I don't know if you aren't aware, but you don't argue with Hillgoose. If you do be prepared for maximum frustration.
Thank you for the advice, but I'm not feeling frustrated at all. I don't expect to have a serious argument with this poster in particular, actually. I tend to avoid certain boards on this forum, as the "discussion" is dominated by a certain typology of Atlas poster. For instance, my comments on US politics are very scarce (and I prefer the AAD anyway, because the "discussion" here is insane). In what regards this IGD board, it is dominated by some posters whose bigotry and narrow worldview make me chill occasionally. Most of the times I ignore them, as engaging in a discussion is a waste of time, but sometimes I can't help but saying something.
Is there any chance this will affect the votes in the second round?
Middle and lower class voters turned their backs on Macri due to the terrible economic situation. They find Macri is guilty of the galloping inflation, which reduces the purchasing power and impoverishes a large segment of the population. Macri promised to reduce poverty and inflation when elected and failed miserably, so it's not strange he got belted. It seems unlikely pressure from "the markets" will play to Macri's interests. Actually it's in the national interest to calm the markets. Macri and Fernández are fully aware of that and had a phone talk aimed to reduce turbulence. The extreme polarization and the fact that both rivals are in campaign prevent major cooperation, but nobody wants a total collapse of the economy. Alberto Fernández is more than likely the ext president, but there is a degree of unpredictability in Argentinian voters that prevents me to say his chances are at 100%. Nobody in the ruling alliance (except maybe the ineffable Lilita Carrió) believes in a full recovery, but Macri & Friends will try to improve the electoral performance in October in order to win seats in Congress or provincial governments. Macri announced some emergency measures including VAT reduction or elimination on basic products (it was at 21%) or increase some subsidies. Finance minister resigned.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/18/cristina-kirchner-fiery-ex-president-returns-crisis-argentinaMacri, a millionaire businessman, is paying a heavy price for failing to deliver on his emphatic promise of zero inflation and zero poverty when he took office in December 2015. Inflation hit 54% over the last 12 months, twice the rate when he took office. Foreign debt has also more than doubled, after a loss of investor confidence in emerging markets forced Macri to seek a $57.1bn rescue package from the IMF last September, the largest loan it has ever handed out (...)
Juan Grabois, a social leader who also has close links with Pope Francis, heads the Movement of Excluded Workers (MTE), a large alliance of people without formal employment. According to him, Argentina’s “new poor” – street sellers, trash rummagers – total about six million people.
Grabois agreed that Macri’s Cambiemos party had lost touch with the dire situation of Argentina’s poor workers and middle class. “Now we are facing a crisis similar to the one in 2001,” he said.
The only reason Argentina hasn’t descended into the popular unrest and supermarket lootings that marked that crisis is due to the social aid programmes put into place by Kirchner’s government. Although these were heavily criticised by Macri’s party, the president himself has tripled the amount of social aid being handed out to stave off unrest.
“The aid only lasts those who receive it to the middle of the month, with luck, but that’s enough to keep them waiting until the start of the next month rather than taking to the streets,” Grabois said.
Grabois criticised as insufficient a string of measures announced by Macri over the course of last week: a reduction in taxes on wages and on essential food items, price controls and the freezing of mortgage payment instalments. He also questioned Macri’s chances of making it to the end of his term this December.
