A Satirical Look at the Economy of Peru

The website “Uncyclopedia.com” is a satiric form of Wikipedia; therefore, just like Wikipedia you can look up all types of random things and read articles dedicated to those topics. If you look up Peru, you find that under the money section it claims things like this:

“The currency is the nuevo sol (new sun), invented in García's first presidency. That would be 1 billion old suns, the currency when García came onto the scene. Not to give him any ideas, but this term, it's holding pretty steady at about 3 to the dollar. However, no Peruvian ever trusts this to last, and appliances, anything requiring time payments, and some salaries, are expressed in dollars… To exchange dollars, just go to downtown San Isidro and look for a man holding up a calculator. (A previous government official denied that Perú was in recession; he saw calculator vendors on every corner.)”

Although satire is obviously not synonymous with fact, in order for something to be funny there needs to be an underlying truth behind it. Thus, Peru’s economic situation can in no way be described as stable, as the Uncyclopedia article alludes to.

There is a saying that money can buy miracles, and while this might be an exaggeration I do believe it is true that money opens the doors for progress. Without money, people cannot afford to buy things, which in turn halts the economy. Also, without being able to collect taxes on these unsold goods, the government has no money to install programs to help those who need financial support in the first place. Thus it could be argued that this economic instability is one of the main factors with other national problems in Peru. In fact, one of the funniest things I saw from the website about Peru was this picture, with the caption “Lima is Peru's center of government, commerce, and higher learning--all three of which frequently involve waiting for half an hour without knowing why.”

As we talked about in class, however, the assumption that the government heavily depends on taxes to fund itself does not apply to the millions of Peruvians who hold informal jobs. I have not once ridden a micro without being solicited for money by street vendors, or walked more than three blocks without running into a concession stand. As we also previously discussed, there is a commonly-held belief here that the government should have little regulation in the economy; Peruvians value creativity and think that, unregulated by a higher power, this allows for a “self-made man.” And you can see this creativity all around. People will legitimately try to sell you absolutely anything; I’ve seen vendors selling hangers, baby formula, and whatever else they can get their hands on.

I think, though, that this belief that the government should have little say in the ways of things goes much deeper than the economy. With all of the corruption and violence the country has faced throughout the centuries, especially under Fujimori’s reign, I think it’s hard for anyone to trust your government when it comes to anything. Even in the United States, arguably the most powerful and stable country in the world, there are many who believe their government is committing clandestine acts that are corrupt, and there is little trust in the government as a whole. I honestly believe that if Peruvians weren’t forced to vote by law, I seriously doubt many of them would vote at all. As Uncyclopedia satirically puts it, “Peruvian presidents have not just manipulated the constitution, they have asked it out, slipped it a roofie, and raped it.”



The website for these references can be found here:
http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Peru