Hi guys, we have a good mix of age and background here so i would like to ask anyone who has experienced hyperinflation what it was really like.
I've heard about it and know about the usual historical examples, but it's hard to properly imagine it when it's written in articles or books.
for those who experienced it, apart from it sucking, what kind of strategies did you develop to help make it? what kind of changes did you see in people around you? did it cause any kind of long-lasting trauma?
Greetings from Argentina :)
  1. There's no strategy, you can't help but increasingly lose your money because it's completely outside of your control. You just start cutting expenses and try to cope. Under the last socialist regime before Milei, half (HALF) of the country became poor. That's 25.000.000 people under poverty (to latin-america levels, not north levels, so literally picture Africa).
  2. Hyper-inflation occurs in a context of terminal loss of trust on the state, so people starts becoming increasingly cynical. You are literally a retarded if you abide to the law and pay your taxes, so while most people keep doing it out of dignity, it's at the expense of 24/7 humiliation from the state towards its citizens. That starts causing a culture of self-attrition and nihilism. The very gentilic, "Argentinian", started being used as a deeply pejorative insult by the citizens themselves, against themselves.
  3. The long lasting trauma, specially when the situation lasts for an entire life-span (no Argentinian alive has yet experimented economical and political stable conditions), consists on a deeply rooted cultural belief that "the Argentinian is condemned" by his own nature to live in that situation and that no solution is possible because it will go against "his own self destructive nature".
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it's insane how argentina went from such prosperity to the OG of inflation. since so many people's jobs are tied to the state, are they just unaware that they are part of the problem, or do they not case as long as they are getting their little bit of salery?
how are things feeling under Milei at the moment?
i have a feeling that life in the west will degrade until you have someone like Milei who has the balls to really get serious
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are they just unaware that they are part of the problem, or do they not case as long as they are getting their little bit of salery?
It's a mix of both. The lower the position, the less the awareness, and vice-versa. The problem is not that much that people but the people on the private sector that demands for more statism, and when everything gets worse, it's because the state is not involved enough, and so on. Only the most recent generation, literally teenagers, are free from indoctrination thanks to the internet. From 30yo upwards, statism is a religion few have been able to wake up from, I myself still have some hardcoded reflects I have to counter consciously. For example, I still instinctively perceive as "good" if a company belongs to the state, and "bad" if it belongs to the private sector. People from 40yo upwards is hopelessly lost, still unable to understand absolutely nothing, and voted for Milei as last resort. This is no exaggeration: our teenagers saved us, it's all thanks to them.
how are things feeling under Milei at the moment?
Boomers are mad at Milei because he didn't solved all problems the day after he won. They are so used to the magical promises of past regimes, regardless of facts... like I said, hopelessly lost, I don't even bother, and thank god it doesn't really matter: the younger generations, from 20yo and below, are fascinated with Milei, and have high hopes on him. Recent polls measured 80% positive image on that range, it's insane. If everything goes well, and I'm certain it will, this new path towards freedom will be irreversible.
i have a feeling that life in the west will degrade until you have someone like Milei who has the balls to really get serious
I feel the exact same, and it worries me that there's no Milei in sight in the USA political landscape.
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Hello, this is a migrant who has been living in Lima, Peru for 7 years. What country do I come from? That small country in the north of South America where there are millions of dollars in oil reserves under its soil and an endless number of other resources!! that would make it the most dynamic and wealthy economy in the South... But with the misfortune that fell on SOCIALISM... that if I have lived through hyperinflation of course I have... among an endless number of stories that I could transmit there is one in which I spent 5 continuous days queuing or lining up as you want to call it... outside a supermarket in search of being able to get diapers for my son who at that time was small... why did I do that because hyperinflation ended my purchasing power... because what I earned was not enough for anything... and that after waiting so long night and day when we were supposedly going to access the supermarket one of the state police simply put another person in line who was not in line😡... who only arrived and paid that policeman and he arbitrarily put that person in front of me... for me it was humiliating!! and of course it has left marks on my mind and behavior that 7 years later I have improved... but that are still in my memory... the hyperinflation is so much in that country that its currency has been devalued in the last 20 years more than 10 times... and at present what circulates is the black or parallel dollar... for 80% of their transactions and to refer to an example, poor elderly people are paid a pittance in Bolivars and when they go to a pharmacy the medications are billed in DOLLARS... a real mockery of those poor people... hyperinflation ended their ability to buy their medications and their ability to live with dignity...
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the sad part is socialism has these lofty goals and it ends up creating the most disgusting, soul-sucking economies.
how are things in Lima now? are you able to stack much?
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Hello, the truth is that things in the capital of Peru are not all that good right now... in my opinion one of the main problems is the absence of a president... of a leader who can truly take charge of the country... there is a president but she does absolutely nothing... crime is rampant and taking over the country... and there is no response from the government... among other problems... economically it remains stable and in my case I allow myself to buy some sats with great effort every two weeks! and well while I comment and take advantage of the good information that you publish here on S.N👍
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that sucks man, would you be able to move to another Latin American country if shit hit the fan there?
i like to have interesting conversations here with people, i dont know how useful it is, but if you can stack something while having a conversation, it's not bad i think lol
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Well, from here in the south, no country attracts my attention anymore! If I had to make a decision of that magnitude, I think I would go to Costa Rica. I have several cousins who have been living there for several years now. They already have jobs and are stable!
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Early 90, Ukraine Money were used as wallpapers
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sounds like something straight out of the Weimar republic did people have many options for storing wealth back then, other than physically buying items and holding them?
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People were working on factories and hadn't gotten a salary, instead they got productions of these factories they don't need at all (paper, wheels, etc). Then they went to markets and exchange it to the food of paper money
That was the first fraud of modern Ukrainian history. Rich became richer, poor poorer.
I don't know how we're still alive after these times
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