Seems like all I've been doing on this blog is reporting on one form of transport or another. I promise to quit, but this was too good to pass up. Its a chance to comment on the differences between established and emerging economies.
Getting in to work today was amazingly difficult. My commute, by bus, took an hour and 45 minutes. Normally it takes around 35. Of course it didn't help that I had a case of the Mondays and got a bit of a slow start.
There are two parts to include in this emerging economy commentary. First is the subway strike that started at Friday. And the other is the rate hike that was implemented this morning. Both of which will be very intriguing to someone who is accustomed to public transit actually working.
At 9pm Friday the subway workers unions went on strike, or "paro", because they didn't get their paychecks from the company that operates the subways, Metrovias. The train system in the capital is HEAVILY subsidized by the government, allowing fares to stay really low. Fares for the Subte currently run AR$2.50 per ride, or US$.55. Cheap, eh? Well, yes. Until you factor in the relative corruption in the company that operates the trains. The argument by the workers on strike is that the officials are pocketing a lot of the money from the subsidies and then there isn't enough for regular operations, like paying wages. But, I guess, to add insult to injury, the worker's unions are demanding a 30% wage increase. Which is a bit comedic considering if they accuse their bosses of pocketing the money and leaving insufficient funds for paychecks, what makes them think they'll be getting paid more?
The other side has a bit to do with that crisis of coinage I've mentioned so much. In the ongoing effort to reduce the general population's reliance on coins, the government introduced the reloadable fare card, SUBE. Initially it was so popular that all the hallmarks of a market with low supply levels were seen. Hours long lines to obtain the card, cards being sold on the black market for insanely high prices and everything else you'd expect from people desperate to get their hands on one. Well that hubbub calmed down after a while and everything was good. You can go to any office that sells the card and typically you can find them, the only hassle is having to wait in line at the post office where they are sold. I got one, no big deal, no undue fuss (Yale, I'll give you mine when I get back). But now the government wants to force people to use the card.
How do they do it? Fare hike of course, but the fare increase was only put in place on buses and trains, not the subway. For anyone riding the bus and using the SUBE card, the fare stays at AR$1.20. Anyone who is paying by coins must pay AR$2.00. Did I mention yet that the fare hike was announced only 2 weeks ago? That's a 66% fare increase, for those of you wondering. It's no surprise that people are pissed. Couple that with the Subte strike, and it makes for a lot of angry commuters.
So what brings me to writing this today? Well, for one, a long ass commute this morning that I didn't anticipate. Partially my fault for not reading the Spanish language news this weekend, but mostly I just wasn't paying attention. Bus lines this morning were amazingly and unusually long, which should have been my first clue. But mostly I figured out something was up when bus after bus after bus (6 in total) drove by my stop without stopping because they were jammed full to bursting. Then, because so many commuters were forced onto the streets from the subway tunnels, every road in the city was completely gridlocked. So I spent an hour and a half standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a sardine can of a bus in all-stop-and-very-little-go traffic. It would have taken me less time to walk.
But mostly I wanted to give you an idea of how different an emerging economy is from the US. The people who live here come to expect this sort of thing, and nobody even looked up when I walked in 2 hours late to work. Argentina's government is a populist government, you can't win an election unless you're a Peronist (use wikipedia for a quick explanation). But often, while one uses the populist Peronist sentiment to win elections, it becomes obvious very quickly that a government can't function efficiently in that manner. Campaign promises get broken and then the unions get angry with the government and its austerity programs and make a big fuss with strikes and the like.
If you go to the grocery store, you'll see normal milk sitting on shelves in TetraPak boxes, unrefrigerated. It's ultra-pasteurized so it's safe, but it doesn't taste good. It's done this way to give it a long shelf life. And the joke goes that the milk is so safe that the truck drivers can load up, go on strike and return to work without the milk spoiling.
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