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Why socialism is back in vogue in some places Date published: 11/29/2005
BOSTON--Seemingly unrelated The riots in France revealed unrest in poor neighborhoods where young people of North African origin told reporters that they just want jobs and inclusion. At the Summit of the Americas in Argentina, mobs took to the streets to protest against President Bush, while Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Venezuela rejected the U.S.-desired Free Trade Area of the Americas. A few months earlier, rioters in Bolivia, demanding more power for Bolivia's poor and nationalization of the nation's oil and gas companies, brought down the government. In Jordan, bombings of three U.S.-based chain hotels--Radisson, Days Inn, and Grand Hyatt--furthered the bloody pictures of 2005. The common thread: Radical extremists--and not just radical Islamists--are fanning the flames of discontent among poor people who feel left behind by global capitalism. We can write off each event as the actions of young hotheads or the violence of crackpots led by despots. But honestly, with the gap between rich and poor growing in many places, do sensible people really think that the poor and disfranchised will sit still and take it any longer? Of course, poverty doesn't cause crime. Of course, we should punish violent extremists to the max. But let's not give them excuses either, or help them find a willing pool of recruits who have nothing better to do. Take Latin America. The region has the world's largest disparities between rich and poor, between highly educated and barely literate. Youth unemployment in big cities hovers above 20 percent. Rio de Janeiro is said to have the world's highest murder rate. On a recent trip to Sao Paulo to work with a large company, Affluent Latin Americans, like the well-to-do in Johannesburg, Paris, or Miami, can barricade themselves in gated communities only so long before the violence hits home. If we don't care about helping the poor struggle out of poverty because it's the right thing to do, or because it's in the long-term interest of our nation, how about poverty reduction in the name of safety?
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