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The story seems like a wankfest on American dogoodery. Argentina and the US had similar economies in the early 19th century. End of story. They diverged after t
by yardie 17y ago
The story seems like a wankfest on American dogoodery. Argentina and the US had similar economies in the early 19th century. End of story. They diverged after that and Argentina handled one disaster after another very poorly. America chose a different path. But, the author seems to have a very different history book than the one I had. The land wasn't free native Americans had lived on the land. But the policy of Manifest Destiny meant they couldn't be included in the developing country, ever. He also conveniently glides over the role the US had in destabilizing Central and South America.
The US economy has been very successful, but make no mistake there is nothing lucky or virtuous about it. If other countries, people, or economies had to be destroyed to further it's goals they were very good at that.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- cwan 17y agoI think you might have a point if the success of the US economy was the result of the failure of others but that's simply not the case (and this is also why Argentina seems like a fairly apt pairing given that Argentina also had people who preceded the colonists who lived there). Examples abound of countries who have pursued more liberal economic policies like that of the US who have done tremendously better than those who took routes similar to Argentina (e.g. take Hernando De Soto's work on property rights for example or any myriad of economic/regulatory indicators used by the World Bank/Economic freedom index). If you want to see countries whose people and economies were truly destroyed, look at those who sided with and aligned their economic views with the rivals of the US (e.g. Soviet republics) or Peronists like Argentina.
- radu_floricica 17y agoYup, Hernando de Soto said it very well. There are vastly different kinds of capitalism in the world right now, and US (and Europe) simply have the kind which worked. Living in an ex-comunist country I know the other kind reasonably well: looks the same on the surface, but beneath it's state control all the way. Not a dictatorship nor communism, but a different system altogether. Fortunately my country (Romania) seems to have gotten on a better path lately.