We hace middle and upper class relative to our own levels of income.
A person with a median income in the US probably lives much better than a person with a median income in Bolivia, yet they're both middle class relative to their own countries.
A person with a median income in the US probably lives much better than a person with a median income in Bolivia, yet they're both middle class relative to their own countries.
You’re right everything is relative, but I think US media often gives off the impression of South/Latin America as a completely poverty-stricken landmass that people can’t wait to escape from so they come by foot or boat from Honduras or Cuba or Venezuela or Ecuador or Nicaragua or something.
Also, I know people who own large properties in Colombia and a friend of mine owns a 500 cattle ranch in Bolivia (called La Pradera)... These folks are very well off, even by international and US standards. There is significant wealth in South America if you look in the right places.
And many parts of Colombia are very metropolitan and modern, which has come as a surprise to people I know in the US/Europe.
Either way, both spellings come from the same person (Christopher Columbus/Cristoforo Colombo).
People think, oh, imperialists messed with you, no wonder you’re poor!
No, it’s local mismanagement. Look at Panama. From banana republic to a democratic republic. People have to work for it. Their government has to be more honest than not. Eliminate corruption as much as possible.
Conversely look at San Francisco. So much money and so much corruption and waste. A decent government and it would be such a better place for everyone, including the poor.
Things can usually be fixed at a more immediate level if one can absolve everyone else of blame and do the hard work oneself.
That’s not to say there aren’t large-scale problems which require collaboration to solve, though.