The most severe number from an Argentina where desperate figures abound says that
poverty reaches 38.9%
of the country's urban population, according to data collected by INDEC in the third quarter of 2022. Four out of ten, practically .
If that percentage were also projected to the rural population, it would add up to
almost 18 million poor compatriots
.
It stands out for several reasons.
First, because it's not going to get better: Several key economic indicators
will worsen throughout the year
.
And it is not a circumstantial drama.
The hard core of structural poverty has been around 30% for a couple of decades.
Poor people who are children and grandchildren of the poor.
Looking back, the curve has been rising for more than 40 years, regardless of occasional declines.
In what was once the country of
“m'hijo el dotor”
, social mobility in Argentina today seems only downward.
Secondly, the poverty figure hurts because the percentage is even higher among those under 17 years of age.
In that range, it reaches 52.9%.
More than a half.
There are
seven million kids
living poorly in families with incomes of less than a basic basket, which in January reached $163,539 for a typical family, always according to INDEC data.
Despite different social plans, which reach 4.3 million boys.
Evolution of child poverty.
Source: latest Unicef report.
Without plans,
the number would sing 70%
.
Almost equal to the percentage -69.9- that Formosa has, despite social assistance, the province governed 27 years ago by Gildo Insfrán, which in any case is even less than the disastrous 74.6% of Chaco, where he has been managing the thing for a long time. 20 years the three times governor Jorge Capitanich, and a little more than 64.4% of San Luis, territory for four decades of the Rodríguez Saá brothers.
It is true:
the boys do not vote and for the adults there will always be a public job
.
The other two percentages that do not help nerves or that the issue improves are those of growth and inflation.
The consultancy Ecolatina
calculates them in round numbers: 0% and 100%
respectively.
Figures more generous than those of Eco Go, which estimates these indicators at -3.1% and 105%.
The drop in GDP, which has officially registered four consecutive months, plus the constant rise in prices has a specific name: stagflation.
Some define it theoretically as an "exceptional phenomenon".
Not in these payments.
Recession plus inflation, the bitter recipe that
complicates the electoral plans of any official supporter and that worries any opponent with aspirations
.
Transportation, private medicine, schools, fuel start in March with a dynamic of monthly increases.
Gas, electricity and water promise ornamental waterfalls.
How does this translate into the pocket?
The real formal wage has been declining in its purchasing power for 5 years: in that period,
the employed lost 26.7% of their income
.
There are 4.4 million people actively looking for work.
Of these, 3.1 million already have a job and are looking for another, to add or improve.
15% of those who have a formal job are poor, like 47% of those who have an informal one.
Exactly 40 years ago, on February 28, 1983, Reynaldo Bignone announced the electoral calendar that would culminate in the assumption of Raúl Alfonsín on December 10 of that year.
A proselytizing campaign began where
illusion and hope prevailed
.
28 and a half years of Peronist governments would ensue, 8 of radicals and 4 of macrismo.
Everyone did between bad and horrible with the economy.
So much so that
it is difficult to define the worst
.
Four decades later,
pessimism, resignation and distrust dominate
social humor in the face of the electoral campaign that is starting.
Hard not to justify it.
look also
The news that torments Cristina Kirchner and the behind the scenes of the show Mauricio Macri-Horacio Rodríguez Larreta-Patricia Bullrich
Javier Milei according to Durán Barba, the great Carlos Menem and opposition summits for March 1
