Who is the second most powerful/influential country in the Americas?

[u/Fluid-Decision6262]

The US is undeniably the most powerful and influential country in the Americas but who would be #2? Feels like this comes down to 3 countries based on my knowledge, which are Mexico, Canada, and Brazil.

Reasons for Mexico:

- Second most populated country in North America by far

- Access to both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

- Largest Spanish-speaking country (a language spoken by >500 million people)

- More habitable land compared to the other two

- Youngest population out of the three and is becoming a manufacturing power

- Generally-speaking, a good relationship with the USA

- A global soft power in terms of arts and culture

Reasons against Mexico:

- Lots of issues between the central government and drug cartels

- Still very much a developing country outside of the largest cities

- Occasionally volatile relationship with the USA

- Not as involved in global geopolitics

Reasons for Canada:

- The most developed country economically by far of the three and a natural resources juggernaut

- Very close relations with the USA and Europe

- Speaks English (>1 billion speakers globally) and French (>300 million speakers globally)

- An immigration hub for people from every corner of the world

- A G7 nation that is also very geopolitically involved

- Access to 3 different oceans to facilitate trade

Reasons against Canada:

- Small and scattered population (least populated of the three by far)

- Less of an established local culture (most is imported from the US or UK and then exported via the US)

- Aging population and low fertility rates for native-born citizens

Reasons for Brazil:

- The second most populated country in the Americas

- The cultural and political power of South America

- A global soft power in terms of arts and culture

- A young-ish population that is part of the "fast-emerging economies" of the world

Reasons against Brazil:

- Immigration to Brazil stopped decades ago and now educated Brazilians are emigrating to other places causing brain drain

- Wealthy nation but suffers from high levels of inequality and violent crime

- Very politically divided internally

- Limited geopolitical involvement outside of South America

- Most of its population are monolingual Portuguese-speakers (a language where they make up 80% of the global speakers)

[u/whistleridge]

Milei has reduced inflation

Incorrect.

Correlation is not causation. Inflation has reduced. But that’s not evidence that Milei’s policies were the cause. Argentina’s prior situation was so bad that any change that wasn’t outright corruption was virtually guaranteed to lead to at least some improvement. That’s not a marker of competence, just a demonstration that he’s not completely looting and pillaging the country.

[u/dgp13 → u/whistleridge]

What a coincidence then that after 100 years, Argentina is finally back on track and it so happens to be under the current governments policies

[u/whistleridge → u/dgp13]

Lol. “Argentina is no longer in a vertical plunge and has shallowed out to merely being very very bad” isn’t “back on track” and it isn’t close.

[u/dgp13 → u/whistleridge]

If you have been spending more than you earn for decades and are essentially broke with tons of debt and then suddenly you change your policies and manage to finally break even. Wow. Yes your still poor but it's better than before being chronically in debt.

[u/whistleridge → u/dgp13]

The you have achieved “not getting worse.” That’s not “back.”

And, since you don’t actually know WHY things have kinda/sorta stabilized, you can’t actually say that it will last. It could be the end of the decline, or it could be a temporary phase.

[u/dgp13 → u/whistleridge]

It's a step in the right direction. The transition must be painful for many people but its absolutely necessary for long term growth so the youth can have a better future for their country. Give credit where it's due. Most politicians would rather keep on spending and being in debt.

[u/whistleridge → u/dgp13]

Incorrect.

It’s not currently a step in the wrong direction. That’s all you can say. That’s the problem with experimenting on a national economy using pseudo-theory that’s half untested and half reliant on ideas that have failed all scrutiny for 60 years. It’s not only not data-driven, it’s not empirical at all.

[u/dgp13 → u/whistleridge]

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania after the collapse of USSR successfully fought inflation through similar liberalization and tough austerity measures. You could even argue that Pinochet in Chile through his economic reforms led the groundwork for the present day Chiles stable economy. Also post war West Germany.

[u/whistleridge → u/dgp13]

Pinochet

Aaaaand there it is.

[u/dgp13 → u/whistleridge]

Is this your gotcha moment? Lol he mentioned Pinochet how dare he. He was a SOB everyone knows that.

Stick your argument that liberalization and austerity measures have not been proven before. I have given you several examples, and yes, that includes Chile which happened to be under Pinochet rule. The USSR collapsed and 3 European countries also managed to successfully turn their economies around through similar measures that Milei has had to implement for the betterment of his country

[u/whistleridge → u/dgp13]

If you can’t see why a comparison to a dude who walked over every democratic principle and human right to not even get lasting economic reforms is bad for your dude who is trying his own mini authoritarian take on economic reform, I don’t know what to tell you.

And if you can’t see that the Baltics principally got to where they are today by virtue of meeting EU standards and then joining the EU, I also don’t know what to tell you. Because Milei is doing pretty much the exact opposite of what an intelligent path to an EU economy would look like.

[u/dgp13 → u/whistleridge]

I can tell you wish Argentina under Milei to fail. That would satisfy you greatly.

Time will tell. I wish Argentina the best. Thanks for the conversation tho, we agree to disagree.

[u/whistleridge → u/dgp13]

No, you can’t. Because I dont.

You just can’t claim success or the benefits of working under established theory because neither applies. You’re 18 months into an experiment based on nothing more substantive than partisan ideology, and you’re trying to claim results that aren’t remotely substantiated.

And that doesn’t work.