The South African Civil Society Information Service

Ecuador Creating Alternative to Neo-Liberal Model

3 Feb 2012

International Living magazine has just declared Ecuador the number one place in the world to retire. Yet the country seems to otherwise get fairly negative press in the West. What makes Ecuador such a great place to retire? It could be the massive amount it is investing in social infrastructure from monies collected by increasing taxation on the rich and changing the royalty structure of oil companies operating in the country, where the government now receives 87% of all oil revenues -- and actually spends it on the people.

It's possible to tax the rich without affecting growth and investment and use that money to generate employment and improve the conditions of the people, argues economist Jayati Ghosh.

Ecuador has a transformatory approach to economic development, she says. The country is trying for a middle path between capitalism and socialism.

And in this middle path, the notion that there can be one centralized state that controls an undifferentiated mass of workers, does not exist. It's very much a focus on citizen's rights and on collective rights, contends Gosh.

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