The macroeconomic limits of income’s policy in a dependent country. The need and possibilities for radical reforms in social policies in Argentina after the crisis, 2001-2008

FÉLIZ, MARIANO

Ciudad del Cabo (Sudáfrica)

Workshop; Workshop Strategies “Against Poverty: Designs from the North and Alternatives from the South”; 2009

CLACSO-CROP/OSSREA/SEPHIS

This article will analyze Argentina’s incomes policies in the recent years. In particular, we will analyze the role of social and wages policies during the years 2001-2008. We will show that the effectiveness of these policies regarding the reduction of poverty is strongly conditioned by macroeconomic policy objectives and by Argentina’s mode of capitalist participation in the world’s economy. We will show, from a Marxist theoretical framework, that the peripheric position of Argentina’s economy and the correlative policy of high real exchange rate and public sector’s fiscal surplus, limit the government’s ability to allow for a clearly pro-poor income’s policy. The need for “competitiveness” and foreign debt payments puts immediate pressure on wages and incomes for the working people. Our main theoretical references in this regard will be the work of Ruy Mauro Marini and our own work on the subject. Within this framework, we will show that Argentina faces two main alternatives. On the one hand, accepting long-term relative poverty while it attempts to structurally improve its competitive stand on a low-wages, low-labor rights, low-productivity development path. This implies accepting not only the current distributive structure but also systemic and general social unrest. The alternative is to transform its social security system in a generalized income redistributive program of the Basic Income type. Such a system may not only put an end to long-term income poverty but may also reduce social conflict to allow for sufficient levels of investment and socio-technical innovation. We will work with data from the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Social Security (ANSES) and the Institute of National Statistics (INDEC). We will also use official reports on the objectives and evolution of the aforementioned policies.