The comb is out, we have to stay poor

“First the poor” is not the center of López Obrador’s transformation project, it is only a political strategy. There have been innumerable statements that have hurt Mexicans during the morning, but this recent one where the president recognized it is the most hurtful because it confirms that the reason there are more poor people in Mexico and no support for the middle class and the productive sector Since this administration began, it has been for a single objective of Morena: to produce more poor people to vote for them.

The data is alarming. The number of people in poverty went from 51.9 million Mexicans in 2018 to 55.7 million in 2020, this means that there are 3.8 million more people in poverty since the beginning of this six-year term. The number of people in extreme poverty went from 8.7 million in 2018 to 10.8 million in 20120 (8.5% of the total population). At the beginning of this administration we were seventh in Latin America with less extreme poverty and now we are number 13, that is the 6th poorest in the region.

Mexico is considered the fifteenth largest economy in the world, but we are the third country with the highest economic inequality. As an economist and especially as a Tabascan, it seems to me that a statement like this is scandalous, immoral and unscrupulous, because inequality and poverty should not be the objective of any political ideology and because all Mexicans have the legitimate right to get ahead and build a better future for our next generations, and it is precisely the government that is in charge of ensuring that there are conditions to achieve these aspirations.

Thus, the political strategy has borne fruit. Morena’s votes are in the south, where inequality and poverty continue to rise, and have been declining where the educational, economic, and human development level has been maintained.

Social programs are part of the strategy. The 4T government launched social programs with amounts never seen before, hence we have families that may be receiving up to 30,000 pesos a month without any of their members working or studying; but those same families are not getting out of the circle of poverty, nor are they having better job opportunities, education or health. For this reason, the implemented social development policy does not solve the problem of misery in Mexico, on the contrary, it is aggravating it.

For example, Tabasco is the state with the most social programs; only Sembrando Vida exceeded coverage with 112% of the target population, benefiting almost 56,000 people. But my state continues to rank first in unemployment and food poverty in the entire country.

Why is this government determined to create more poor people? The comb is out. Morena is only interested in keeping poor people to stay in power. Yeidckol Polevnsky, the former leader of Morena, said that the problem with lifting people out of poverty and bringing them to the middle class is that they forget where they come from; or as Hugo Chávez said, the revolution means keeping the poor, poor, but with hope.

The good news is that the real power is in our hands and we can assert it at the ballot box in the next elections. Not one more vote for those who create hope by destroying the future, not one more vote for Morena.

@PerezSoraya