Yearly Archives: 2016
Poverty and Inequality
Luis Rubio “Solving poverty without addressing the problem of inequality of opportunity,” says Gonzalo Hernández Licona de Coneval, “could imply that the relevant participants [in the society] would be same ones as always”. In effect: it is impossible to deny the fact of inequality. But there are two pertinent questions: first, what should we do […]
Arbitrariness and Impunity
Luis Rubio The daily life of Mexicans intersects with innumerable suppliers of goods and services and governmental entities, very few of which materialize for the citizen and consumer, respectively, as their raison d’être. A patrimonial vision persists and endures in which the citizen is at once the subject and captive consumer, both of these the […]
Inequality Is Not the Problem
Luis Rubio In today’s world there is no more divisive and politicized issue than inequality. Inequality has supplied interminable rhetorical fuel to politicians and activists, turning Thomas Piketty into an international celebrity and triggering innumerable “occupation” protest movements worldwide. What is not obvious is that emphasis on inequality solves anything. No one can dispute the […]
Cynicism As Strategy
Luis Rubio “When people stop trusting any institutions or having any firmly held values, they can easily accept a conspiratorial view of the world”. That, says Peter Pomerantsev*, is the ulterior objective of the Kremlin’s strategy of propaganda and control: generating cynicism among the population so that it will accept the command of the government. […]
Consequences
Luis Rubio It’s surprising that some are surprised. In the last five decades the country has lost all of its bearings: it changed its strategy of economic development, maintained the system of privilege (increasingly corrupt and visible) and, on top of everything else, undermined its own credibility on incorporating a belief system that hollowed itself […]
Cuts
Luis Rubio Two have been the reactions to the announcement by government officials of budget cuts: some complain of the impact that these will exert on concrete programs, on public investment or on aggregate demand. Others criticize the cuts as too little, too late. If one observes, no one defends governmental spending for its virtues […]
Maladroitness and Opportunity
Luis Rubio The strangest thing about the Peña-Nieto government is its total indifference toward its own legitimacy. It is probable that the presidential team’s calculation lies in the eventual redemption that the projects and reforms it has undertaken produce, but that would imply that its actions in past years would render results of their own […]
The Grand Imbalance
Luis Rubio Charles Dickens, the celebrated British author who told of the enormous dislocation and impoverishment that the Industrial Revolution represented, began The Tale of Two Cities with extraordinary perspicacity: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it […]