We Argentines are used to living between shocks.
From being the cheapest in the region we can go in a matter of days to being the most expensive and from electing governments that proposed omnipresent states for 20 years to voting for one that proposes anarcho-capitalism.
Undoubtedly, adaptability and resilience to change is an attribute that all of us who live in these lands share.
We adapt our customs and routines without offering major resistance with acceptance and patience, a true skill that sustains our psychological and emotional stability and social interaction.
Recently, a family with school-age children, particularly in the first years of elementary school, told me what an impact the birthday parties of schoolmates and dates such as teacher's day or the end of the year have on their pockets.
Statistically, if there are 20 children in a class, there will be an average of two birthdays per month.
The custom of giving a present to the birthday girl or boy has been accommodated according to the ups and downs of the economy and the purchasing power of the families.
A few years ago each family would buy a gift, perhaps a little better for their closest friends. Bags of toys, books or clothes were piled up on doorsteps or in the closets of party rooms. The average expenditure hovered around $25, something like $500 a year on children's gifts from school.
Over time, the gifts became simpler and more perishable. Little plastic soldiers or cars, T-shirts with dubious prints or coloring books without pencils, the average outlay was reduced to 6 dollars each time, a considerable decrease in the annual expenditure that reached 120 dollars per year.
Perhaps as a result of the mothers' chat, one of them came up with the idea of putting an end to the charade of junk gifts and proposed raising money to give "an important gift". In this way, the expense was again reduced. This time, the 20 families would contribute 3 dollars each, and with 60 dollars they could buy something more worthy, lasting and useful.
This was the case until a few months ago when, through the same communication channel, some families began to express their difficulty in participating in the birthday collection.
So it was that another creative mother proposed that each family buy their own child's gift, thus reducing the commitment to a one-time event and the budgetary adaptability was total.
In the constant search for the participation of each of the items that make up the monthly expenses of a family, the relative weight of entertaining classmates who have birthdays at school seems to have lost participation.
We are going through times in which adaptation passes through shrinkage.
Clinging to the hope that having gone through the same or worse times we have come out ahead, we Argentines are once again putting our shoulders to the wheel in the most diverse and adaptive ways.
Article written on May 9, 2024, by Gustavo Ammaturo, who has been with us at FinGurú since the beginning and whom we will miss every day.
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