Peronism wasn’t working, therefore….

The Guardian reports on how children are living on the rubbish dumps in Argentina.

From atop the rubbish mountain the dirt tracks and tin-and-wood shacks of her neighbourhood, Manzana 34, can be seen. About 400 families live there, 300 metres from the piles of refuse. For many, the dump is not just a permanent health and environmental hazard, but also a means of survival: they find food, school supplies, furniture and construction materials.

We would all prefer that people did not have to make their living scavenging on rubbish dumps. Even the most extreme of the greens suggest that the scavenging to recycle should be done before the waste’s arrival at the dump. So, this is bad.

There will be some - for there always are such - who tell us that this is a result of Sr. Milei’s imposition of neoliberalism and therefore overthrow capitalism etc etc (cont. pg 94). Which is not, in fact, what is happening.

For these slums by and on the rubbish piles are not new, are not of this last year or two, they have been extant for decades. These are evidence that the last economic system did not work - that system which is being replaced by the neoliberalism of Sr. Milei etc etc. They are evidence that that last economic system needed to be replaced too.

It is, obviously, wholly possible to then argue that it shouldn’t be Sr. Milei’s neoliberalism that replaces that earlier system - we would disagree there, we think it’s the only thing that will work - but that the kiddies are scrambling over the rubbish tips is all we need to know that the essentially fascist economics* of Peronism wasn’t working.

Tim Worstall

*Note fascist economics - a politically controlled nominally capitalist autarky is, pretty much, fascist economics. We are not suggesting actual fascism, nor the invasion of Poland, here.