The disastrous railroad debacle is largely indicative of Perón’s failed economic policies as a whole. During his term, Argentina grappled with soaring inflation and a skyrocketing deficit. Inflation jumped from 3.6% in 1947 to 15.3% in 1948, and up to 23.2% in 1949. This dramatic increase in the cost of living essentially undermined Perón’s earlier wage increases— precisely the reason why railroad workers went on strike in 1950. Arturo Echague, a construction engineer on the rails, stated that “Perón has not done so much for the workers as he makes out that he has done...And insofar as wages are concerned, they may have gone up, but prices have gone up even faster, and so the worker is the loser.”
