MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Human Freedom Index: Chile, Costa Rica lead in Latin America
The Human Freedom Index 2016, (HFI), was released on Monday, the second annual report that represents the state of overall freedom in the world based on a broad measure of personal, civil and economic freedom. Co-published by the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute (Canada) and the Liberales Institut (Germany) from the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, it looks into 179 distinct indicators in 159 countries on issues ranging from freedom of speech and association to women’s freedoms, the extent of voluntary exchange, safety and security, the rule of law and more. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesPoor Argentina, must be down to
Dec 06th, 2016 - 01:27 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Human--error, and definatly not
Right...
It's fun to listen to conversations between argies concerning Chile, which they claim is so backward and Third-World that they don't even manufacture their own screws. In the next discussion someone will mention that the electronics assembly in Ushuaia sometimes only includes Argentine-made screws in the mix of otherwise all foreign sourced components but that is enough to get the label “Made in Argentina.” Under enormous subsidies of course, that make Argentine tax rates the highest in the region, and result in excessively high costs for consumer products. Gotta keep those unskilled people busy somehow.
Dec 06th, 2016 - 03:14 pm - Link - Report abuse +1This “2016” report is a bit misleading. It's based on 2014 data, which means that Argentina gets rated by failed Kirchnerism policies like the severe restrictions on printed materials from outside the country. But even so, it's rather unsurprising to see Kirchnerist Argentina rated right between Mozambique and Malawi, but still worse than Uganda and Rwanda. It's also interesting to note the decline in Human Freedom Index for Argentina during the Kirchner years. It looks like it went from an almost acceptable 58th place in 2008 to a miserable 103 for the latest data. Between 2008 and 2014, Kirchnerist Argentina fell from a Human Freedom Index rating of 7.21 to a significantly worse 6.52, below even Botswana and Liberia.
It's the CATO institute for Paul's sake. And these two idiots above treat it like it was the 10 commandments.
Dec 06th, 2016 - 03:28 pm - Link - Report abuse -1Trusting CATO on a survey about Argentina is like trusting Goebbels for a documentary on the contributions of Jews.
News item properly discarded in the trash.
Has the survey been over generous in Argentina's case ?
Dec 06th, 2016 - 04:31 pm - Link - Report abuse +1CATO has a personal vendetta ongoing with Argentina, you cannot trust a single solitary thing they say.
Dec 06th, 2016 - 08:46 pm - Link - Report abuse -1If the opposite is the case, then people like Marti Llazo should do less talking and are more than welcome to lead by example by moving their families to Rwanda, Malawi, or Suriname. After all, they will breathe more freely there isn't that so?
Why don't you all show us the way?
The survey was extremely charitable and generous in assessing Argentina, which deserves its rating as the North Korea of South America.
Dec 06th, 2016 - 09:44 pm - Link - Report abuse +1@ Fidel_CasTroll
Dec 06th, 2016 - 10:38 pm - Link - Report abuse +2Do you have an actual reason for saying the CATO institute hates Argentina, or is it just your usual persecution complex?
Anytime someone reveals how badly Argentina has buggered its economy, be it the CATO folks, The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, or the NYT, there will be a rabid argie populist foaming about how everybody is just sooooo terribly and undeservedly mean to Argenzuela.
Dec 07th, 2016 - 12:25 am - Link - Report abuse +1An argie navy officer I know was complaining to me about some CATO article criticising Argentina. It turned out to be a Wall Street Journal article that had been translated by the CATO people. And the WSJ doesn't often mask their criticism of Argentina's perpetual economic failures, either. That's probably why the WSJ carries CATO material from time to time.
Here is just one example of where CATO and the WSJ intersect on this criticism, and they are being very charitable in doing so.
“How Argentina Got Into This Mess” (Google is your friend)
Where CATO and Forbes intersect:
“Argentina’s Luck Is Finally Running Out”
“Mauricio Macri Takes Helm in Argentina: Tough Battle with Vulture Politicians Ahead”
Where the US House of Representatives coincides with CATO:
“Argentina’s Current Political-Economic Crisis”
.....and so on. Read the articles and see for yourself how well they characterise Argentina's economic mismanagement, and how those CATO people are just so rude and unkind.
Is there a lower form of human that the one who talks absolute vitriol about the country where he works so he can feed his family, all while singing the praises of countries he would never have the guts to set foot on even for an hour?
Dec 07th, 2016 - 04:15 am - Link - Report abuse -2Marti Llazo is your man if you want to creep down to the dreck sediment layer of personal behavior. I enjoy reading it because it creases such a pitiful sentiment.
The CATO institute hates Argentina and are on record trashing the country in ways that go well beyond policy. There was even a racial factor introduced once in one of their sulfuric discoursives.
Also the Cato Institute only gives high marks to countries that completely imitate the American form of economic model. Like typical Anglos, they are firmly on the record stating that the Anglo-Saxon way is the only right way, and all other cultures and philosophies are inferior and should be thoroughly discarded. They promote the Anglo way to be imposed all over the world.
They are not to be taken seriously, much less when it comes to commenting on Argentina.
Well. to be fair, we treat your pronouncements on the Anglosphere with as much credence as you treat the CATO institutes vision of Argentina.
Dec 07th, 2016 - 10:08 am - Link - Report abuse 0Fidelito, you are quite provably wrong on so many counts, starting with “so he can feed his family.” For all you know (and it would appear to be little that is correct) the poster could be living in Singapore and entirely free of both Argentine residency and any family obligations. But you make assumptions, based on your ......agitated imagination.
Dec 07th, 2016 - 10:57 am - Link - Report abuse 0If you were able to objectively read the material from the cited Cato people you might observe that, contrary to your imagination, they have never stated that “ the Anglo-Saxon way is the only right way.” In fact they have published a great deal of material criticising how things are done in countries that you probably like to think of in racial terms. The evidence suggests that the level of your cultural education prevents you from even recognising the racism inherent in your comments.
Did you even notice that in the material that is the subject of the MP article that Denmark gets a higher rating for “ economic freedom” than the countries we are guessing you like to think of however erroneously, as racially “anglo” ? (Det tror jeg ikke).
Far from “ hating” Argentina as you claim, the material in the articles I mentioned shows a great deal of the same sort of appropriate criticism and ridicule of Argentine economic practices that appear in the Argentine media.
That Argentina is perennially vexed with unreliable institutions, counterproductive protectionism, endless corruption, recurrent economic failure, exorbitant taxation and inflation levels, and a general lack of conditions which might in a parallel universe favour foreign investment, all provide rich opportunities for criticism. We don't hate you; we laugh at you. We laugh at your attempts to put lipstick on a pig, and your endless failed attempts to rise above your perpetually bungling Third--World sudaca condition - and even your inability to have the GBA subte operating this morning.
@ML
Dec 07th, 2016 - 12:55 pm - Link - Report abuse +1Are you seriously complaining because he believed you when you said you live and work in Argentina? I don't think he'd have any reason to change his opinion if you were lying though.
@Fidel_CasTroll
If they only give high marks to countries that imitate the US model, how come the USA itself is down in 23rd place? But they do seem to rate economic freedoms quite highly, no doubt the currency controls etc that Argentina had in 2014 pushed it down the rankings.
I read some of their articles on Argentina and they seem quite reasonable. They also had one on Trump and the national debt; apparently his plans to lower taxes and increase spending could add $15.45 trillion over 10 years if he actually carries them out. And also according to that article, his ideas to deal with this have included defaulting and making a deal with bondholders just like Argentina, or printing money to pay it like many other countries have (disastrously) tried in the past. They're weren't impressed by Clinton's plans at the time either, so I think you're wrong about them being biased against Argentina. Unless you can find a link to this supposedly racist article?
Thank you as you both proved my point for me.
Dec 07th, 2016 - 01:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You both stated Cato places very high emphasis on so called economic liberties. If that is the csse why did Argentina still perform so dismally, according to them?
If the currency controls, the import restrictions, the export limits, the trade quotas where companies had to manufacture something in Argentina to import something else, the bank transfer limits, the pariah status of the debt
.. if all those dragged Argentina's ranking down the tubes.... HOW COME THEIR COMPLETE UNDOING within the last year brought no improvement at all?
That makes absolute no sense, undoing all those restrictions should have provoked a strong rise just as those same policies triggered a huge drop.
That proves they aren't objective.
Fidelito:
Dec 07th, 2016 - 02:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“HOW COME THEIR COMPLETE UNDOING within the last year brought no improvement at all?”
Because you're looking in the wrong places. The changes that were made, while significant, don't even begin to address the more serious, fundamental matters. They're essentially window-dressing. In fact it's unreasonable to expect that those minor changes would do anything, unless you are just trying to sell Argentine liabilities to unsuspecting amateur investors.
As the big dogs have pointed out, 50 years or more of Argentine misbehaviour, capped with the past 12 years of extraordinarily Argentine misbehaviour, have corrected identified Argentina as a toxic place to invest. That perception isn't likely to change for many years. Nobody with any sense trusts Argentina, and won't, no matter who runs the casino in the pink house.
Also as noted previously, many times, Argentina's industrial fortunes are directly linked to those of Brazil. Argentina's industrial economy is just a tiny pimple that is dependent on the fat trasero of Big Brazil.
What does Argentina produce that anyone might want, at the sort of prices and quality that Argentina has to offer? Well, beans. Used to be bean oil but one of your customers decided that they could suck the oil out of the beans better than overpriced Argentina could, and now the market has nearly disappeared for your bean oil. Maybe you can pay the light bill by selling corn. That still makes you a republica bananera, with beans and corn instead of bananas.
In spite of the few reforms, huge obstacles remain. Argentine labour rates are off the graph. Argentine taxation is outrageous. And the gremios, the labour syndicates, have this tendency to flush any signs of productivity right down the inodoro. We saw that this morning when every fooking subte in Bs As was shut down by the transport gremio, causing hundreds of millions in lost productivity, and reminding the world why nobody wants to do business here.
@Fidel_CasTroll
Dec 07th, 2016 - 02:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0For one very simple reason:
“The HFI covers 159 countries for 2014, the most recent year for which sufficient data are available.”
NO changes made from 2015 onwards influence their rankings at all. When they do produce an updated version, it's probably true that there are less obvious issues in Argentina that will still affect the ranking, but it ought to improve a reasonable amount.
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