When I got to Argentina, I loved no tax. Marked $5? You pay $5 ! They also rounded everything to the nearest five cents. The only store that would include pennies in your change was McDonald's (and people were kind of annoyed with that).
Worthless Paper
I was issued at some point in the past and was accepted for the purchase of food, rent, cars, etc..
Yesterday, it was given to me when I said, "he that's cool" at a souvenir shop.
More Worthless Paper
Governments print it, tell us that it's worth something, then they make it less valueable until it has no value.
Finally, they intruduce new bills that are equally worthless, but they give them a new value.
And we buy into it every time.
This is the so call "money clip" I bought when they handed me the note that is in the cover photo.
The last time Argentina introduced currency, it was pegged to the dollar, one to one.
That peg lasted ten years. Since then, the currency has gotten more and more worthless, currently near seventeen to one.
That means One hundred dollars will bet you $1,700.00 pesos. (pesos are the purple paper things). One purple thing with a printed "100" on it used to be my rent, now I need seventy of them.
As the paper loses value, the government makes them fancier which the gullible tend to believe and that fact helps to slow inflation. Inevitable though, people get tired of counting to ten, stacking, and then counting to ten again.
A few months ago, they printed larger bills which I will post soon. We have 200 peso notes, 500 peso notes and in the nexte few weeks the 1000 peso notes will be released. Can you say Venezuela? Yeah, we are headed there.
I told you about my rent being one hundred? I just got coupons in the mail, which is evidence that what used to be a month's rent is now a BK meal. Not really more expensive, just more counting of paper rectangles.
You think this is only happening in South America? Wrong!
A new Camero still costs $1800.00 people.
You just need to use real dollars.
Remeber tose huge silver disks with Dwight D. Eisenhower on them?
