Neoliberalism: Factory of the poor

Abstract

In Mexico, an acceptable quality of life has not been achieved for the entire population. On the other hand, there are severe contrasts between the living conditions of a minority sector of the population, less than a third of the population, compared to an impoverished majority that is in the process of deepening its problems of deprivation and marginalization. Inequality is a fact that is not only statistically significant, but is also manifested in areas such as the lack of effective and permanent access to education and health services, rural poverty and the marginalization of indigenous communities, precarious urban settlements lacking services and, among others, particularly in Latin America, the intense emigration of the labor force abroad.

The failure to develop an industrial apparatus capable of exporting manufactured goods before 1984-1985 weakened, in the face of the decline in oil exports and the high obligations to service the external debt, the prospects for future growth in the country. The major changes in the strategic direction of development introduced in 1985 with the opening of trade and incentives for the export of manufactured goods came late in this regard. Consequently, the country has not been able to reduce unemployment or the growing rates of marginalization, which was aggravated by high fertility rates. The government responded to this with birth control programs (family planning), but it turned out that the labor force had already been born and in a short period of time was putting pressure on the labor market by demanding jobs. Currently, around one million young people of working age are entering the labor market, against an absorption capacity of the productive apparatus of approximately 400,000 jobs.