Are we the next Argentina? top 5 economy --> 50% poverty

Delaney William

Jul 21 • General discussion

In 1913, Argentina was the place you moved to for opportunity.

Top 10 GDP per capita. Massive immigration boom.

Ahead of Germany and France.

Nearly toe-to-toe with the U.S.¹

Today? Over half their kids live in poverty.

The currency’s a meme. And 9 sovereign defaults later, investors treat it like their toxic ex who keeps saying “they’ve changed”²⁻⁴.

Argentina isn’t an outlier, it’s what happens when a country ignores compounding debt, prints to delay the pain, and convinces itself there’s always more time.

And if you zoom out, you’ll realize:

America is on the same curve.

Just further to the left.

his isn’t some far-off hypothetical. If we look at the math & the data, it’s the logical outcome of policies we’ve already put in motion.

In the next 5 minutes, we’re going to unpack:

What really broke Argentina
Where the U.S. sits in that same cycle (spoiler: we’re on Step 4 of 7)
What happens next if nothing changes
And the only playbook that actually puts you ahead, not just afloat

Let’s get surgical.

The Debt-Inflation Spiral, in Plain English

Here’s the loop Argentina couldn’t escape:

Spend more than you make
Borrow to fill the gap
Hit the borrowing wall
Start printing
Spark inflation
Elect populists who promise to “fix it” with more spending
Collapse confidence

Sound familiar?

We’re already at #4.

**U.S. debt-to-GDP: 123%**⁵
**Annual deficit: $2T+**⁶
Interest payments now > Medicare or Defense⁷
And most people still think buying more ETFs will fix it

If you’ve ever heard the phrase “slowly, then all at once,”

This is the “slowly” part.

Inflation: The Slow Leak That Sinks the Boat

The U.S. isn’t going to announce a default.

We’ll just do what we’re doing now: print to stay solvent.

And that means the default happens through your wallet.

The numbers:

At 3% inflation → You lose 25% of your dollar’s value in 10 years
At 5% → You lose 62% in 20 years⁸
At 7–13% (1970s levels) → You’re cooked

And if your income doesn’t beat that rate?

You’re compounding in the wrong direction.

This is why high earners with weak strategy still lose.Because the system is built to make “doing everything right” just barely enough to keep pace.

“But We’re Not Argentina…”

Cool. Let’s talk math.

A sovereign debt study by Hirschmann Capital found that 51 out of 52 countries that passed 130% debt-to-GDP eventually defaulted - usually through inflation, restructuring, or civil unrest¹⁰.

The only outlier?

Japan. But Japan:

Owns most of its own debt
Keeps interest rates near 0
Runs on domestic trust and cultural discipline

We don’t check those boxes.

We run on global trust and political deadlock.

And the U.S. dollar is the lifeboat for the entire global financial system, until it’s not.

Nobody rings a bell when that trust breaks.

They just stop lending. Or demand 9% to do it.

How Inflation Actually Hits You

Let’s get practical.

Inflation doesn’t just make eggs expensive.

It destroys every financial model you were told to follow:

“Save diligently.” → Cool, your cash is shrinking
“Invest for the long term.” → Real returns get eaten if stocks underperform
“Max your 401(k).” → Tax-deferred growth means nothing if CPI outpaces compounding

In the 1970s:

S&P 500: +17.6% nominal over the decade
Gold: +1,365%
Inflation: 7–13% annually
**Real stock returns: -50%**¹²

So yeah, the market “went up.” But if you were sitting in stocks with no hedges, you got smoked.

How to Not Get Wrecked

Disclaimer: I’m no financial guru. I’m an expert at helping ppl get remote jobs that it, everything below is just based on my research & outsourced thinking to other financial experts… that said, here’s my take:

Build the system that inflation can’t touch.

1. Own Hard & Scarce Assets

You don’t need to turn into a doomsday prepper.

But if all your wealth is in dollars, you’re storing water in a leaking bucket.

Playbook mix:

TIPS (Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities) → These adjust with CPI, so they keep your purchasing power intact even as the dollar weakens. They don’t grow fast, but they preserve your baseline.
Real Estate → Rents rise with inflation, and fixed-rate debt becomes cheaper over time. Plus, housing tends to hold real value in unstable currency environments.
Commodities → Energy, metals, agriculture… they’re the inputs that inflation pushes up first. Owning them is like holding the source, not just the symptom.
Gold → It doesn’t earn yield, but it’s held value across every broken currency system for thousands of years. It’s not about return, it’s about resilience.
Bitcoin → Volatile, yes. But with a fixed supply and no central authority, it’s a small allocation that can play big if trust in fiat ever truly breaks.

2. Use Job Stacking to Beat Inflation, Then Reinvest the Spread

Most people try to outpace inflation with investments.

But if your income stays flat, you’re compounding uphill.

Instead of hoping for 8% market returns to outrun 5% inflation, flip the formula:

Increase your income first.

The most reliable way to do that right now?

Stacking remote jobs.

Not grinding.

Not freelancing for scraps.

But strategically holding 2 (or more) async roles and using leverage (systems, delegation, async workflows) to earn $200K–$400K+ with less fragility.

This isn’t about cheating the system. It’s about playing the system better than it plays you.

Once your income expands, reinvest the surplus into real assets:

Use your second paycheck to buy real estate
Allocate into TIPS, gold, or a small % of Bitcoin
Build a portfolio that’s designed to grow while the dollar shrinks

That second job isn’t just extra money. It's the financial buffer that lets you shift from defense to offense.

3. Think in Systems, Not Hope

Argentina didn’t fail because they wanted collapse.

They failed because they built a system where short-term wins were structurally rewarded, and long-term sustainability got pushed off until “after the election.”

Sound familiar?

Your personal economy should not depend on whether Jerome Powell cuts rates or Congress stops spending.

It should run on:

Diversified income
Asset-backed savings
Optionality in location and lifestyle
And zero reliance on permission from employers, institutions, or policy shifts

Final Thought: You're Playing Against a Broken System, Build One That Works Anyway

Most people get wrecked not because they’re lazy…

But because they built their future on assumptions that quietly stopped being true:

That the dollar would always be stable
That retirement would be funded by compounding
That inflation was “temporary”
That you could budget your way to wealth

None of those hold up anymore.

But that’s good news.

Because when the rules break, the people who think in systems rise the fastest.

Be one of them.

You don’t need to don’t need panic or to predict every economic headline.

You just need to build something that holds no, matter what the Fed does next.

To life, Love & Robots— Delaney

P.S.If you’re realizing your current income won’t cut it, or you’re ready to build a system that actually outpaces inflation, I can help.

I’ve taught 170+ professionals from Meta, Netflix, Airbnb, Google, etc. how to stack remote roles strategically and reinvest the extra income to build real freedom.

If you want to see what that could look like for you,

book a free strategy call here for those who qualify, we guarantee job placement in 90 days or less.

Sources

¹ Our World in Data – Maddison Project, 2020² Reuters, 2023³ IMF, 1990⁴ Bloomberg, 2020⁵ CBO Long-Term Budget Outlook, May 2024⁶ U.S. Treasury Monthly Statements, 2024⁷ CRFB, May 2024⁸ St. Louis Fed, 2018⁹ BLS CPI Report, June 2022¹⁰ Hirschmann Capital – “The 130% Rule,” 2023¹¹ IMF Country Reports – Japan, 2023¹² Visual Capitalist, 2023

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