Concepts such as well-being and development cannot be understood if it is not on a par with economic growth, because if there is no economic growth, wealth cannot be generated, and without wealth the State cannot collect via taxes.
“Necessarily, to generate development, sustainable growth is necessary. Growth is generating added value and wealth. The salary is based on productivity and the government, in the sense of collection, by generating wealth you can collect much more”, commented Alejandro Valenzuela, CEO of Banco Azteca at the Expansión Summit.
Mexico, even before the pandemic, registered an average growth of 2%, when around 4% is needed. “To achieve wealth you need growth,” added the manager of Banco Azteca when participating in the panel Well-being before business.
Another problem in Mexico is the lack of a long-term vision, something that has not made it possible to realize the growth that is required to generate well-being, lamented Valenzuela.
“With the fiscal space that we have right now, and with the problems of pensions and debt expenses, it will never be enough for us to have 25-year projects to close gaps, of any kind,” anticipated Alexandra Hass, director of Oxfam Mexico.
Mexico has implemented a policy of increasing the minimum wage, as well as a universal pension for the elderly, which will allow access to resources and reduce income inequality, said the general director of Infonavit, Carlos Martínez.
Another factor that complements economic growth is well-being, which is what generates happiness, said Enrique Majós, CEO of Gentera.
Oxfam’s Alexandra Hass recalled that for decades, Mexico attracted foreign direct investment under the argument that it had cheaper labor than other countries.
“Did that achieve greater well-being? Around 2018 it was evaluated how many people are in poverty, 53% of the Mexican population was in poverty; it is the same percentage that was in poverty 20 years ago. Now maybe more because of the pandemic,” Hass said.
By having more than half of the population in poverty, he added, it is the economic system that is not working.
Mexico, a country of inequalities and with problems that are known and have been talked about in recent decades, you cannot talk about rights separately, explained Carlos Martínez from Infonavit.
“There are 650,000 abandoned homes and, on the other hand, there are eight million homes that are left behind, that is, they are not in sufficient condition to be considered homes that generate well-being,” said Martínez Velázquez.
“The right to health cannot be understood if there is no hospital nearby; you cannot understand the right to education if there is no school close to home. If you don’t concatenate rights, we can’t generate well-being,” added the Infonavit director.
Regarding the abandonment of housing, Martínez Velázquez maintained that having abandoned cities, although in sum an industry that is equivalent to 6 points of GDP moved, in the end Infonavit was left without paying for those houses and the people, were left without savings when requesting the credit and there were no more people with housing.
In that sense, he recalled, that as of 2022 the homes financed by Infonavit must have a primary and a secondary school within a range of 2.5 kilometers, as well as supply, health and recreation centers.
Continuing with the issue of access to credit, in a country where more than 50% of the economically active population (EAP) is in the informal sector, access to financial services must be democratized, seeking “total financial inclusion,” he said. Majós de Gentera.
