… and a public life brimming with such terrific folly and hubris as to make a Roman senator blush.
Also, nothing works… at least, not the way it’s supposed to. You install a heater. The thing works for half a season… then breaks. Same for the kettle. The water purifier. The lamp in the spare room.
Your editor bought a can opener just the other day. It gave up the ghost before completing a single rotation around a single can, the metal teeth dislodging as though they were in a cage fight at a retirement home.
(The reader is invited to imagine our private vexation, staring helplessly at the half punctured lid, defanged utensil in hand, unable to liberate the black bean hostages so that they might fulfill their cosmic destiny as part of our famous chili con carne.)
This is standard non-operating procedure in a country that has shielded its domestic industry from foreign competition for three-quarters of a century.
When he first darkened this nation’s door, back in 1946, Juan Domingo Perón promised prosperity on an economic platform heavily shaped by protectionism, state intervention, and a push for economic nationalism. Promising to nurture Argentina’s domestic industry, Perón raised tariffs on imported goods (other nations are “ripping us off”), while dolling out subsidies, tax incentives, and preferential credit to domestic manufacturers.
Between his Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI), iron-fisted control of trade and foreign exchange, nationalization of state enterprises (for “strategic reasons,” and “matters of national security,” naturally), and his compulsive meddling in wage and labor policies (with its predictable, unintended consequences), Perón was the politician’s politician, personified.
Pity about the actual citizens...
… who were left to endure a sharp and sustained decline in quality… a steady rise in prices… and exactly the kind of rampant corruption one would expect when the government “plays favorites” with this and that industry.
Seventy-five years later and we still can’t get the lid off the tin.
And yet, one doesn’t move to Argentina for the market efficiency… because the economics “make sense”… and still less because things “work” (as stated, they don’t).
When we go shopping during the week, for instance, we do not simply drive to the local Whole Foods or HEB or Kroger or whatever one-stop-shop-of-convenience is produced by market competition in other countries.
Nooo…
For one thing, we don’t own a car. Instead, we walk to the local carnicería to buy our meat… the fiambrería to satisfy our deli needs… the pescadería for our seafood… a handful of the half dozen or so verdulerías within two blocks of our apartment, all stubbornly un-amalgamated, for our “ugly” (read: fresh) fruit and vegetables… and, of course, the ubiquitous chinos, small bodegas run by the city’s Asian population, which have pretty much everything else you might need on a daily basis.
There’s also the florería for our fresh cut flowers… the panadería for baked goods… countless librerías for books… pop-up street markets (like the one in the clip above) for mandarins and pickles and plants… the ferretería for light bulbs, step ladders, door hinges… and can openers that do not function.
But more than all that, there’s a familiar face behind every counter we visit, one who asks where we’ve been all winter… how dear wifey and daughter are getting along… what’s new in the world of a gringo in Buenos Aires… and always, with a wry grin and a shake of the head, why anyone would choose to live in a place so chaotic as this.
In this week’s Notes, we examined the state of the State here in Argentina – particularly following President Trump’s “full backing” of President Milei – and also wondered at the nature of the State itself, and what the French humanist, Etienne de La Boétie called “voluntary servitude.” Please enjoy, below…
And now for your Notes From the End of the Week…
Final Notes…
Lest we forget! Allow us to extend our deep gratitude to all Notes members for their generous support. Here’s what a few happy readers have to say about their membership…
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We’ll be back later in the week with some boots-on-ground impressions from the great anarcho-capitalist experiment currently underway down here at the End of the World.
Whatever you’re up to this weekend, we hope you’re enjoying it in good cheer and better company.
And stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World…
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
