In instances such as Zimbabwe or Argentina, where hyperinflation spirals out of control, how do people feed themselves and pay for the bare necessities? Does the government step in and provide the support needed to prevent mass starvation?
In: Economics
I lived in Argentina from 1981 to 1984, when inflation went up to some 60% a month, at least once. Basically, the salaries go up also, although not so fast as the prices, so people use a lot of mechanisms to cope with :
* On pay day (monthly – not weekly like USA) , everybody would leave the office for some 15 minutes and buy dollars at the nearby exchange and travels agency. We were downtown, and took shifts to avoid emptying the office by everybody leaving at the same time, bosses didn’t mind because they also did it. Then you convert the dollars back along the month, as the bills pop out. There was a lot of dollar selling/buying inside the office among the workmates, you just warn the people at coffee break and the word spread out.
* Most people purchased large freezers and built large kitchen cupboards or cabinets, and made grocery shopping for the whole month on pay day, or asap.
* You never buy anything on installments (prices were adjusted every 2 or 3 days, salaries also, but only monthly), you save the money for months as dollars, convert back and pay at once.
It’s a pain in the neck, honestly, but not starvation. I paid house rental at the time, and remember needing to renegotiate price with landlord every month. If you were planning to buy some stuff, like some home appliance, and saw a sale with good price while commuting, you should stop and buy it no matter how much you were in a hurry or have an appointment : if you leave to buy the stuff the day following, you mostly would find it by the double price, no kidding.
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