mexican economists

I was looking up what economists say about Mexico, and found that some people took offense that Lula da Silva said that Brazil is ahead of Mexico in it’s production rate (Sorry I don’t have English version links to add here–have not done my translation homework!). In defense of Mexico’s “great economy” there were interviews and people talking about Mexico’s oil in comparison to that of Brazil, etc.  I’m not an economist so I don’t have educated opinions to add.  I did sense something big missing in the picture of discussions, not only in the Mexico/Brazil debate, but Mexican economy, period. People are so focused on PIB (GDP in Spanish) that they forget the human factor. One man was talking about Mexico not having a problem with poverty; that the real problem is in the production potential that is not expanded. Great. I agree. I’m all about production. But here’s what I think–

People are always talking about “solving the problem of poverty”. I think we need a giant paradigm shift. Let’s not solve the problems that we create–the government creates poverty by getting in the way of people’s personal production.  It’s not that the poor don’t work hard; they put in their last drop of blood in effort and only find walls to hit them on the face. Walls that say “you are not allowed entry to this level”.

Solving the problem of poverty will not happen through government programs that give out money here and there and every now and then pave a road.  It’s only going to happen through a total transformation of the education system, and, in letting people choose for themselves how they want to live and who is going to govern their community. There also needs to be regulation as to how many Wal-Marts (apologize for the cliche) are allowed to turn local economies upside down.

We want people to work hard and compete, but we block all access to any tools with which to do so by impeding their access to quality education and basic civil rights, as well as the rule of law in the area of business. Solving the problem of poverty is only going to happen through solving these major issues first.