“Latin America has the highest level of income inequality in the world, and has had for decades. This inequality is, of course, accompanied by striking inequalities in many other areas, especially in access to health care. How this came to be is a very long and complicated historical subject; what can be done about it is equally complex. As matters stand now, some Latin American nations have chosen to adopt a moderate neo-liberal economic model and to depend on strong government policies to confront inequalities; others have opted for a more radical economic model that rejects neo-liberal economics in favor of some form of state-directed capitalism or socialism. The next decade will be the playing field on which these two will compete, both for domestic (electoral) as well as for international support. Whether one or the other will prevail, or whether some sort of synthesis might emerge, is not clear. But what is clear is that the lives and well-being of millions of people will be affected, and therefore making a mistake is likely to prove devastating indeed.”
Dr. Henry Dietz, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin
