Bogota Blogger

The disparity between the rich and the poor here is startling to me–I knew it existed, and I know it exists in many places, but living with it on a daily basis is a whole different thing. The Colombian economy, however, is said to be booming, and by all the macro-economic standards, I imagine it is. I wonder about individuals, though, and how quickly and how much life (economically) is improving for the 95% of people here who are not rich.

I’ve felt since I first came here that, if the rich were willing to allow a middle class to develop, life for them would also improve dramatically. Lots of the rich here are very well-educated, and I’m sure they can theoretically understand that as well, but on the practical level, they’re not willing to give up their dirt-cheap servants and ability to earn money in a system that gives them every advantage. Opportunity here is minimal, to my way of thinking, though I’m sure it’s a much better situation than might be found in lots of other parts of the world, including most of Africa and Asia. (I recently spent ten days at a conference with a friend who’s living in Pakistan, and his stories put mine to shame.) Still, though things may be improving, the Colombian economy is open to very few–education and hard work don’t very often lead to success as they would in a G-8 kind of world. I know personally a couple of engineers and economists who can’t find work of any kind.

The money is controlled by the few, and those few are in political power to insure that they continue to control it. As one Colombian told me, if you are friends with someone who gets into political office, then you have it made. Political office means jobs and contracts for your family and friends. Banks are structured to make outrageous profits and to keep the poor from even being allowed to participate in the system. (Most people here don’t even have accounts–they cost too much–and without an account you’re shut out from tons of other opportunities.)

Still, money is flowing into the country, and many industries, including construction, are booming. The government does have some programs to help people improve their situations, but these programs are paltry compared to the way most of government is structured to perpetuate the system as it exists. The Free Trade Agreement that Colombia badly wants with the US is something that poorer people I’ve talked to are hoping will be their salvation. As one taxi driver told me, he believes that the US has good businesses, not like Colombian businesses that don’t treat people fairly, and when the US businesses come take over, everyone’s life will improve. Though I’m pretty sure he’s badly mistaken, it says a lot about the kind of defeatist attitude that’s been bred into most people here.

A friend of mine is a computer genius who works for Microsoft, and his father is an example of the rare Colombian who worked his way into the middle class. Jose, my friend, makes a ton of money because he got a computer programming degree, is great at what he does, and found a job with a US company that pays talented people. His theory is that a big part of the problem is a cultural fear of risk-taking.

In the US and other totally capitalist systems where anybody who’s smart or talented or hard-working enough can find a way to become successful, risk-taking is a large part of many success stories. But, according to Jose, Colombians are afraid of that. At one point when he was considering quitting Microsoft to go out on his own as a consultant (and Microsoft would have hired him back the next day at twice the pay to work on projects for them), his mother begged him not to, thinking he’d starve to death without a secure job with an established company.

One somewhat hopeful development did happen last year shortly after I came. A few banks started offering home mortages for a rate of 1% per month (about 13% per year) on a 15-year loan with 30% down. Those might sound like pretty unfavorable terms to someone from the US, but the rates make it at least remotely feasible that someone who isn’t rich to begin with might be able to somehow afford to buy a home. Rates previously had been something like 24% per year.

So, even if a lot of the avenues to success that we take for granted in the US aren’t available to most Colombians, according to Jose’s theory, there would have to be a large attitude shift in most individuals for the situation to change. But, who knows, maybe if the opportunities come, an increase in the number of those success stories could breed that attitude shift.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.