Buenos Aires Taxi Rates To Rise Again
Apart from the question of whether the president of a nation should spend her time negotiating the minutiae of city taxi rates (perhaps she should?), the agreement is predicated on the unspoken supposition that annual inflation totals 20%, a notion which the president and members of her cabinet have rejected publically. If the government’s inflation numbers are to be trusted (economists tell us they are not to be), then annual inflation totals less than 10%, an egregious distance from the presumed 20% rate.
Meanwhile, the rate hike is inline with increases given to other unions, such as truck drivers, whose salaries are also set to rise 19.5%. If these agreements are any indication of how much the government believes salaries should rise, perhaps they also give us some indication of what the real inflation rate actually is.
We all konw the inflation rate is much higher than the 12% the government has publicly claimed, and by accepting to increase salaries and rates by a 20% the government is implicitly accepting they have lied to us.
Lying about inflation! In Casablanca! I’m appalled (psst… you’re winnings, sir.)
Maybe we could impeach both Christina AND Bush.
Anyway… the thing to remember about La Argentina when thinking about the president getting involved in BsAs minutiae is that about a third of the nation lives in the Greater Buenos Aires area… much like the UK has a third living in Greater London.
“The Tube” is a subject of concern for the Prime Minister there (maybe even the Queen during crisis) and the “bondis” here are the soul of the city.
…not to mention that riders in Rosario and Córdoba pay higher fares in order to subsidize riders in Capital.
A national commitment to mass transportation is a national commitment to mass transportation.
Viva la Argentine Post!
Mike
Yanqui Mike,
Very good point. Many thanks for the insight (and for the correct spelling of minutiae!).
Un abrazo inflado,
Taos