A Bolivian Mirage of Prosperity

Presidential Candidate Evo Morales is the long waited champion of Bolivia’s indigenous majority, a group that has long been left out from Bolivia’s Economy and Politics. It precisely this, their exclusion, that has brought them poverty, misery and despair for many decades. (Read Hernando De Soto condensed version of the Mystery of Capital here to understand this indispensable key insight in 10 minutes.)

Evo Morales, having experienced poverty growing up, thinks he understands why the vast majority of Bolivians are poor. In the following statement, Evo Morales explains:

“The worst enemy of humanity is capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neo-liberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that the national states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated."

This statement is pure evidence, in Evo Morales case, that there is an immense difference in having experienced something and understanding it. Ignorance is perhaps Bolivia’s worst enemy. Socialism and Collectivism, which represent the abolishment of liberty and private property, are disguised in popular and appealing phrases like: we call for “decolonizing” the state and installing a new “social economic model” favoring the “peasant family economy” and guaranteeing social rights and “distributive justice” for indigenous communities. These phrases seduce the ignorant mind and create a mirage of prosperity that Bolivians will never reach.

Evo Morales calls for the violation of the institution of private property by the nationalization of hydrocarbons and other natural resources. Keep in mind that it was foreign multinational companies that originally made investments in Bolivia to give Bolivians better, cheaper and more reliable access to energy. Nationalization would equal robbery to those foreign multinational companies. (In no civilization in the world is robbery tolerated) After nationalization, foreign investments in Bolivia will virtually disappear along with an exodus of Bolivian capital leaving the country. This will represent the start of a downward spiral for Bolivia that will in the future manifest in the form of more poverty and agony. The excellent book The Commanding Heights gives examples of countries that choose the path that Evo Morales is advocating and what a great disappointment it was.

On this December 18th, Bolivians will go to the polls and elect their new President. There is a decent probability that Evo Morales gets elected. If so, another enemy of liberty and freedom will join Chavez and Kirchner in carrying out policies that will sink Latin America’s poor and middle class deeper into agony, poverty and despair.