The engine of productive Argentina.The vague and chantas that do not want to work.The descendants of immigrants who go from generation to generation that the most important thing is to educate, work and progress.Tilingos who, with an eye on Miami, choose not to look at those who suffer from here.The poor savers who were scammed and devastated by El Corralito.The selfish who do not see beyond their navel and vote with their pocket.

Interestingly, when trying to talk about the Argentine middle class, finding a midpoint is what costs the most.In part, because this heterogeneous and ambiguous sector of the society is between two increasingly polarized ends: in a context of galloping inequality, neither rich nor poor, the middle class occupies a complex center, which suffers from its own fractures caused by thatunbridled inequity that seems that everything devastates.Therefore, the middle class is not only shrinks, but also, inland, it is fragmented and atomizes.

The National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC) is the one that measures the income of the population and, although it does not classify it according to social classes, it does delimit the so -called “poverty line” (the minimum income that aperson to cover their food, clothing and transport needs);Last October, he marked it below $ 12.608.52 per month.Based on this indicator, institutions and organizations such as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the United Nations Caribbean (ECLAC) calculate that, to be considered middle class, an Argentine has to receive income between 1.8 and 10 times thatPoverty line.According to this calculation, the per capita income of the segment can vary from $ 22.695 to $ 126.085.With such a broad spectrum, which houses so many internal differences, it is not surprising that, in its survey of political and social panorama of May last year, the Latin American Strategic Center of Geopolitics (Celag) has begun to talk about the “middle class ofall life ", another" middle class with fear of being low ", a" new middle class "and the" middle-high class ".

There are those who go further and even question their own existence, with that phrase made that "the middle class is a myth" - today, with a poverty index that would already reach 45% of the population, the argument begins tocharge some strength -.However, according to the latest study of the Observatory of Social Psychology of the UBA, an overwhelming 85% of Argentines are considered middle class.This apparent contradiction is, in fact, the nerve point of the dilemma: although the purely economic indicators that were originally used to stratify society (in addition to per capita income, others such as access to their own housing and consumer goods such as, byExample, having auto) years have complemented others of a social nature (occupation, educational level, cultural heritage, family past), being middle class is also a deep and complex issue of self -perception and identity.

With humor and lucidity, Guillermo Oliveto argues that responding fully and objectively what is the Argentine middle class is “a philosophical challenge, something like responding to what is happiness?Or what is beauty? ".Strategic Advisor, Specialist in Society, Consumption, Brands and Communication, in his book Arghip: How we are and how we think the Argentines (Atlántida, 2014), Oliveto faces the challenge and risk: "Being middle class is directly to be".For him, this does not depend on - or, rather, transcends economic, work and even cultural characteristics, because in our country, “the middle class is essentially a‘ wanting to be ’and a‘ must be ’”.Oliveto follows: “It is a social body not fixed that in its surface presents volatile and always malleable elements.As a social collective, one day you can cry out for order and control and the next for freedom and self -management.You can fall in love with globalization and neoliberalism, as well as national production and the return of the State ".

In other words, it represents a set of aspirations and ideals that are born, mutate, die and reborn over time and according to the climate of each era.That coexist, but also, at times, they contradict and oppose.The very essence of Argentine.Hence the impossibility of developing a definition of dictionary, a definitive radiography, a static photo.On the other hand, if the middle class took a film form, the first scene would have a clear protagonist, although not flesh and blood.The Greeks would have recognized him as a son of Morpheus.

We had a dream

Once upon a time there was an Argentinean Dream, much more modest than the American hyperfamoso, but equally powerful and mobilizer for those who dreamed him: men and women, coming mostly in Europe, who could barely survive in their homelands and who wereencouraged to leave everything behind to start from scratch in a new land, full of promises.OPPORTUNITIES, WORK, PROGRESS.A certain level of wealth and success.After those long journeys (they sailed for at least 15 days or up to two months, depending on the type of vessel), it was as if the look was forever fixed on a somewhat distant horizon, but not unattainable in Argentina in Argentina in Argentina those years.

“The immigration of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was synonymous with people who came wanting to improve their condition and who, in general, arrived with resources higher than the Creole population, especially in terms of intellectual capital and labor skills.They were people with a healthy ambition, willing to make a very large effort, even greater than that of those compatriots who had stayed;In that sense, they were almost like a selected from their country of origin ”, Graph Roy Hora, Doctor in History from the University of Oxford, principal researcher at CONICET and professor at the National University of Quilmes and the University of San Andrés.

The meeting of two powers was then given, which today would be considered a perfect match: on the one hand, an Argentine that already knew prosperity (ending the nineteenth century, the success of the agro -export economy had generated a fast growth, with income perHigh cap, and a very urbanized society, to the point of Buenos Aires becameprogress.And, although the original national government plan pointed out those newcomers to work in the field, the vast majority ended up becoming industrialists, artisans and merchants in the big cities.It was a radical change and, in some cases, directly brutal: according to the 1914 INDEC census, immigrants represented 30% of the country's total population, while composing 60% of the inhabitants of Buenos Aires and were almosthalf (47%) in Rosario.

“The immigration phenomenon gave way to a peculiar social combination.A very open and mobile society was formed, of many opportunities, ”says time.Oliveto Complete: “The historical opportunity of the early twentieth century caused there to be resources and motivation to run behind progress.I was just around the corner for whom I would like to go for him.Argentina also had its dream.And that dream was to be a middle class country ".Of course, people did not put it in those terms, because the middle class concept did not popularize until several decades later.

By 1950, the dream of a better life had already become a palpable and even measurable reality.It was the Italian Gino Germani, who arrived in our country in 1934 fleeing from the fascist regime of Mussolini and became a precursor of Argentine sociology, who outlined the first stratified map of our society.Following the guidelines of American sociology of the postwar period (which was inspired by the scientific methodology to collect and cross data), in its iconic book, social structure of Argentina, from 1955, Germani studied the impact of immigration andIndustrialization.Comparing the socioeconomic indicators that showed the censuses of 1869 and 1914 - for example, the evolution of the illiteracy rate and the exodus from the countryside to the city - identified an upward social mobility without a paragon in the rest of the region.

For the first time, the Argentine middle class was recognized as such and, what is more, was presented as a powerful and differential phenomenon."If compared to the rest of Latin America, our society was qualitatively different just because they have a large, powerful and thriving medium sector, with a not only economic but also cultural impact," he highlights time.

This transformation, according to Germani, was given differently to Creoles and immigrants.For the former, ascending socially it had been synonymous with getting a good job after having studied abroad (considerable effort of their parents in between);On the other hand, those not born in Argentina made their way "up" becoming self -employed (shop owners, factories, etc., what we would call "entrepreneurs" today)).Be that as they had achieved it, for that increasingly numerous mass of people from the mid -twentieth century, it was much more what united that what separated it.

Although each one built their own destiny, the vast majority shared at least three unwavering values: work and effort as a sine qua non conditions for any objective that would be proposed;The family as a fundamental group, and education as an inalienable, crucial capital.These pillars were so solid that, until the 90s, despite having already suffered about 50 years of economic and political turbulence, Argentina could still take pride in a large middle class that covered 75% of its population.However, as with any dreamer, at some point it was time to wake up.

Politically uncertain

In history of the Argentine middle class (Critic, 2019), the historian Ezequiel Adamovsky raises a singular theory: that it was the Buenos Aires aristocracy that, around 1920, invented the concept of middle class to keep the proletariat calm and controlled, which grewby leaps and bounds with the arrival of immigrants.It would have been the elite that marked the ideal of what it meant to be "good citizen", with all the benefits and comfort that an bourgeois lifestyle brought.

Adamovsky offers one of the most complete and rigorous studies of how the first middle sectors in our country were and lived.However, it is difficult to believe that there could be such a powerful and perfect manipulation.“It is an underestimation, a look that belittle the middle class, as if it had been a construction from top to bottom, when in reality it was the reverse process: the immigrant whose children and grandchildren had as a vocation the progress and the healthy ambition of beingIn a better situation, that famous saying of M'Hijo, the dotor.Of course, like all social class, it has its chiaroscuros, but disagree with that current that thinks that the middle class was a curse of Argentina, when it was actually a blessing.It was a virtuous, not vicious movement, ”defends Oliveto.

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However, if the middle class is really synonymous with Argentine, there is a question of crucial importance: what has been your relationship with politics?What power had and has as a voter profile, and what has convinced or demotivated it to choose one or another candidate at the polls?“Argentine society has a history of democratization quite widespread in time, but a very important mileWhat to wait about 30 more years).This passed the center of the gravitational axis of Argentine politics from top to bottom in a very abrupt way, and the great loser was the middle class, because there one observes that the political discourse became very popular.Decades later, Peronism deepened this trend, but from very early the middle class had an awkward position in the political system, which collaborated that, for quite some time, it did not have a defined political loyalty, ”he reflects time, although he adds:"So and everything, because of the importance of the middle class, we tend to see it as a promoter of the processes of change, modernization and transformation of Argentina".

The political analyst and consultant Pablo Tauzon, author of the naked crack (intellectual capital, 2019), coincides in this reading of the symbolic power of the middle class, and argues that, as of 1983, the speech of the candidates began to go to goEven more to this sector, whose political traction was more evident than ever with the 2001 crisis: “What knocked out the government of De la Rúa, looting or savers?The middle class, beyond its economic and sociological reality - which is sure to sure.And, whether the cacerolazos of 2001 or the march against resolution 125, the great popular moves usually have - from the return of democracy - their heart in the middle class, which became an almost revolutionary factor ”.

The funny thing is that if it is analyzed as a political subject, once again, it is difficult to identify what characterizes and agglutinates it.Their interests, their peers, are not obvious;Even different middle class members can give the most divergent answers.And, as Martín Rodríguez says, co -author with Touzon from the naked crack, the middle class could be represented as a typical consortium fight: there may be ultra k and anti k neighbors, but they all live under the same roof, in the sameconditions, sharing more than they would like to admit."If we made the Argentine society a kind of osteopathy and we asked ourselves where the crack hurts, we would find that the middle class is that nerve where it blends and hurts the most," Touzon finishes.

Although in the concrete it is not at all clear what the middle class wants, the analyst is encouraged to outline its most basic need: “Argentina was a large country largely due to the dream of ascending social mobility.This aspiration, more some degree of confidence in the general progress of the country, is in essence what the sector demands.However, politicians fail to outline a comprehensive plan, not even draw a horizon, although they try to replace that lack with two strategies: exacerbate the identity issues of the crack and try to achieve forms of mass consumption ”.

In that sense, for tauzon, the cheap dollar operates years ago as an undercover subsidy to the middle class, the "bread and circus" of modern national politics.“It's like a substitute for the addict: since they have no more heroine, they give him metadona.All governments (menemism, Kirchnerism, macrismo) gave some idea of well -being in the absence of an economic model that promoted true social promotion.And consumption was transformed, for the middle class, in a way of not losing the status, of not falling from the map ”.

Change, (almost) everything changes

Guillermo Oliveto has more than two decades studying closely what the Argentines consume because, in line with the theories of the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, he considers that consumption became a not only economic but also social phenomenon: today, more than ever, where, whereTraditional and “objective” indicators are insufficient or incomplete about what the middle class is, their consumption patterns can give light on their concrete and current access, but also about the fears and desires they make to the hard core of their identity.

In that complex network of expectations and reality, Oliveto identifies that the strongest aspiration, although it has been postponed for a long time, is to have his home.“Own housing is critical for the very origin of our society: the immigrant rootes when he has his home.In addition, in such a volatile country, with cyclical crisis, your house protects you or, at least, you think it protects you.The famous ‘Whatever happens, I will not stay on the street’.Anyway, the middle class did not have another one and more tenant became.But, in 2017, when the mortgage loan returned and the demand exploded, it was shown that the dream of one's own house is not missing but asleep ”.

Another iconic good of the "average Argentine" that was already largely resigned is the car.“Between 60 and 80, it was possible to access at least the famous‘ Autito ’,‘ El Fitito ’.But this was changing and, especially since 2002, the car is specified much more in the middle-high class;Today, to move, the middle-low class uses mostly public transportation.Not to mention a 0km, to which only part of the medium-high.As for used cars, there are mid-low-class owners, but anyway, 50% of the households in that sector have no car.Having car is still transversely aspirational, but in praxis it no longer identifies the middle class ”.

On the contrary, the most novel good (and that, in some way, occupied the symbolic space that left the house and the car) was the trip.An object of desire that can take many forms, from a getaway to a national destination to the classic “European tour” of three weeks or, for the most daring, a long flight to an exotic destination such as Southeast Asia, according to the moments of Argentina.“One thing was to travel in the 90s, with convertibility;Another was to leave with the ‘Kirchner government card dollar’;And the same applied for the first years of macrismo, with a cheap mix, much credit and the emergence of low cost airlines, ”says Oliveto.In any case, for the Argentine, the essential thing is to do the suitcase, a luxury accrue.

"The other great desire was and continues to be the technology - Oliveto Agrega -, which marks the time in which we live like anything else: if you are 'unplugged', you fell from the world, you not only stay out of social networks, butof the same social plot ".In terms of consumption, the number one, by far absolute icon that marks the status, is the cell phone.Further back, but now going up from the hand of remote work and classes per zoom, the laptop and tablet appear;Also, as part of the reconfiguration of the home that brought the pandemic, the TV, the air conditioning and the freezer raised its sales, according to a report by the consultant Nielsen.

Again, according to Oliveto, where the average Argentine seems to have resigned more is in the supermarket chango.“Today the middle class is much less prejudiced in front of the gondola, it is allowed to choose second brands and make the‘ large purchase ’in a wholesaler.Things that would have seemed degrading before for their status, today they seem like a signing sample.It makes a whole analysis of what it can spend and what not, where it will be given a pleasure and where it is no longer justified to pay more ”.

Is there any aspect where the middle class does not give up?“There are two or three things that do not deliver or, rather, that it only delivers when it is almost discarded, when you have no choice.First, the education of the boys and, if it has, the social work or prepaid.And what is also very hard to have to move, because the middle class is very based on its habitat.These three are elements that touch a very sensitive fiber and that, if resigned, makes it very difficult to return, ”says Oliveto.

The middle class does not sleep

In 1995, researchers Alberto Minujín and Gabriel Kessler published a book whose title on the key to name a sadly popular phenomenon of their time: the new poverty in Argentina.Experts in Statistics and Sociology, they went to analyze the processes of impoverishment of the middle class (during the 90s, there were seven million Argentines who fell into poverty, the equivalent of 20% of the country's total population) and recognized aNew social group, the new poor, who, unlike the structural poor, had enjoyed a past with more resources and, therefore, still retained social and cultural values despite their material limitations.In addition, these new poor maintained - or tried to maintain - customs, customs and consumption of before.

What neither Minujín nor Kessler nor anyone saw a few years later was a crisis as implacable and voracious as 2001-2002.Up to that point, after each onslaught, the middle class had managed to adjust their expectations and accommodate their new reality, while projecting - and, sometimes, of realizing - a friendly future, a renewed opportunity.On the other hand, this time, with an unemployment rate that had its maximum point at 21.5% (in the second quarter of 2020, even with all the devastating effect of the pandemic, the index only reached 13.1%),The horizon of possibilities with which their ancestors had dreamed took the form of mortal abyss.“It was a before and after in the history of Argentina and the middle class in particular.It was a very hard blow because it meant a brutal descending mobility process, which left a wound that does not end up healing and is recorded in the collective unconscious of the Argentines.Every time something serious happens, people think of 2001: it is the most feared ghost, ”says Oliveto.

Today it is not clear how the post-covid-19 economic and social landscape will be.What is already a sad reality, according to economist Candelaria Botto, coordinator of the Economy Blog Femini (s) and presenter of the Documentary Cycle Economy from within, Deutsche Welle, is a global phenomenon that complicates us and will complicate us even more: “Lowhich is characteristic of the 21st century, both in Argentina and the rest of the world, is that now having a job does not guarantee you not to be poor.Before, a job assured you to pay a rent, buy the food, take care of your children.Now, income was reduced so much that even when many people have employment, salary is not enough for them to get out of poverty ”.

So much so, in the rest of the world, the middle class progresses and sits, while in Argentina we increasingly question its existence.“A central value for decades, part of the national pride, was to have a strong middle class.With respect to the rest of the region, it was our badge for a long time.Obviously, the numbers no longer say that: in the last 30 years, most Latin America countries advanced in their middle class production process, and not to mention what is happening in the East, especially in China, thanIt generates millions of people.Instead, here the reverse process occurred.And that's why it may be so difficult for us to resign that identity, because it is a Latin Americanization of fact, ”says Touzon.

In this context, economist Orlando Ferreres warns: “Today there is a lot of poverty, but almost nothing middle class.There are not many theorists or analysis of this group, and it is a pity, because it is the reality that we should try to return.Keeping it in mind, working to resurrect it is key to our country, which cannot continue where it goes, with most people who need state support to survive.Recovering that average sector is making a difference again ".

In spite of everything, the Argentine middle class would be willing to assume its part in this new and potential feat, because it still defines itself by the idea of autonomy.Oliveto closes: “Descrea from the idea that the culture of work was lost.The middle Argentine does not want to live from a social plan, although of course it can take advantage of the advantages that the State gives with things like light, water or gas subsidies...Above all things, want to be self -sustained from what he is capable of doing.From the painter to the doctor, from the hairdresser to the teacher, nobody wants to deliver his dignity ”.

It is uncertain if Argentina will provide the minimum conditions necessary to give each of them a new opportunity.What may have already been lost forever is that idyllic state of perpetual dream, because, after so many attacks and disenchants, of crisis and volatility, which nobody finds anywhere is tranquility.