For those people born in Argentina at the end of the 1990s, 2023 will possibly be their first electoral participation in a context of great socio-economic crisis. The generation of young people under 25 years of age faces without experience a situation about which, paradoxically, they have heard and learned since their adolescence at family after-dinner meals: how to adapt to the “cyclical” condition of the crises in the country. Today finds them as viewers who have just entered a cinema that, despite the passing of the years, has tended to reproduce the same story. For most, it is a repeat movie. But for this youth, it is a novelty.
To have a general reference, it is possible to frame (simplifying) the different situations in which the young people of this generation find themselves. First, those who had the opportunity to study at a university. Then, those who already work and do it informally; or, in a minority, those who have managed to start their professional career formally. On the other hand, those who are looking for their first job opportunities. Considering these differences, people between the ages of 16 and 25 must face the current crisis while trying to take their first steps in their educational, work and professional careers.
Electoral calendar 2023: province by province, who is voting and when are the elections
A huge segment of youth remains subject to conditions of poverty. The deepest social inequality is that between those who have had opportunities to access an education (mainly university) based on the support of their families, or who with great effort managed to study and work simultaneously; and among those who, on the contrary, have lacked opportunities to access study (even secondary education), being mostly subjected to worse working and social conditions. According to the latest INDEC measurement, 45% of people between the ages of 15 and 29 are below the poverty line, and 9.4% are in a situation of indigence. To summarize the panorama: it is about the same generation where the university digital entrepreneur lives, with that boy who sleeps at the mouth of the subway with his family.
To continue with the beginning, we must try to analyze how young people see the context in which they will vote. Most would define it as an adverse situation where they suffer from lack of opportunities to access formal employment; to save and plan; to access a rental; and in most cases, a context that prevents them from being self-sufficient with their salary. They observe that the conditions for material progress have been significantly reduced. The latter is key to understanding his growing pessimism. That young man grew up hearing about the importance of formal work as an indisputable mechanism for social advancement, and as a guarantee that, with effort, it was possible to improve his quality of life. Now they see (and in some cases suffer) that Despite working a formal 8-hour day, his income is not only insufficient to provide a minimum of well-being, but even submits him below the poverty line.. It is not a scenario that only youth faces, but we must recognize that it has a greater negative impact considering the expectations of a person who is just starting out and observes a status quo that reproduces inequality; restricts opportunities; and therefore excludes them. Although the mentality and life preferences of young people who have opportunities to choose a professional career are not similar compared to 20 or 30 years ago, the “dream of owning a home” that mobilized the long-term effort of their father’s and mother’s generation is currently presented as a utopia. The current conditions make it impossible to aspire to any individual project with economic independence, especially for young professionals, since their main source of income (salary) is bankrupt as a mechanism for social promotion.
Where I vote: you can now consult the definitive register for the 2023 elections
Let’s continue with the case of the young professional. These days, his case represents a minority: he finished his university degree, managed to access a formal job in a company, and tries to save every month. The incentives he received from an early age shaped him into habits to adapt to a country that never offered him a stable currency to save. Whenever he had a full piggy bank, he listened to the recommendation that he should buy dollars, that is, he learned as a teenager that to maintain the value of his savings (whenever possible) it was not convenient to have pesos in his pockets. In his brief personal, let alone professional, career, he has not enjoyed good times that have presented him with better alternatives. To put it more specifically: learned that it didn’t make sense to save for a goal that implies a horizon of 5 or 10 years, that is to say for a long term, since it would be a waste or a guaranteed frustration. He is part of a generation that is mistrustful of the ability of its currency to store value. Introducing this panorama allows us to reflect on the relationship that the vast majority of young people built with politics and its protagonists.
As part of a period phenomenon, they note that the discussions proposed by the leaders have lost connection with the daily problems and demands of society, and that they have tended to close in on themselves with an agenda that the majority is not interested in. This situation has generated indifference, rejection and weariness. In the particular case of young people, the perception of this situation of distancing, together with the lack of management results, accentuated a process of depoliticization expressed in a disconnection from day to day with the political situation. The “thread” (as important as it is) does not arouse the slightest interest. The depoliticization of youth poses a problem: just as it is clear that talking about the situation at a table with friends is boring, it is also very true that, for example, inflation is an issue that worries and bothers them. The lack of interest in what the leaders say and do does not translate into a disassociation and indifference with the problems of day to day. A young man who cannot rent his first home because the real estate market tends towards dollarization while his income is kept in pesos, does not need to listen to statements from legislators who should have dealt with a Rental Law months ago. In fact, why should he listen to them? It is possible that if he decides to get involved he will end up bitter and powerless at what he observes. So, most choose to exclude political debate from their conversations because it would unfortunately mean talking about the difficulties and frustrated projects they have at such a young age.
Despite this situation, it is interesting to observe how the possibility of voting in the coming months has generated some enthusiastic reactions from part of the youth. the figure of Javier Miley it has managed to channel the state of situation of many young people, mobilizing and repoliticizing from an anti-establishment discourse. Just as the leadership of Néstor Kirchner managed to excite the young people who went through the 2001 crisis; and later the leadership of Cristina Kirchner gave rise to the youth phenomenon of La Cámpora, our youth expresses a departure radically opposed to the militant spirit of those times. It is the youth of the disenchantment with politics and its “establishment”. It is not about a youth ideologized under “the ideas of freedom”, or a generation of anti-political youth, which in both cases represent intense minorities with respect to a general situation: the majority feel discomfort and aspire to change based on their recent experiences.
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Despite the controversies that characterize Javier Milei -which makes no sense to reproduce- it is unfair to criticize young people who see in his figure a credible alternative for change and who, decidedly, will support him in the next presidential elections. In fact, it will be very important that they decide to express their preferences by voting within the system and not lean towards radicalization and contestation of the elections. For this reason, it is more important to try to understand their motives than to judge them from a pedantic attitude. To speak the same language as a young person, one must refer to the future. Provide a horizon for your expectations of progress. Today politics lacks that capacity and that is why it fails in its approach. There is no militant epic, nor massive use of Tik Tok that challenges a young professional worried about 100% year-on-year inflation. Without self-criticism, politics claims too much for the little it gives.
To conclude, it is important to constructively point out that those who aspire to govern the country have the enormous challenge of especially enthusing a generation of young people who, since their beginnings at work and professionally, have only had adverse conditions to progress. Furthermore, if the depoliticization trend is not reversed and remains entrenched from such an early civic stage, with what legitimacy will they be asked to make an effort for the “Argentina that is coming”? How will they convince them to commit themselves to a country that is at fault with them? There is a risk that distancing fosters anti-politics. Finally, the truth is that it is not up to the youth to improve the conditions to recover the illusion of projecting a prosperous future within the country.