Poverty in Mexico, stagnant at 53%

Poverty in Mexico is like water. It has reached a large part of the national territory and, in its humid condition, has permeated large sectors of the population. Like water, like an enormous body, poverty remains stagnant in Mexican society.

Poverty in Mexico, in the current government, has not been reduced. On the contrary, it has increased. Paradoxically, the government that came to power waving the banner of “poor people first” has failed to quell the growing tide of poverty.

Last October 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty was celebrated, and for this purpose, Acción Ciudadana Contra la Pobreza – an alliance of efforts that brings together 60 Mexican civil society organizations to positively influence poverty. inequality and poverty–, made an analysis of the phenomenon of poverty in Mexico.

And his conclusions are dramatic.

It reports that to date there are 20 million more people in income poverty. The percentage has been stagnant for 30 years: 53%.

The most serious thing is that one of the main causes that generate poverty is the world of work.

This is a scandal and a contradiction because work is and should be the door out of poverty.

However, in Mexico, labor structures generate more poverty and less social security.

The workers work without a stable contract and without defending their labor rights.

There is poverty throughout the country; high concentration in metropolitan areas. According to the special report of Acción Ciudadana, in Mexico, millions of jobs are actually factories of poverty.

They document it with figures: around 40% of the population has had a labor income lower than the cost of the food basket for almost 20 years. And what is happening with the “social programs” of the Mexican government, based on direct monetary transfers.

Well, it turns out that these are not enough to reduce it and currently exclude 66% of lower-income households.

The policy of making monetary transfers, he warns, is the most used to manage poverty. So it doesn’t really solve it.

The portrait of poverty in Mexico can be seen through a cold numeral that offers more blacks than grays:

Poverty is stagnant and affects more than 40% of the population since 2008, and income poverty affects half of the population at least since 1992 (≈53%)

There is poverty all over the country. The highest percentages are in the South (60-70%), but in the North, with even lower percentages, the number of people is very high.

The incidence of poverty is higher in rural areas (57%) and for the indigenous population (73%), but the majority of people in poverty live in urban areas (70%). In 100 municipalities, 40% of the population lives in poverty.

Poverty in Mexico is created in the labor system: around 40% of the population has had a labor income lower than the cost of the food basket for almost 20 years.

One of the main causes of poverty in Mexico is that wages have been stagnant for 20 years.

In Mexico there are millions of jobs that are factories of poverty: 71% of employed people and 67% of those who have a job (salaried and subordinate work) do not earn enough to buy two basic food baskets.

The jobs that are factories of poverty are also in the formal economy: in large (55%) and medium-sized companies (61%) and in the economic sectors with the highest profitability

From this portrait of Acción Ciudadana, it can be inferred that Poverty in Mexico is a huge challenge that concerns the whole of society, not just the governments. What is lacking? Political, business and citizen will to achieve decent work, guaranteed social rights and quality education. They will not be achieved in a six-year period, but the foundations must be laid to achieve them in the medium and long terms.

glimpses

UNIVERSAL LICENSE.- The decree creating the universal license that provides for the tariff and phytosanitary exemption was published in the DOF, and a list of suppliers/importers who will be free to request regulation from the respective authorities is created. They free them from tariffs and grant them phytosanitary and zoosanitary self-regulation. A very risky decision is made.

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