Translation (google):
After Milei decree: Argentine companies will be able to pay their employees with milk or meat instead of money Chancellor Diana Mondino confirmed that employers and workers will be able to agree on contracts in any type of currency, including bitcoins, kilos of beef or liters of milk.
The Argentine government announced a series of economic deregulation measures that will come into effect starting this week, among which is the possibility of agreeing on contracts in any type of currency, including food such as beef or milk.
The information was provided by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, Diana Mondino, who announced on Twitter that “we ratify and confirm that in Argentina contracts can be agreed in Bitcoin and also any other crypto and/or species such as kilos of steer or liters of milk”.
In addition, the chancellor referred to article 766 of the Civil and Commercial Code of Argentina, reformed by decree of President Javier Milei, which details that "the obligation of the debtor is to deliver the corresponding amount of the designated currency, whether the currency is legal tender in the Republic as if it does not have it.
It should be noted that this is not the first time that Argentina has had to resort to barter: already during the economic crisis of 2001, during the government of Fernando de la Rúa, the exchange of goods and services without money became popular in the trans-Andean country.
The statements on the inclusion of cryptocurrencies and other species in financial obligations, within the framework of Article 766, pose interesting challenges. The incorporation of these assets into financial legislation is a topic of global debate, and their impact on the economy and transactions requires careful consideration.
How do you think this proposal can affect the economic and financial outlook in Argentina?
bitcoin and crypto aren’t created out of thin air, it has to be either mined domestically with IMPORTED GPUs which would require you to have to have foreign exchange. Which Argentina doesn’t.
Or ‘import’ crypto from outside the country which again requires foreign exchange. You can’t go to a crypto exchange and offer to send them locally made milk or meat. If you were to buy crypto with ARS, there is a good chance that the ARS would then leave the country. In such a case, it would be exchanged for foreign currency, further depleting the country’s low foreign exchange reserves.
also crypto exchange rate is very unstable which again makes it unsuitable for salary payments. a stablecoin (yes its not so stable) would be a better choice but again has the problems mentioned before.
there are issues with paying employees with commodities. what if one employee doesn’t eat meat, or is lactose intolerant, they would have to find someone else who would want accepts meat and is willing to give them what they want.
it destroys demand because you are restricting what goods people could buy. it would deprive people of their ability to purchase things beyond basic needs.
also, how would you pay taxes with meat/milk? IMF would be mad if fiscal deficit is too high. like even if the workers aren’t paying direct taxes like income tax, they are still paying indirect taxes on commodities which would be gone under a barter system which further reduces currency usage and trust in the currency.
if Milei weren’t such a western cuck, he would try to get more out of Russia/China to stabilize and build up trust in its currency.
the great thing about fiat currencies is that you can create it out of nothing and allows the state to allocate resources where it wants (see Biden doing CHIPS Act) and reduce import dependence. You can’t do it with a barter system or crypto very well.
Easy, each Thursday a government employee comes over for lunch and they don’t leave until they’re no longer hungry.
Indeed, their dream of everyone becoming an entrepreneur on a truly free market. Being forced to grind all life, trade, sell for more than you bought for… swindle, cheat, steal, strongarm people.
Even then, what if you are paid in more meat than your family can eat and need things like water and electricity or gasoline for your truck or truck repairs? Also meat and milk expire which makes it a terrible commodity to be paid in, These truck drivers will be forced to sell the food to someone else on top of their job as a truck driver.
They don’t care. It’s all been tried many times and for long, always led to slavery and in case of eastern Europe to two centuries and counting alcoholism epidemic (nobles and other landowners in early capitalism paid people with vodka since all of them had the right to brew it, it was so bad that it became ingrained into culture).