Latin America’s new challenges
Saturday, June 4th, 2011[Translation of an article from El País of Madrid, Spain, for May 19. See original here. Ricardo Lagos was president of Chile from 2000 to 2006.]
By Ricardo Lagos
Since the second world war, growth of the gross national product has become practically universal as a standard economic measure, which has in turn become the final object of development policies. There is a history here; since the industrial revolution it has been thought that an increase in production of goods would bring with it greater well-being and better living conditions for the members of a society. Nevertheless, today for the first time we can verify that in the 30 richest countries of the world, growth of the economy does not account for the realities of a society. It does not necessarity imply an improvement in the social indicators of health and education.
Great advances have been made in the reduction of poverty in Mexico, Brazil and Chile. (more…)