Rich as an Argentine, but..

Back in the 19th century, economists thought that Argentina was going to have a really great future. They called it the "land of silver" and people would say "rich like an Argentine" because they thought the country was going to be super rich. They even had a phrase "Argentina potencia" which means "power" in English, that people still say today. But now, things have changed a lot. Argentina went from being one of the top economies in the world to being near the bottom of the list. It's a developing country now.

But before, things were good for the rich people in Argentina. They built big houses and factories and had lots of money. They even had fancy horses and went to Paris for vacations. The country's economy was doing really well and they had a lot of natural resources like water, gas, and oil. They made a lot of money by exporting things like meat, grain, and leather to Europe during the war. Argentina was also really good for farming because of the good weather.

After World War II, Argentina was doing better than Brazil and even had a stable currency. People wanted to go there for work because it was a place where they thought they could get a good job and have a lot of money. There were more cars and telephones in Argentina than in France and Japan, and even the average income was higher than Germany's.

But things started going downhill when Juan Domingo Peron became president. He wanted to do things differently than capitalism or socialism and spent too much money on things the country didn't really need. His wife, Evita, was loved by some people but hated by others because she spent a lot of money on things that weren't necessary. They also made it hard for other countries to sell things in Argentina to protect their own industries.

Things got even worse with the Falklands War and the military dictatorship. They borrowed a lot of money that they couldn't pay back and inflation went way up. Even after the dictatorship was over, things still didn't get better. The next president, Carlos Menem, sold off a lot of things that shouldn't have been sold and the economy just kept going down.

Nowadays, Argentina is still a beautiful country with a lot of history and culture. But it's not as rich as it used to be and things are still pretty tough for a lot of people.