Who Owes and Who Pays? The Accumulated Debt of Neoliberalism

Abstract

The imposition of the neoliberal capitalist model in Latin America remains the principal obstacle to development with dignity and rights. This model immerses poor countries into debt, loots their natural resources and imposes public policies that contradict genuine social development. The pursuit of global development goals through increased social investment could help make payment on the social debt, but this process is vastly limited, especially by the external financial debt. Developing countries cannot manage both debts while their own resources are compromised by privatisation, de-nationalisation, heavily conditioned development assistance, and free trade agreements. A global human rights perspective on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) helps us to anticipate their limitations and contradictions. In Latin America, the MDGs fail to adequately reflect the social debt posed by the region's enormous social inequalities. Those who most owe are really those who most benefit from the debt of others. Those who most pay are the excluded and vulnerable segments, namely, African descendants, indigenous peoples and the region's children. Current trends indicate that time is running out for reaching the MDG targets set for 2015. Neoliberalism's inability to comply with existing global commitments illustrates the urgent need of constructing an alternative development model. The moment may be ripe for change in Latin America because there are hopeful signs of cracks in the imperial order.