by SAUL ESCOBAR TOLEDO
A group composed by women and men, called Nuevo Curso de Desarrollo (New Course for Development) based at the National University of Mexico recently published a document to propose a set of measures to change the current economic policy in Mexico. This proposal responds to a diagnosis of the current situation: at this point of the year, the serious social damage inflicted by the health and economic crisis can already be observed. As we know, in Mexico as in many other countries, there was a great economic disruption caused by COVID. Millions of people ceased to receive income from their work. However, the Mexican government has not carried out sufficient support measures to compensate for these losses. The result is easy to guess: many households have been rapidly impoverished. It is estimated that between 10 and 16 million people in April earned much less to the point of not being able to acquire the basic food basket , a situation that has continued for many of them during May, June and July. And while it is true that more and more workers are returning to their jobs, the losses caused have not been repaired.
The lack of support has led many people to abandon their confinement to seek an income for their sustenance. This, in turn, puts the population in greater danger. The Group considers that this dynamic can be corrected: contain the pandemic, protecting sources of employment and revive the economy are goals that can be achieved at the same time, they are not necessarily contradictory.
The paper recognizes the progress made before the health crisis: there was a significant increase in minimum and contractual wages; the right to a basic pension for the elderly was expanded; and support was extended to other vulnerable groups. But the situation changed dramatically, and yet the economic policy did not.
This situation – says this group – must be corrected. Therefore, an emergency strategy is urgently needed for the remainder of 2020 and for 2021. This new course could return some of what families have lost and, above all, make economic reactivation faster.
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