Challenge: the intertwined knots of the Argentine economy

In Argentina, at least two intellectuals have used the metaphor of the knot. In the year 2020, Pablo Gerchunoff referred to that in a note from The diplomatic world, where he raised the difficulty that we had –and we have- as a country to find a formula that reconciles growth with social progress. For this he proposed -among other things- that it was necessary to build a pro-export political and social coalition to unlock the blockade

More recently, Carlos Pagni wrote the book The knot, where he points out the territorial relevance that the Conurbano has had and has in the socioeconomic, electoral and public policy decisions of Argentina. You are invited to read both texts, for those who have not done so.

Both knots are intertwined: the style o national development model with its territorial impactswithin which -without a doubt- the most important due to its scale is that of the Buenos Aires suburbs (associated with the deindustrialization of Argentina), which -in turn- conditions national political decisions (Pagni calls it “the suburbanization of of politics”, especially from 2001).

The intertwined knots of the Argentine economy

In this note, I will not refer to the diagnoses proposed by both authors, but to the possible lines of action to untie these knots.

Beginning with the first article, it coincides with the statement of Pablo Gerchunoff about the importance of intersecting “the utopia of social mobility and the utopia of social justice”but today challenged with the “utopia of freedom” without limits.

Gerchunoff argues that what Argentina demands, in political terms, is a pro-export social and political coalition to defend its internal prosperity. The Argentine economy need dollar producers in their fields, in their industries, in their mining and oil deposits, in the offices of those who supply the world with modern services.

Perpetual social plans put progress in check

As regards the distribution of economic surplusGerchunoff proposes limiting the level of wages in dollars for formal workers to gain competitiveness, in exchange for a contractually established share of future productivity gains.

In this regard, it appeals to implement the provisions of the article 14 bis of the Constitution. Sure, there are different ways to do this. In 2010, Deputy Héctor Recalde proposed setting a percentage of the 10% of the annual net profits of the companies to be distributed among the workers, or what CAME proposed at that time that this be negotiated in parities. We can add to all that has been said that a healthy and serious cooperativism also solves very well this issue of a better distribution of the economic surplus, in addition to other principles and values ​​that it advocates.

All of the above, without a doubt, can be relativized, distant or considered very abstract in the current context, with a knot that generates inflation of more than 100%. It it should be resolved by a stabilization plan, structural reforms, and a sectoral and territorial development plan.

inequality and progress

We could ask ourselves if it is impossible for the province of Buenos Aires to recover the co-participation points that it ceded in 1988, to focus on the Conurbano.

The challenge of the Argentine economy

Is it impossible for a new federal co-participation law to state that the increases in funds that correspond to the provinces and the Nation do not go to a Territorial Development Fund for regional development projects along the lines indicated?

Argentina, a country chosen by thousands of migrants

This should accentuate the internal migrations that have been taking place from the GBA to the interior, such as those observed towards parties on the Buenos Aires coast and inland towns. The relevance of this issue has already been raised, among others, by Pedro Del Piero and the Metropolitan Foundation, with a concrete proposal for a Planning Agency that would be the Executive Secretariat of a Metropolitan Region.

What activities could be developed in a more orderly manner in the region? They should range from those that can be boosted with transversal policies (such as the improvement of education and professional training), even the sectorial ones. Some of the latter, and only by way of example, may be the textile industry and clothing, the different branches of the constructionthe economy of care for people with different types of fragility or disability, the economy of care and regeneration of the nature region ofthe circular economy, the knowledge economy, of the professions linked to the culture, leisure and sportetc.

Hopefully it can be done. It is a necessity and a duty to be able to build it.