“The formal in Bolivia is informality and that means that between 75 to 80% of the economy is informal. It is an extremely high figure according to international standards”, says Iván Velásquez, project coordinator of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Bolivia and author of the study. “Informal economy and informality in a multiethnic society” where it also delves into the incidence of a “scenario of poverty at the urban and rural levels, high rates of unemployment, underemployment, gender inequality and precarious, insecure and poorly paid work.”
Velásquez emphasizes that “informality is the escape to be able to generate income more quickly because the economic units in this sector are not looking for large sums of money, but the subsistence of the moment.”
Populist speech “to the rescue”
Recovery depends on the measures taken by governments, but in any case there will be marked differences and more inequality that will lead to long-term consequences.
In Colombia, for example, in the midst of an intense electoral campaign towards the presidential elections, the polls point to employment as the main concern of citizens. And in this area the candidate of the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro, who leads the polls, raises the ‘Guaranteed Employment Policy’ .
In this proposal, it places the State at the center so that it acts as the employer of last resort, offering employment with a basic salary to those who can and want to work, but cannot find a way to do so in the private sector. The approach seems to reflect a populist tendency that could have serious consequences due to its high costs and its possible effect on productivity.
On the other hand, in Argentina, President Alberto Fernández, who announced his candidacy for re-election this week, is eloquent with a speech that sells the reactivation of the economy and goes further: “We have recovered work, but we have to recover the salary , which fell between 2015 and 2019, and that requires asking the powerful to properly distribute wealth.” An idea so general that it does not settle in the complex reality of that country.
🎙️ “Now that we’ve started the economy and got work back, I promise you that every minister and government official is going to work so that the salary is recomposed”. President @alferdez in the act for the Day of the Worker and the Worker pic.twitter.com/pnOvy5r44M
– Alberto Fernández Press (@alferdezprensa)
April 30, 2022