Argentina's Economic Problem

I am convinced that Argentina's economy is bleeding out because of a little thing called the moneda (coin). Yes, the chunk change we American's take for granted and only really care about when it comes time to feed the meter. Argentina's moneda condition is the most frustrating thing I have had to deal with while being in South America. Let explain to you why.



There is a serious moneda shortage. Everywhere you go, you see signs that say "no hay monedas" (we don't have coins)... you're wondering what the big deal is. Well, for starters, this city runs on buses- you can take a bus anywhere and everyone does it- rich, poor, etc etc. But the buses ONLY take monedas and so if you want to go to say, class, you need to have 90 cents in change. But you realize you don't have any b/c no one gives you change, so you go down to the local kiosk to buy a bottle of water, so you can get change. Cost: AR$2.25. So you hand over your five peso bill.

Kiosk owner: tenes 25 centavos? (do you have 25 cents?)
Tu: no, no tengo (lie, you might have 25 cents but you're not parting with it!)
Here, the kiosk owner does one of two things.
Option 1: Refuses to sell you the water, b/c he's not going to give you change.
Option 2: Sells you the water, and tells you to owe him 25 cents. Like you'll remember that. I've tried to repay all my IOU's, but I'm fairly certain I owe someone 20 cents.

So now you still have no change and you need it to get to class. What do you do? You go to the next kiosk and try again, this time buying gum (which you don't even like to chew) or a piece of candy (though you're on a diet). And if per chance you get your change, it's only enough for ONE bus ride and so you're left with the same problem after class. Sometimes you rely on the kindess of friends to spot you a moneda, but just like you lied earlier to the man about your 25 cents, odds are that they'll lie to you too about whether or not they have another moneda.

Once, my friend and I were trying to go home at 2 am after salsa dancing and she didn't have a moneda. I only had one so we went on a search. Kiosk after kiosk said they had absolutely no change. So we got desperate and started asking strangers, hoping for kindness. Instead, they informed us that no one had change and told us, as though we were tourists, that no one will have change b/c it's a problem in Argentina. WE KNOW THIS. That's why we don't have any change.

So back to my theory- Argentina's economy is bleeding from the change purse. If I were an expert in econometrics, I would prove that the economy is losing millions a year by having a shortage of coins. Why? Well- by forgiving your 20 cents (or giving you an IOU and you forgetting), or by NOT selling goods because they don't have change to give you. Also by the loss of productivity & opportunity costs while you spend so much of your day looking for chunk change.

Why can't the government just print more monedas? Well, according to them, they made millions more in coins recently. But there's a black market- a moneda mafia!!- that hordes those little coins and sells them to those desperate enough to buy them for a higher price. You want 5 pesos in monedas? We'll sell it to you for 8. Can you believe that? And who is one of the biggest culprits in this ring of chicanery? The bus company!! Though they deny it, the government recently found over AR$5 million in coins at a warehouse owned by the bus company! The government confiscated the money and returned to them the same amount in bills. But that didn't solve the problem and I'm not sure what will. In the meantime, I continue to curse this country every time I need monedas and wait for some much more talented economist to figure out how many millions this shortage is costing the economy per year.