“Oportunidades” for Occupy Wall Street

The Occupiers in America have one chief concern: economic inequality.

The Mexicans have one stunning solution: Oportunidades.

Impoverished Families of Mexico look to Oportunidades for financial aid and stability.

What is “Oportunidades?”

It is a conditional cash transfer anti-poverty program by the Mexican government that has revolutionized economic equality.

The Mexicans social welfare program differs from many in the developed world.  Rather than paying out blanket benefits to beneficiaries specific criteria must be met before financial aid is released.  Recipients must meet educational, health, and nutrition goals.   Already the program covers 5.8 million families or 30% of the total population.

What are the Criteria?

Education, Health, and Nutrition.

Investing in the human capital of the future generation is of primary importance for Oportunidades.  To be put in layman’s terms, the Mexican government works to make future citizens be self-sufficient and perhaps even give back to their country through employment and taxes.

Guaranteeing students attend school is vitally important.  For each student attending school families receive larger cash transfers.  In addition, for each successive year of education the cash transfers grow significantly. Rather than working in the fields engaged students are getting an education.  Some even progress to college and acquire class changing jobs.

Health and nutrition are also essential ingredients in the Oportunidades miracle.  Cash transfer payments are delivered as long as mothers keep regular medical checkups for their children and enroll themselves in classes detailing disease prevention.  Other workshops educate the mothers about dietary needs of their families and the best methods to get the most nutritional food on the table.

Has Oportunidades Been Effective?

Here is a quotation from an article by Tina Rosenberg the New York Times concerning Oportunidades.  Judge the program for yourself:

“In Mexico today, malnutrition, anemia and stunting have dropped, as have incidences of childhood and adult illnesses.  Maternal and infant deaths have been reduced.  Contraceptive use in rural areas has risen and teen pregnancy has declined.  But the most dramatic effects are visible in education.  Children in Oportunidades repeat fewer grades and stay in school longer.  Child labor has dropped.  In rural areas, the percentage of children entering middle school has risen 42 percent.  High school inscription in rural areas has risen by a whopping 85 percent. The strongest effects on education are found in families where the mothers have the lowest schooling levels.  Indigenous Mexicans have particularly benefited, staying in school longer.”

How Would Oportunidades America Help the Occupiers?

Below is one key demand from the manifesto of Occupy Wall Street : NYC.

CONGRESS PASS THE BUFFETT RULE ON FAIR TAXATION SO THE RICH AND CORPORATIONS PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE & CLOSE CORPORATE TAX LOOP HOLES AND ENACT A PROHIBITION ON HIDING FUNDS OFF SHORE.

The Occupiers exclamation amounts to the government enforcing the graduated income tax on the super-wealthy so that the middle class can return to prosperity.  Oportunidades is a physical manifestation of the Occupiers dream.  The Mexican anti-poverty program redistributes the wealth of the nation, through taxes, to help and empower the impoverished and middle class.  This is what the occupiers need.

America needs Oportunidades just as badly as Mexico did.  Currently, 15.1% of Americans live in poverty. 10.5% of Mexicans live in “extreme poverty.”  Oportunidades is one of the primary reasons why the United States has been surpassed by Mexico on taking care of its own people.  The Occupiers must add reformation in anti-poverty programs in order sustain today’s America and empower future  generations.

Are There Any Pilot Oportunidades Programs  in America?

New York, ground zero for the Occupy Wall Street, is ironically the flagship of the American anti-poverty program.  The private program was entitled Opportunity NYC–Family Rewards.  It takes Oportunidades of the rural Mexico and optimizes it for the urban setting.  Initial results were promising.  The program quantitatively decreased poverty and day-to-day hardships, increased school grades and attendance, proliferated use of health insurance, and even increased dental care.  Despite these promising beginnings, under capitalization and a short trial period doomed the program.  It is no longer funded.

Instead, Bloomberg pays riot police to prevent the impoverished  Occupiers from taking what they were once given.

The Abusive Men of India : The Most Violent and Sexist Society in the World

India, a nation of engineers and doctors is on the forefront of every major technological innovation, severely lacks in fulfilling basic liberties concerns such as gender equality.  24% of Indian men have sexually abused their wives.  One out five have inflicted forced sex on their wives.  60% believe to violently discipline women is just and morally correct.  These rates are twenty to thirty times higher than most of the other surveyed countries.  This breach of sexism will inevitably stunt India’s economic and political growth and demote its international status if it has not already corrupted the culture beyond repair.

What were the Specific Results of the Survey?

Several other devolving countries were surveyed; Croatia, Chile, China, Mexico, Rwanda, and Brazil.  Croatia was the most progressive country, 82% of Croatians support gender equitability between men and women. China, Mexico, and Brazil had levels surpassing 50% of gender equitability while Rwanda reported only 30% of men treated women as equals.

The positive trends have also emerged from the several thousand men and women they surveyed across India.  Their rates of violent crimes, outside the home, such as robbery or physical fights were some of the lowest in developing countries.  Meanwhile Croatia and Mexico reported significant rates of violent crimes, each roughly around 20%.  However, these nations are the battlegrounds of fierce drug wars and bitter public protests fighting large scale corruption.  These nations inflated violent crime rates are acts of self defense and desperation; while the sexually depraved acts of the Indian husbands are that of lust influenced by a sexist culture.

Why Does This Happen?

The culture of India has never been favorable to women.  Historically, throughout rural India it is sociably acceptable that men who are dissatisfied with their wives set them on fire; this is a genocidal custom the Indian government has been unable to halt.  In some regions of India women are viewed as inferior creatures who are only useful for sex and taking care of the household.  In politics, despite one out of every three positions being designated only for female candidates the women who are elected are figureheads representing their male husbands or family heads. (9)  Women are generally seen as subservient, it is not surprising when it comes to sex these overall cultural trends dictate the terms of the abusive engagements.

Who Published This Survey?

The International Center for Research of Women published these awe-bringing findings.  There chief goals are to crate gender equality across the world and have done notable work in Africa and Southeastern Asia.  They also spread AIDS awareness to developing nations, set up food drives to feed starving women, and support abused women wherever they are found.  Their results here in India were most likely first hypothesized then bitterly actualized.

How will this Abusive Trend Affect India?

While other nations retreated from the credit tsunami during the 2008 recession India’s middle class stood firm and held back the tide.  Their economy suffered only a slight blip and continues to grow at a rate of roughly 8% per year and is only second in growing GDP to the Chinese.  With a well educated middle class erecting a stable economy in India while they are simultaneously pursuing international interests its economic stability is sound, allowing men across India to pursue careers in all walks of life.

While women are rarely officially forbidden they are continually persecuted, they are outnumbered by men in every employment field and are kept in the extreme minority.

Without major social reform India will not be able to continue this aggressive economic trend.  Compared to China, who has a similar population, India will only be able to staff roughly half the jobs that their gender equitable counterpart will be able to because of cultural sexism.  China pushes there remaining girls towards success, while the Indian girls are hidden from having an education.  India will continue to grow rapidly as long prospecting employees remains high.  Once they run out of applicants India’s economy will stagnate and enter a recession, while the gender equal countries such as China will continue to bloom.

It pays to treat your wife well.