Thread: An opportunity for Mexico's poor

An opportunity for Mexico's poor

By Alberto Diaz-Cayeros 2:00 a.m. January 15, 2009

It can be hoped that President-elect Barack Obama's meeting this week with Mexico's head of state, Felipe Calderón, signals a deeper relationship between both countries for the years to come. Beyond the central issues of drug trafficking, public safety, migration, free trade, environmental protection, energy or oil – which remain at the forefront of the bilateral agenda – their climate of good feelings should provide an opportunity to open a discussion regarding the most important issue confronting Mexico, which is all too often kept off the diplomatic agenda; namely, poverty and social policy.

The global financial crisis and the downturn of the U.S. economy have deepened the vulnerability of the poorest Mexican families. Crime and political instability are symptoms of underlying deep-seated malaise brought about by poverty and inequality. Within the pressing policy conundrums both countries face, it is easy to forget that one in every six Mexican families lives below what the government calls the nutritional poverty line. These households do not have enough earnings to obtain the nutritional intake necessary to survive. The extreme poor are forgotten and neglected, never invisible, but usually out of the reach of state programs and the opportunities offered by modern economic activity.

The Mexican federal administrations have made impressive efforts since 1997 to create one of the best designed and most successful poverty relief programs in the world – Oportunidades – which provides cash transfers to women, conditional on keeping their children attending school and visiting health clinics. Virtually every academic study and evaluation of the program has shown that it has improved the well-being of its beneficiaries. Still, extreme poverty has proved highly resilient, particularly in rural areas.

The slowdown in global economic activity threatens a struggling Mexican middle class that may fall into poverty; while thousands of families with incomes in the neighborhood of the nutritional poverty line are extremely vulnerable to small changes in their incomes. Moreover, the combined effects of the economic recession and the fall in the price of oil means that the Mexican government may be forced to make budgetary cuts in the coming year. Even slight changes in the generosity of social transfers may have catastrophic effects for populations whose incomes are so low they have no cushion to mitigate risks.

The extreme poor are unable to migrate, because they don't have the resources that allow them to escape from the harsh and risky places where they live. They are not the perpetrators of the violence that has spun out of control in Mexico over the last year. They do not work in strategic sectors or provide labor in export-oriented activities. They do not contribute much to the environmental degradation or the mismanagement of natural resources. But the existence of extreme poor has profound effects on the rest of society.

Extreme poverty increases tensions in the fabric of society: distrust and opportunism, rather than cooperation and solidarity, become the rule of social interaction. Productivity suffers when a society fears its own members, and when there is no minimum floor below which it is inconceivable that incomes may fall. Governance becomes characterized by corruption and lack of accountability when citizens are so poor they are not empowered to demand performance from their public servants.

It is crucial that the two countries capitalize on the positive sentiments obviously on display at this week's historic first meeting. The next step on the bilateral agenda should be a far-reaching initiative for the United States to support Mexico in its efforts in the fight against poverty.

President Calderón should establish a firm commitment that the federal budget in Mexico will not reduce the appropriations for poverty relief. In exchange, the Obama administration should supplement the aid given for security with a social transfer that may take various forms, including soft loans or an outright social fund. Collaboration in the social arena would quickly pay dividends on the other fronts of the bilateral agenda, such as immigration or security. A Mexico without poverty is in the best interests of the United States.

Diaz-Cayeros is director of the University of California San Diego Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... ?uniontrib

So now we have a Kenyan going to give Bankrupt America's spare change to Mexicans that hate our guts and are "using" the USA.

Someone get me a bucket to PUKE in.

We are fools led by evil fools.

Screw American poor, we have illegal Mexicans to support here and NOW we will support them there.... just Ducky.

You American poor will have to fend for yourselves.
If your lucky Obama will give you a NEW cardboard box to live in!!!
Your country is now someone else's country.