I don't know if it was good fortune or not, but I lived in Buenos Aires in the late 60's. It has given me some insight into our President Obama and what he is doing to the United States. Most of my family came here from Scotland in the 1600's and were the ones who really built this nation along with my Native American relatives. What they were doing was simple. They were helping to create a bigger pie. They were confident that with their hard work, they would be able to get their share of that bigger pie and most did. Now how about Juan Peron?
About 100 years ago Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. Argentina means "Silver" for those of you who don't speak Spanish. There was a common expression some years ago that went, "as rich as an Argentine" and it was true. Like most societies, some people in Argentina had more and some had less, but even a small slice of that big pie was substantial compared to the rest of the world. Now when Juan Peron came along it was the hay day of socialism and he played it just like Obama is now doing here. I think that most of the government revenue at the time was a "tax" on beef exports. That's right, "exports". With today's economy that would seem crazy, but at the time it worked so people in Europe paid all the tax, not Argentines. Obama worked with the labor unions of the day and increased wages faster and faster. Since half of the people were below "average" in wealth, they like his policy and kept voting him into office. Sounds like Obama and the Blacks and Unions today. Now Argentina was rich so for several years he were able to take the golden eggs from the beef goose and give them to those who voted for him. It worked. The problem was that the size of the pie was getting smaller and smaller and the below average people were eating all the beef so that little was available to export. When I lived there, there were weeks and days when it was illegal to sell or serve beef in restaurants. Sounds strange doesn't it? If they ate all the beef in Argentina, what would be left to export? See the problem? Smaller pie.
Obama I see it is just like Juan Peron. He is using your money to buy votes from his friends. Obama has stated that he is not concerned about the size of the economic pie, only that it is more equally divided. I have heard union people state that they don't care if the whole country is deep in shit as long as everyone else is deep in shit with them. They don't care if they bankrupt the country as long as everyone is bankrupt. I can't get my mind around such statements. I want to see a bigger and bigger pie and even if I get a smaller piece, it will still be bigger than the one that I had. Why is it that more people don't see what is going on?
It is like the oil thing and gas prices that I have blogged on before. Obama claims that he wants to see our exports increased 25% in the next 10 years, but does not seem to understand that increasing basic production and wealth here does the same thing. What difference does it make if we increased our exports by $!.00 or reduce out imports by $1.00? The impact is the same.
The bottom line is that in Argentina, he problems caused by the policies of Juan Peron are still there after over 50 years. If you think that the United States can bounce back from the damage done by Obama's policies, you have another think coming. You can look around the world and see all the counties that made mistakes like Obama and they still have not recovered. Just remember that I told you so!!!
