Poverty in Mexico

The Cause of the poverty rate

Low quality of education, a lag in education is inevidable to a lag in progress
- Mexico has been fighting for years against teacher unions that ask for a lot and give a little in return,
- That is why the quality of public education is much lower than what it should be.
- Public education is difficult to obtain and is inefficient
- This is a severe issue because poor early education leads to a poor human development index (HDI),
  - which in turn shows low achievement and aspirations of future personal adn professional advancement
  - which results in the famous poverty trap.

Inequitable distribution of income, Mexico’s wealth is unevenly distributed among its people
- where 10 percent of the nation’s wealthiest have 42.2 percent of all income
- 10 percent of the nation’s poorest have 1.3% of the remaining income.
- In spite of efforts by government officials during the past three administrations such as
  - transition to globalization,
  - the NAFTA agreement;
  - Mexico has been unable to create efficient public policies in order to compensate for
    - the distortion of its market
    - the poor distribution of national income
Absent competitive principles, The Mexican economy does not support unprivileged businesses, considering its current standards regarding monopolies, both in the public and private sectors.
- By law, there are public monopolies:
  - government-owned companies controlling oil and gas, electricity, water, etc.
  - Private sector monopolies and duopolies are found in the media, television, telecommunications, and raw materials.
- For this reason, clear principles of competitiveness that offer incentives to private investment, both national and foreign, are needed in order for jobs to be created.

Transparency and Corruption, The lack of government transparency has led to administrative corruption, market inefficiencies, and income inequalities.
Which will be elaborated on in Rachana’s part

Mexico has made significant progress in improving the quality of life for its population in recent decades.
Despite this, Mexico ranks low in the Better Life Index on many characteristics of happiness when compared to other countries.
In terms of income, jobs, education, health, environmental quality, social ties, safety, and life satisfaction, it falls short of the national average.