"The people are worse off, but the country is much better!"
You call that being opinionated, and yet you're okay (fascinated even) with an economy policy that brutalizes and starves in the short term? In a country like Argentina?
The whole idea is to swallow the bitter pill now in exchange for prosperity later. There are worse fates than brutality and starvation in the short term: witness Venezuela, which has been trying to wish away its economic problems for decades now, and keeps going from bad to worse.
On the other hand, we all know what Chicago Boy orthodoxy has wrought in Chile with Pinochet, or in southern European countries in the wake of the forced IMF/ECB bailouts.
Nowhere IMO, just appealing to OP's better sense given that Argentina has been trying for decades the same monetary policy to fix the issues it created!
They have already been "brutalized and starved" for decades. Argentina used to be in top 10 countries of per capita GDP [0]. Argentina is a prime example of how socialist policies can destroy a country, and that's why reversing these policies can also fix a country.
You compare it to the US GDP which is quite unfair prior to the 60s. And don't account for the Panama canal creation either, which should have been quite a blow. but really, the r'long period when Argentina was really declined in quality of life was the 70s, until at least the late 80s. I think it's rather a prime example of US intervention ism during the cold War, and how it create corrupt countries.
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You call that being opinionated, and yet you're okay (fascinated even) with an economy policy that brutalizes and starves in the short term? In a country like Argentina?