Tonight, as I was driving home from work, I was listening to the Mark Levine show on the radio. He had a man on, whose name I wish I could remember, who was a former member of the U.S. Congress. He was a very wise man and pretty much laid the economic problems of the country out in a way that, for me at least, made sense and scared the heck out of me. He said that there are so many people in this country who pay NO taxes at all that, even if there were a HUGE tax increase for ALL Americans who pay taxes at all -- not just the "Rich" people that Obama says "Should pay a little more", but ALL tax payers -- we STILL would not be able to keep up with the current levels of government spending. He estimated that within 2 to 2 1/2 years, the country will be in such economic crisis that our money will be worth nothing at all.
Sadly, this is a situation that is familiar to me. When I arrived in Argentina in 1983, they had just dropped two zeroes off of all of their pesos. They were printing out new money, called "Pesos Argentinos" that were updated from the old, regular pesos. In the new Pesos Argentinos, a bill that formerly was worth 500 pesos, was now worth just 5. A peso that had been worth 1,000 pesos, was now worth 10 Pesos Argentinos. (Hence, the removal of the two zeroes) The bills that had been worth 1, 5, or 10 pesos, were now worth absolutely nothing; people just tossed them out on the streets. We would literally walk on streets paved with money (albeit worthless money) every day. (Hey, they made great souveniers!)
As missionaries, we would receive our monthly 'spending money' at the beginning of each month. We were handed an envelope with Pesos Argentinos, NOT US Dollars, that was equal to $100 US dollars at the current exchange rate. Now, I was used to trying to conserve my money to make it last through the month. That was how I'd lived through college. That was the absolute WRONG thing to do in Argentina, however. If I saved my money, spending as little as possible every week, I would end up with no food at the end of the month. The Pesos Argentinos lost their value so quickly that they could not buy as much as the end of the month as they could have at the beginning of the month. I had to learn a whole new mindset. At the beginning of the month, when we got our money, we would go out and buy as much food and other necessities as we could possibly keep (we had no refrigeration, which made it tricky to save some foods). We would use all but just a small amount of our money, which we kept on hand to buy perishables and pay for bus fare and things like that. Having food and other goods was worth more than having a fistfull of Pesos Argentinos. As the months went on, the government announced that they were AGAIN going to drop two zeroes from the newly-printed Pesos Argentinos. So now the original 50,000 pesos that had become the 500 Pesos Argentinos was worth 5 pesos. Again, the streets were littered with bills that were now not even accepted as currency. Eventually, we missionaries were given an increase in our monthly amount of money. Instead of receiving Pesos Argentinos equivalent to $100 US dollars, we were given the equivalent to $150 US dollars. That helped, but by the time I left, they were getting ready to raise the amount again because it was such a struggle to live on that amount. There were at least three instances on my mission where we did not have any food at all for 4 days at a time. I knew we were being blessed because we managed to live through those times. If we had had actual US dollars, it would have been fabulous, but we did not.
I remember one time, as we were riding the bus, I saw the headline of the newspaper that the man sitting in front of me was reading. The headline stated that inflation for the previous month had been 16%. SIXTEEN PERCENT inflation in just a MONTH'S time! It made my head spin just thinking about it.
When I left Argentina, I had a NEW 1,000 Pesos Argentinos bill. This was the former 100,000 Pesos Argentinos bill with two zeroes removed, which would have been a 10,000,000 Pesos bill when I first arrived in the country. That bill, when I left the country, was worth less than $20.00 US dollars. I wish I could say for sure how much that 10,000,000 Pesos bill was worth when I first arrived, but I cannot.
I can easily envision the time when the United States of America has to go through what the country of Argentina has gone through and continues to go through. A time when our money is practically worthless and having goods and food is all that matters. A couple of years ago, I read a news story about a train in Argentina that had hit a cow on the tracks and killed it. I am not sure what town this ocurred in, but it really doesn't matter. It really could have been anywhere in that poor country. Upon hearing that the cow had been hit, everybody who could, ran to the tracks. There were hundreds of people there, with butcher knives and scissors and anything they could grab and take with them, trying to get a piece of the dead cow. People came to blows, some even stabbing and hurting others, in an attempt to cut off any piece of cow at all, to take home to feed their families. I was heartsick when I read that. I could just imagine that horrible scene. I wonder now if I will see such things in this country in the near future.
Like Argentina, America is a land rich with resources. Like Argentina, we have our own "Evita and Juan Peron" in Michelle and Barack Obama, who are robbing our country blind, stealing everything they can for themselves and their cronies, as well as their buddies in other countries, and turning a blind eye to their own citizenry. Like Argentina, our leaders have blinded much of the population into thinking that they are saints and saviors, rather than the evil people that they truly are. Even today, there are homes in Argentina where photos of Evita Peron adorn the walls right next to the pictures of the Catholic Saints and the Virgin Mary. Just yesterday, an artist released a painting or a picture (I am not sure which) that he had done, portraying Barack Obama as Jesus Christ. Last week, a black man on a television program urged the audience to thank God and to worship "Our lord and savior, Barack Obama." In the days of the Perons, they managed to fool enough people, buy off enough people, and destroy enough people to get themselves elected and stay in power for quite a few years. Barack Obama has managed to fool enough people, buy off enough people and create enough hatred and divisiveness among people to be reelected to a second term as President. Argentina has never regained what it lost during the years of Peronista power. I sincerely doubt that our country can recover from four more years of Barack Obama. But, as I heard someone say recently, "We got the President that the majority of the people wanted. But will they be happy with the President that they wanted?" I suppose the jury is still out on that question but, for me, the answer is clear: ABSOLUTELY NOT.
They say that history repeats itself for those who do not learn from the past.
"Don't cry for me, Argentina.....the truth is, I never left you......"
No comments:
Post a Comment