The self-infliction is electing politicians like Kirchner who don't try to spend time and effort improving their infrastructure and stability and attracting investment to build new things. Instead, they prefer to borrow money to deliver handouts to the populace, then when they can't repay the money, default on their debts and take over the local operations of foreign firms. (This is before we even get into the suppression of the media and other overtures of authoritarianism...)
Not that the poorest of Argentinians aren't in great need of some form of aid like those handouts, but sacrificing the argentinian nation's economic future works out to be a BAD PLAN in the end.
