“Latin America and the Caribbean is the most unequal region on the planet”
(Transcription of Karina Batthyány's Column)
(In InfoCLACSO – April 12, 2023)
Our Latin American and Caribbean region suffers from widespread inequalities that have persisted for centuries, because we can even find some elements linked to inequality in our region's colonial past.
These inequalities, far from being overcome in our region, are taking on new dimensions and deepening in some areas. Specifically in Latin America and the Caribbean, the poorest 50 percent of the population receives only 10 percent of the income, while the richest 10 percent receives 55 percent.
These figures clearly demonstrate the depth and structural nature of inequality in our region. Furthermore, in terms of wealth, the concentration is even greater, with the richest 10 percent holding almost 80 percent of the wealth, while the poorest 50 percent possess only 1 percent.
This brings us to a central element within this matrix of inequality: poverty in the Latin American and Caribbean region. First, more than a third of Latin Americans are poor today—that is, 34 percent of the population, which is equivalent to 209 million people. Furthermore, as we emphasized in March, Women's History Month, women are the ones who suffer the most within this context of inequality and poverty.
ECLAC shows us different dimensions associated with this phenomenon of poverty and how it affects women. Regarding economic autonomy, we find that in Latin America and the Caribbean, one in four women has no income of their own; that is, they lack money and monetary resources that would allow them, among other things, to make certain decisions.
Meanwhile, if we look at the case of men, 13 percent have no income of their own. This reveals a gap that also speaks to gender inequality. Furthermore, poverty in general, and extreme poverty in particular, have increased as a result of the pandemic.
Poverty is particularly prevalent among vulnerable populations or those on the borderline between the middle and lower classes. When any element affecting their income is lost, they quickly fall into poverty. Here, I want to address the issue of informality, specifically regarding those working in the informal labor market. "Informal" can mean many things, including people without any form of social protection. These individuals in informal situations, what we might call the informal middle class, are particularly vulnerable to falling into poverty in the face of any economic fluctuations that occur in our country.
And finally, when we talk about these situations, we have to highlight the low levels of savings, that is, the limited savings capacity that many people in Latin America have. It is precisely these savings that, in many cases, allow people to cope with various circumstances, such as the pandemic or any other critical situation they face.
Thirty percent of Latin Americans could survive without income for between one and three months, while one in four would last a maximum of one month with their savings, and the savings of 15 percent would not last for more than a week.
We must not focus solely on income-related indicators, but also incorporate other dimensions into the analysis of both poverty and inequality in particular. Since we now have inequality metrics that can be compared across regions, one thing consistently stands out about our region: it is the most unequal region on the planet, and this inequality has persisted despite the efforts of many countries in social policies over the last few decades.
This shows us once again the depth of the phenomenon of inequality and the inertia with which it is transmitted from generation to generation. This inequality, also at the regional level, is related to the low levels of social mobility generally observed in Latin America and the Caribbean. This social mobility is precisely what becomes key to the challenge of reducing inequality, a goal that in our region seems unattainable.
Recently, CAF (Development Bank of Latin America) released one of its 2022 reports on Economy and Development, which states that the driving force behind inequalities is the lottery of birth, that is, those elements that are determined by the origin of people associated with their family structure, their place of residence and all those variables that are ultimately determined by the context of people.
That 2022 CAF report points out that today, many children, if we look at the educational aspect, surpass the educational level attained by their parents. However, while the children of less educated parents surpass them by reaching low educational levels, such as primary school or, in the best-case scenario, a completed secondary education, the children of more educated parents are the ones who manage to complete higher education.
Here another dimension emerges that is present in the discussion in our countries: the issue of education and advancing educational levels across generations. We can see this intergenerational persistence in educational levels in our region, where 90 percent of children of parents with a high school diploma or higher—that is, a complete secondary education or higher—will also have that level of education. And 80 percent of those who complete basic education have parents who also had that same level of education.
These are dimensions we need to start addressing, and more and more organizations in our region, including CLACSO, are providing evidence of them. This leads us to reflect on what we can do, both from an academic perspective, but primarily in terms of knowledge generation, to develop policies that can advance the reduction of inequalities.
And the policy options are of a varied nature, of course they depend on the life cycle of people and will include interventions that will have to do with the very moment of gestation, with infancy, with childhood, with adolescence, but also with the moments of transition to adulthood and of course also later with old people and their care.
And here another issue emerges in terms of these structural knots of inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean: the question of care. Inequalities are a structural axis of our Platforms for Social Dialogue, and the dimensions associated with care and the policies are as well.
– What damage have meritocratic discourses done in deeply neoliberal governments? You speak of very marked characteristics regarding the logic of where a person is born; access is very pronounced when it comes to structuring the level of inequality that each of those people experiences and suffers…
Absolutely. It's yet another perspective that seeks to place the emphasis on the individual level and not on the social and collective responsibility we all share as members of society regarding these issues, as if the possibility of escaping poverty or overcoming certain elements or dimensions of inequality were simply a result of personal effort or lack thereof. Furthermore, we need to consider how to approach public policy with a life-cycle perspective that addresses these issues throughout different stages of life. And, as you rightly pointed out, we shouldn't focus the analysis or emphasis on the individual, when these are social and collective problems that therefore require collective responses as a society.
