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September 13, 2006
Today, La Prensa newspaper carried an editorial that listed the 11 main causes of national poverty in Nicaragua. I thought I’d share them with you, summarized and translated into English. The piece was written by Edmundo Davila Castellon, a civil engineer and graduate of Incae (I believe that is a respectable university here).
1. Complete disregard for the national demographic explosion at 2.7% annually. Nicaragua has had the highest population growth in Latin America.
2. Megasalaries, pensions and benefits, which affect the transport, education, health and work opportunities (cost and availability) for others.
3. The national budget, which doesn’t take care of the population’s social needs.
4. Peasants migrating from the countryside to the city.
5. Degradation of animals, plants and nature.
6. Internal and external debt.
7. Ungoverability and political, social and economic factors that directly affect the economy, social peace and national and foreign investment.
8. Illiteracy and the lack of basic education
9. Frozen pensions, which don’t take into account devaluation or inflation.
10. Problems with property rights
11. Government corruption and wars
Any thoughts on the validity of this analysis? Are there causes that have been omitted?
1 comment:
Those eleven are broad enough to cover just about everything. I don't know much about Nicaragua, but I would guess that there is high unemployment (caused by population growth, rural/urban migration, large unskilled workforce, etc) and the degradation of women (which contributes to high birth rates/the population growth). It's hard to isolate these factors, since they are so often intertwined.
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