Redacción You measure: Confirmation of Failure
Chronicles of the institutionalization of poverty for electoral reasons
Milton Friedman once said: "Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government measure", and the Ministry of Social Development (MIDES) is living proof of that.
Created in 2005 under Tabaré Vázquez's government as part of an "emergency plan," its budget has not stopped growing since then, doubling in this last government term. When Frente Amplio left power after 15 years, one would expect this ministry to no longer be necessary, as they promised. However, it seems they needed 15, 20, or who knows how many more years.
The success of social programs must be measured by the number of people who manage to leave them, not by how many depend on their existence. If more and more citizens require them, it is clear that the system has failed. Rather than a solution, MIDES is the culmination of the State's failure to generate an environment where people can prosper.
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Dependence on subsidies creates political hostages, subjected to the will of bureaucrats who can condition their livelihood as it suits them. It is no coincidence that certain politicians use these programs as a tool for electoral control, nor that MIDES's budget grows year after year, not in direct aid, but in salaries for its own bureaucracy.
Friedman also left us an alternative: the negative income tax. Instead of funding an inefficient structure, those who earn below a certain threshold would receive a direct subsidy. This not only incentivizes work and self-sufficiency, but also eliminates a parasitic bureaucracy that exists only to justify its own permanence.
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MIDES should not exist. It doesn't fight poverty: it manages it, perpetuates it, and lives off it. If there were a real desire to help those most in need, there would be more efficient, less costly ways without intermediaries or officials.
Today MIDES squanders over 600 million dollars a year. Where does all that money go? Because it is clear that it is not to lift people out of poverty.
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