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| Buenos Aires |
I brought a group of 22 Graziadio students to Buenos Aires last week. We had an amazing time touring the city, meeting local business leaders, and studying the economics, culture, and politics of Argentina. It was an absolutely amazing trip.
After about four days, Michelle flew down and was with me for the last few days, then we stayed three days extra after the “official” program ended. For a review and photos of the study tour see here.
Here are some photos of Michelle and I touring the city and eating the wonderful food.
Here are a few observations about our trip…
- Unlike the other South American countries I have visited, Argentina views itself as a European country, not “Latin” or “Hispanic”. It was largely settled by Italian and Spanish immigrants and maintains a largely Italian/Spanish/French identity. One interesting anecdote from a professor here… he took a group of Argentine students to Darden (UVA) for a study tour in the US. The instructor at Darden made a comment about how US culture is different from the “Hispanic” culture of Argentina and the students were visibly confused. They had never considered themselves Hispanic and took issue with the characterization.
- Due to the unique identity (see above), the people, culture, and language are noticeably different from other SudAmericano countries. For instance the “ll” (double-L) is pronounced with a “zh” sound rather than a “ye” sound. Also, the people have a reputation in the region for being very arrogant and viewing themselves as different from the rest of the region (and superior).
- In 1910, Argentina was the 5th richest country in the world (today that place belongs to France). Since that year, Argentina has consistently repeated a cycle of growth and revolution while sliding to the mid-50’s in total GDP.
- According to our instructors, roughly 50% of the national economy is “black market” meaning not reported to the gov’t for taxes. There are many reasons for this… a distrust of the gov’t and banks leads to a cash-focused economy. For instance, you can’t get a mortgage for your home…you must pay cash. So you must bring $300K Ar PESOS to the seller and he must count them. People tend to hoard their cash at home rather than keeping it in the bank.
- Due to the cash hoarding above, “breaking and entering” is one of the most common crimes in Argentina. People don’t report their cash being stolen, because it would inspire an IRS investigation.
- For my more liberal friends who support populist policies of “taxing the rich”, you should visit BA. You’ll see the good and bad of populist policies. On balance, what I saw here moved my opinion further from populism and more towards free markets. I’m still a believer in government regulation to structure markets and protect the “helpless”. But populism tends to destroy incentives for production.
- They eat dinner at 10-11pm here…everyone. Not just the young, single, folks who are looking for some action. We regularly saw families entering the restaurant at 10pm and staying until after 11. The kids have to get up for school at 7am. How do they do it? And they also stay fit. There was generally less obesity here than I see in America.
- The food was really good! It was pretty bland with most meals consisting of a piece of pork or beef and some kind of potatoes. There were no whole veggies to speak of, but also much fewer processed foods overall. One of our instructors argued that the food was bland because most of the topography nearby is quite bland…mild weather and flat terrain. He thinks it requires mountains and temperature variation to create more flavorful foods. Interesting. I think my brother would LOVE this place because of the plentiful steak in the local diet. My favorite local item???? The empanadas. Without question.
- The coffee culture is very European…lots of small cups of black coffee that are sipped for a LONG time. One of my students found a Starbucks and brought a generous coffee to go to a meeting and it was noticeably out-of-place.
- One of the most notable elements of the lower GDP and economic weakness was the general unkemptness of the place. It’s common to find trash on the streets, sidewalks in disrepair, and street signs missing. It reminds me of John Q. Wilson’s theory of the broken window (the original article is in Atlantic Monthly from 1982, but I can’t find a public link) .
Over all, this was a wonderful trip. Now that it’s over, I’d like to learn Spanish before my return trip sometime soon. I’d love to come here with Mom and Dad.
