The new stoic Argentine

A standard tool kit to assess a nation’s economy includes the prices of daily goods, the number of people looking for jobs, and the output of factories. Argentina may be operating under a new and softer metric: a citizen patience index.

The reason is that a country where roughly 60% of people have relied on the state for services is conducting a dramatic experiment in economic and political transformation. A year ago, voters elected Javier Milei, a self-styled “anarcho-capitalist,” as president. He promised to radically rein in the size and scope of government. Since then, he has slashed Argentina’s vastly bloated public spending, vetoed funding increases for pensions and education, and eliminated nearly a dozen government ministries.

One pollster is now asking people: “How much longer can you wait for President Milei to improve the economic situation?” The answer is surprising.

Against all predictions to the contrary, his plan seems to be working. Monthly inflation was down to 2.7% in October from 25.5% last December. Since April, wages have outpaced prices. For the first time in 12 years, the country has a budget surplus.

His austerity measures have come with political risks, namely impatience. The poverty rate spiked to 52.9% during Mr. Milei’s first six months, from 41.7% during the latter half of 2023. Yet his public approval has risen. Nearly 1 in 2 Argentines support the president’s agenda, an AtlasIntel survey conducted for Bloomberg shows. Similar polls indicate rising levels of patience and trust.

Overall, more than 60% of Argentines said they did not think it was unreasonable to wait at least through the midpoint of Mr. Milei’s four-year term for his reforms to bring positive change.

Rising degrees of patience reflect a society eager to move from dependency on government to individual agency. Younger voters in particular were drawn by Mr. Milei’s promises of less taxation or, as he told The Economist, “the power to be the architect of your own life.”

Mr. Milei’s talk about freedom has “made a difference for a lot of people,” Juan Ignacio Folco, an agriculturalist, told the Monitor. Javier Pinto Kramer, a manager at a seed and fertilizer company, said, “The country is in patience mode.”

For soccer-loving Argentines, another analogy may be even more apt. In June, when the national team was on its way to winning the Copa América tournament, captain Lionel Messi described his team’s philosophy: “We have patience to have the ball and find the spaces.” After decades of economic turmoil, many Argentines are patiently watching for new openings to make economic progress.