Down in Latin America, the failure of socialism is there for everyone to see, from Cuba, to Venezuela, and everywhere else.
My friend José Azel goes after what he calls “The Dependency Theory”:
As a graduate student of International Relations in the 1970s, many of my professors were enamored with the Dependency Theory argument that resources flow, in an exploitative manner, from a “periphery” of poor underdeveloped states to a “core” of wealthy states.
It’s a bit like the “rich are not paying their fair share” that we hear in the U.S., or the “victimhood” promoted by Democrats up here. In other words, blame everybody else but yourself for your self-inflicted failures.
In Latin America, it has literally destroyed potentially very rich countries, as Jose explains:
A byproduct of Latin America’s wound collecting is that the region has developed a sense of victimized self that manifests itself in a disdain for the private sector of the economy and particularly for much needed American investments.Yet, today’s global economy is disrupting old development paradigms so that much can be done with little.Consider this: “Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no context. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate” (Tom Goodwin on TechCrunch.com).To become economically successful, Latin America needs to stop collecting real or imagined wounds, and rethink what makes up economic power.
The good news is that many people in Latin America are moving on, although the deep state in Latin America is deeper and defending their benefits.
In Argentina, President Mauricio Macri, a center right leader, is under attack from the public sector unions for his calls for change.
In Mexico, President Enrique Peña-Nieto tried to reform PEMEX, the teachers unions, and thousands marched opposing change.
So Jose is right, but the “beneficiaries” are not going to give up their power easily.
I am not suggesting a “Pinochet” solution but it’s fair to say that he did fumigate the leftist rats in Chile and gave us the best economy in the region.
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