Social Inequality and Poverty in Latin America
“Latin America has moved from paradise to poverty as a result of historical patterns that have developed over the years” (Charlip 2011 p.1) Throughout this semester we have completely dove into the Latin American society. We’ve been introduced to culture, history, economics, politics, and all the factors that have shaped the Latin American society to what it is. Throughout all the readings and papers on Latin America it’s been established that, like all society’s, this one isn’t perfect and is in fact far from ideal. Latin America is well known for it’s poverty stricken lands and high rise of social inequality. The United States of America and Europe have been huge reasons as to why Latin America has been shaped to the form it is. When the Europeans discovered Latin America in the late 1400s early 1500s they brought over a way of life that a majority of the indigenous people desired to have, which was the beginning of their despair. They saw how these two countries were wealthy and orderly, giving rise to power hungry elites. They wanted “The American Dream” to have wealth, economic stability, democracy and success in their lives. They wanted to follow in the footsteps of these countries in hopes that they would live a similar life that was so appealing to them, but these other countries had their own problems. Latin America loaning money from these countries in efforts to modernize and capitalize their country only set them back, leading them to high rates of poverty and social inequality. The elites of Latin America are those born into wealth and there is a very little percentage of them. The elites I have learned are another huge player in the social inequality and reason for the poor living conditions for the majority of the population. “We argue that the most destructive pattern has been the continuing tendency of the elites of the region to confuse their nations well-being with their own.”(Charlip 2011...