Mafalda, the unforgettable creature with which Quino portrayed the Argentine bourgeoisie for a decade, he would have turned 58 in early 2023. Peace lover, advocate for gender equality and Beatles fan, the character captivated audiences as soon as he first appeared in 1964 in a completely different country than today. One could imagine, at most, Mafalda today would be a freelancer or a private or state employee. But the most feasible thing is that he is a monotributary and that he works sporadically to avoid poverty.
Successive crises since (Rodrigazo, hyperinflation, mega-devaluations and recessions) the standard of living of the middle segments deteriorated. According to a study by the Moiguer consulting firm, households with incomes between $206,200 and $515,000 -called C2 and C3- represent 45% of the populationwhile the lower classes ($96,500 to $184,000) scale at 50%. One has to go back to 2004 to find such a low record (40%) for a socio-economic level reduced by economic stagnation – which has lasted for more than a decade -, by the advance of informality and by high inflation.
The report speaks of something worse. What the illusion that Argentina is a bourgeois country is over, that education is no longer the engine of social ascent (“that thing about my son as a doctor, it’s no longer there”, underlines Fernando Moiguer) and that even having a job no longer guarantees that one will stop being poor. “One in five workers is below the poverty line“, graphic Ricardo Delgado, director of Analytica. According to INDEC, poverty has risen to 39.2% (almost 19 million people) despite the recovery of the economy and the increase in employment.
Mafalda would be amazed if she saw today’s Argentina. She’d rather eat the soup—something she hated—than suffer this social radiography is irregular and with a retreating middle class. “All Argentines, of whatever size, have become impoverished,” sums up Moiguer. He also adds that middle-class aspirational values (guaranteed consumption, having a car, public education, housing, holidays, going out to eat) have declined due to the chronic stagnation of the economy.
The social pyramid that emerges from the study divides the population into segments ABC1 (upper classes, which are those who have an average household income of 1.5 million dollars), Upper C2 and Lower C3 (middle classes), Upper D1 and Lower D2 (lower classes), which includes a large portion of families who fail to cross the poverty line: $163,539. Social deterioration is much more reflected in the conversion of income to the blue dollar. A household is considered “rich” if its income exceeds $2,139; while the middle class goes from $515 to $1,290.
Several middle-class bannermen fell out of favour. One of them is education, which is considered an engine of social mobility, is half gone. “70% of the lower class are more educated than their parents, but this has not translated into an increase in social class“, Moiguer points out. The same happens with employment. “A job implied benefits and union rights, social coverage, among other things. That wage society was one that consumed, now it is shrinking due to informality and loss of purchasing power“, explains the economist Guido Lorenzo, of LCG.
Specialists agree in pointing out that unemployment levels are at their lowest. However, Sebastián Menescaldi, from Eco Go, clarifies that poverty has grown in parallel. “There has been a lot of job creation, but of low quality. When the numbers are analyzed, it is observed that there are people who do odd jobs, with averages ranging from 4 to 12 hours per week. The informal wage – the one that loses the most against inflation – has grown in parallel with employment,” she concludes.
From a historical point of view, The middle class reached its peak in 1974.. Exactly the year Mafalda stopped being published. “At that time, the Gini index reflected that Argentine society was very egalitarian. Those with the highest incomes earned 10 times more than the poor. Since then, that status has been lost,” Delgado traces and provides crucial data: “that year, the bottom 30% of households received 15% of total income. In 2003, I barely got 8%“.
Economic stagnation has been going on for decades. An Eco Go report indicates that Argentina’s GDP (at constant prices) it has grown by an average of 2.1% every year since 1970d, that is, in the last 5 decades. Well below the economies of Chile (3.9%), Brazil (3.4%) and Peru (3.2%).
The economic deterioration affects above all the most vulnerable sectors, but the shock is being felt throughout the social fabric. If the middle class hasn’t dropped further, it’s because many of the wealthy have moved down the ladder. In 1996, according to Moiguer’s data, 11% of the Argentine population belonged to the ABC1 segment. Today it covers just 5% of the total. There are nearly 2.3 million people. The middle classes total 20.6 million and the lower classes nearly 23 million.
The dream of owning a house and a car is receding more and more due to loss of purchasing power. According to data from the ACARA (the drug dealers’ chamber), historically, to buy a zero kilometer ticket, between 10 and 14 minimum wages were needed. In 2022, an investment of 43 salaries was required to complete the purchase of the same unit. “Another relevant dimension is household access to property. According to INDEC data, in 2004 owner families were 73%, but in 2022 this percentage dropped to 68%“, explains Martín Eandi, head of research of the consultant.
Moiger. “The economic impact of recent decades has not only deepened social fragmentation, but has also solidified it, especially at the ends of the socio-economic pyramid. 93% of the ABC1 segment are chronic and 66% of the lower class are alsoexplains Moiguer.
Source: Clarin
