Socioeconomic Disparity in the Neoliberal Period
In recent history, humans will remember the COVID-19 pandemic, but in places across Latin America, the effects of the pandemic are still hitting hard. In an online press conference given by the Social Panorama of Latin America 2021, the issues stemming from the pandemic are shaped, “despite the economic recovery experienced in 2021, the estimated relative and absolute levels of poverty and extreme poverty have remained above those recorded in 2019, which reflects the ongoing social crisis. The crisis has also exposed the vulnerability in which a fair share of people in the middle income strata live, characterized by low levels of contributions to social protection and very low coverage of non-contributory social protection.” Not only has there been issues stemming from the pandemic, but also throughout the neoliberalism period, there has been a social gap in South America that has split countries apart. Latin America’s failure to control COVID only added to an existing problem that has been growing vastly.
The ideology of neoliberalism changes humans into consumers and their choices are measured by what they buy or sell. In neoliberalism, there are 'winners' but also 'losers' who are in charge of their own success. However, this is a major issue in South America as the economic gap is so large. For example, looking at Brazil’s economic profile, one can find that the top 1 percent holds 28.3 percent of the country’s income which is the second highest amount in the world behind Qatar. Despite this extreme amount of wealth at the top, 33.5 percent of the population lives with less than $5.50 per day with the bottom 13 percent of that living with less than $3.20. This glaring difference in the rich vs. the poor is an issue that is seen around the world. As economist George Monbiot puts, “[t]he rich persuade themselves that they acquired their wealth through merit, ignoring the advantages - such as education, inheritance and class - that may have helped to secure it. The poor begin to blame themselves for their failures, even when they can do little to change their circumstances.”
In a survey by the OECD, compiled date reflected different aspects but one that highlights the inequalities caused by neoliberalism for low income homes specifically.
For Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, it would take more than six whole generations for low income families to reach the mean income of the nation. This is not due to a lack of natural abilities in these families, but rather the structure they are born into. Education systems are lacking across Latin America and that is one of the reasons why they are left to suffer on their own. Below is a different study comparing Latin American countries and countries that have abundant natural resources with the average number of years in school. In the year 2000, the average deficit of years of schooling for a Latin American student was 1.4 years below the worldwide average and nearly three years behind wealthy countries.
The same study found the average years of schooling in South America was 5.8 years with 17.9% of the population having no education whatsoever and only 11.8 percent of all students in Latin America even make it to tertiary school. Looking at the natural resource abundant countries on the other hand, they have 11.1 years of schooling and a 38.7 percent rate of tertiary education. For these countries also, they only have a 1.7 percent rate of people with no education at all.
Behind almost all economic issues in South America, political and racial issues are the main cause. The wage gap that has grown over time due to poor political and economic policies, has created many social barriers especially for the lower classes. Those who are not as privileged as the elites in South America can lose access to education due to things outside of their control. Not only can they lose education but they could lose access to health treatment, water or other public services.
Economic and political issues stem at the beginning of almost all social issues across the world. However, in Latin America, the gap between groups of people needs to be minimized as it is creating a violent social gap. Riots are in the news in Latin America a lot due to the elitists running the government and it is an opportunity for people to speak. The color of skin is now becoming an issue in a continent that was shaped by all different races including European and indigenous. There must be extreme planning put into place by governments in South America to improve infrastructure especially to those who are unable to reap the benefits of public goods. Monbiot’s quote, “[t]he rich persuade themselves… ignoring the advantages,” is something that is necessary for change in this humongous social gap. Social movements will have to happen to produce change from those with money to understand and empathize with their fellow citizens. With such high wage gap disparities, implementing accessible education through taxation of the upper class could lower the generational gap that has already grown so large. Education is the most important aspect to improve generational wellbeing. The SUSI program at Miami University was created to help this issue exactly.
