By Ariel Torres*.
How poor is Argentina really? I ask because we tend to take naïve refuge in what we call poverty figures. In linguistics, words say much more than what the speaker intends, and we tend to put it that way, we say that there are poverty figures. As if poverty belonged exclusively to others, to the dispossessed, to the humble, to the most needy. Or as if it were just a figure.
Worse still, in one of those delusions of ours, Argentina went so far as to hide poverty figures, with the excuse that it was a way of stigmatising the most vulnerable. It is the height of that deviant vision in which the poor are set apart from the rest, from those who are not poor.
Not only is there no worse stigma than being hidden, but no organism is impoverished in parts. In a living being, in a nation, in a planet, everything is connected. Publishing poverty figures is a duty of politics, but in addition to becoming more caring and alleviating poverty as much as possible, we need to read these figures with adulthood. Although one would dream of zero poverty, when the number exceeds 40 per cent, it ceases to be an economic figure and becomes a mirror.
* For The Nation.
After reading these lines, Plan País reflects:
When the mirror returns a painful image, denying it should not be an option. Acknowledging it and taking action, doing things differently, is the only way to achieve the transformation that will bring us relief and well-being. It is no longer a question of hiding figures, blaming or patching up our structural problems.
Generating wealth and making it circulate is the only possible way to combat poverty. Economic growth, thanks to a concrete and effective development plan, is not a declamation, it is an unavoidable responsibility.
❗️Debemos address the urgent need to create quality jobs, to attract the investment that makes this possible, to generate growth and social mobility through a stable economy that provides the vision of a possible prosperous future. We are getting poorer at every turn, while at the same time we have everything to grow.
It is up to us, the citizens, 💪🏼.
Let us not waste the opportunity to transform what the mirror reflects back to us.
🤔 How do you think that mirror could give us back a better image? What are your proposals for Argentina to emerge from its decadence?
We invite you to share your thoughts and proposals by entering in this link.
#YoIWantAPlanforMyCountry 🎯