Exceptional Argentina Di Tella, Glaeser and Llach - Thomas Piketty

having the need to do more than wake up in the morning and ask over the phone if the
matter was ready. In this way favors were being granted upon someone who perhaps was
a shameless one. August 9 th , 1950.
“Others” determine our income
With “bad types” amongst the capitalists, it was easier for Peron to press forward with the
idea that the process where income was generated was under their influence. This matches
well with the widespread belief that Argentina is a rich country and one has to find an
explanation for why there is want amidst plenty (for a discussion of belief formation when
natural resources are important, see Di Tella, Dubra and MacCulloch, 2010). Indeed, one part
of his speeches can be reduced to arguments in support of the idea that instead of individual
effort (internal to the individual) or luck (external but without intention), the relevant
influence on income is an external force with human intention. It is “others” who are actively
taking actions which lower Argentinian’s income. It is not a question of making a bigger
effort at the individual level; nor a question of taking a collective stand to reduce the
influence of natural elements (through insurance or a better selection of activities and crops).
It is a question of actively opposing other actors that try to exploit Argentines (on the role of
corruption perceptions in explaining the appeal of capitalism, see Di Tella and MacCulloch,
2009).
There are numerous examples of this conception of the income generating process, and the
support of the State in enforcing it, in Peron’s speeches. One example is
The economic destiny of workers was exclusively in the hands of the bosses ... and if
workers organized a protest movement or adopted an attitude defensive of their rights,
they were left out of the law and exposed to the bosses’ response and the police
repression. … A group of capitalists, characterized the most by its continued, bloody
opposition to workers’ vindications, has plotted an unthinkable maneuver to neutralize
the steps that had been adopted to stop the rise in the cost of living … and counteract the
effects of inflation. May 1 st 1945
… we need arms, brains, capital. But capital that is humanized in its function, which puts
the public’s welfare before a greedy interest in individual profit. I express my strongest
rejection to the God of unproductive and static gold, to the cold and calculating
supercapitalism that harbors in its metallic gutters Shylock’s infamous sentiments. May
1 st , 1947.
In the year 1943 our economy was in the hands of foreign capitalist consortia because,
until 1943, those consortia were those that paid a vile price to producers, gathered,