>start of the 20th century
>one of the most prosperous nations on the planet
>relatively politically stable
>large scale immigration from Europe
>strong economy
>21st century
>an economic basket case
>incompetent leaders
>corrupt
>widespread dissatisfaction and stagnation
How did Argentina manage to screw up this bad? Can it ever regain its glory days?
>>30003
>incompetent leaders
>corrupt
This is the symptom and the cause
>>30003
didn't it get buttfucked by military juntas that were busy distracting the populace with stuff like Muh Malvinas so they didn't notice them stealing all the money and turning the country to shit
>>30043
But it once had competent leaders. Where did it go downhill? During the time of Peron?
During the Great Depression it fell into the same pit as Germany in terms of dictatorship and corruption, just never got out of it, due to it not being important enough for the US to reconstruct during the Cold War.
I guess they started to become like their neighbours and a culture of corruption emerged at some point
>>30047
Yes that, and the number of CIA backed coups and forced neoliberalism it went through.
>>30156
Chile also had that happen and they're ok.
>>30003
>open borders declared in constitution
>socialists
you can see how it all went to shit quickly
>>30190
Not really, Chile has a high level of income inequality. It's not that much more prosperous than Argentina.
>>30239
chile is a lot more prosperous than argentina at this point. Higher HDI, more political staibility, bigger gdp growth every year, less murder, less organized crime
Large scale cental planning never works look at the USSR or even India before 1990
The Argentinain economy is very mismanaged
>>30003
>How did Argentina manage to screw up this bad?
Populism, Fascism (Peronism) and incompetent leaders (Menem and the Kirchner).
>Can it ever regain its glory days?
It could happen this year, Macri is gaining popularity very fast. Pic related is the map of this year's election in Argentina (first round).
>>30003
>start of the 20th century
>not alrewady corrupt as fuck
economic welfare came from the oppression of peasants and gauchos. They built Buenos Aires alla mode with French architecture with the tax money from commerce on the only important port in the whole country, where all goods past by.
That is not prosperity, the rest of the world was at war
>>31428
>Menem
Menem was fake populism. He literally sold the country out. Even the nuclear commision was split for the sole purpose of selling it for peanuts
I laugh when I see someone say that the 90's were a free market era.
It was literally the state selling everything they can. The state's intervention level was high as fuck
sically Argentina holds most of the lands in the Southern Cone region. South America is not very conducive to great power building because it's lands are either too mountanous, too tropical, too dry, or a combination of the 3. The Southern Cone is the exception to this. It is to South America what the Mississippi River Basin is to North America. It has the second largest interconnected river system in the world, after the mississippi, called the Rio de la Plata river system . It also has the Pampas region overlaying this network, which makes growing wheat, soybeans, corn and other agricultural products easy as well as making it easy and cheap to transport. In addition to this, Argentina has tons of natural gas and oil in the western and southern regions. Even if it has to share parts of the southern cone with Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil, Argentina still holds enough of the important pieces to become the great power of Latin America. In fact it is Argentina, not China, or Russia, or India, that has the best chance of ever forming a power strong enough to challenge the USA.
Why is Argentina such a fuck up then? Well as other posters here have mentioned, geography is an important indicator of success, but it isn't the only one. Argentina has been mired in corruption scandals, political instability and bad policy by its leaders for close to a century now. There isn't anything structural holding back the Argentines, except for the Argentines themselves. But they are running the risk that if left alone long enough, Brazil may grow strong enough to challenge the Argentines in the Rio de La Plata. If successful, this would destroy Argentina's ability to rise above anything more than a regional power in South America. But a situation like that probobly wouldn't happen until a hundred or more years down the road.
