Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward - Trying to live a life out of the comfort zone

In the international corruption rankings, Argentina is very bad located. According to Transparency International we are in the 109th place, worse than the prior year, and have a score of 2,9/10. As a reference, we can compare this situation with that of our nearest neighbors, Uruguay and Chile, who share the 29^th place and have a score of 6,9. How can we understand why are we such a corrupt country?

In my opinion, the answer is simple: you get from people what you recognize and reward, not what you condemn and punish.

The Argentine government has just sent to the Congress a bill according to which all those who in the last years in Argentina have evaded taxes, made dirty money and/or performed illegal activities will be rewarded. This can only guarantee that we will be at the bottom of the table, among the most corrupt countries in the world, for many more years to come.

Thanks to this bill, all the money coming from political corruption (previous governments included), from illegal gambling or organized prostitution, magically, by means of a payment of 1% of the declared money will become clean and legal. Moreover, all the related crimes will rest unpunished and the legal cases for evasion already in course will be revoked.

In the meantime, all those of us who have worked honestly have had taxes deducted from their wages or from their company’s profits up to 35%.

When you develop a profitable business you have to ask yourself if you are going to pay the corresponding taxes. Those who decided to pay are receiving in these days a cristal clear message that goes like this: in Argentina, if you are a hard worker and behave decently you are an IDIOT.

Older people know it. A great number of them were “smart” and did not pay. Today they receive recognition and confirmation of their clever understanding of what it is to do business in this country. Today, many entrepreneurs of my generation and all those younger will be learning this lesson. Argentina rewards those who evade, those who do illegal businesses, those who corrupt or are corrupted. Argentina punishes those who do things the way they should be done. Those who receive bribes, perform illegal businesses or evade are not imprisoned. Instead they are able to legalize their money at practically no cost and live happy ever after. Next time, what will we choose: to be a good guy or a bad guy? Will we choose to be the idiots or the “smart” ones?

Some years ago I read an editorial note written by Guillermo Jaim Etcheverry entitled “Who said children do not understand what they read?” (I couldn’t find it online to link it). In it, he discussed a technical report stating that the rate of reading comprehension by high school students was low. He argued that it is exactly the opposite as children understand perfectly well. What happens is that, as they read between lines, they clearly perceive the real values prevailing in our society are to be physically attractive and to know how to dance or skate on ice on TV instead of having the ability to understand a book. They behave according to the values that society tacitly propose to them and not according to what it hypocritically declares.

Clarin newspaper yesterday informed that 77,3% of the population approves these measures. As it occured with pension funds, nobody protested. As long as we, the Argentines, do not react to this situation we will continue to be a condemned people. We will only cease to be one of the most corrupt countries in the World the day we start rewarding honesty and respect for the law, not crime and evasion. If this bill is approved, once more Argentina will be the country where bad guys always win.

Photo: IntangibleArts