Versión Español
EspañolDuring his speech at the opening of the Pifo-Hummingbird highway in Ecuador, President Rafael Correa was critical to entrepreneurs:
“They view themselves as a good example of the growth of this economy, saying ‘We produce 90% of national employment.’ But did they become poorer as a result or was their motivation financial? Yes, it was financial. They did not do us any favors. They profited. So we thank them, but they really are not an example of anything. Enough of this arrogance.”
To hear this from a president almost feels like a bad joke. It’s sad that we are living this reality in today’s Ecuador. Rafael Correa claims profit is bad, that generating wealth is bad and that employers should become impoverished in the process of employing. That’s pure, raw communism.
To eliminate poverty in Ecuador, we need to generate more incentives for wealth creation, not diminish them. Wealth in the sense that all of us are be able to make ends meet, which can be achieved by creating incentives to attract investments and savings in a free market.
But Correa is the arrogant and conceited one — believing, locked in an office, that he and other bureaucrats can manage, control and direct 16 million Ecuadorians? That’s not how it works.
A person who fights every day to make money for whatever reason — whether it be raising a family, or securing a better future for him or herself — can’t possibly be in the wrong here. In fact, we need more of this kind of people. They have the “rich” mentality.
We must reject the socialists and mercantilist politicians who speak about protecting and giving privileges to certain companies at the expense of the rest of us.
President Correa, despite having purchased two aircrafts and throwing weekly parties at the Carondelet Palace, seemingly still feels a twisted revulsion for money. Though he has more funds than any other president in the country’s history, he shows a distate for those funds when they can are intended to go toward the country’s progress.
- Read More: Rafael Correa and his war against companies
- Read More: Rafael Correa is right: Ecuador wants to rest
- Read More: The damage Correa’s populism has made to Ecuador’s economy
But there are big differences between being poor and having a poor mentality. The first is a matter of resources; the second is an ideology.
Having a poor mentality is not thinking or feeling like a poor person. A poor mentality is a person who is afraid, disgusted or repulsed by money, and it does great harm to the country.
A president that has a poor mentality tries to make it seem like a bad thing that people want to profit from their own hard work or investment. It might also explain why his “tax-mania” has sought as much money from our pockets as seemingly possible.
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There’s a pleasure in creating jobs, in knowing that your business serves a father, a mother or a young person — to feel that your product meets the needs of a customer — and of society. Our president doesn’t seem to understand that.
Politicians who in theory hate money or find it repulsive that people want to make it should not reach the presidency — nor should those who claim to support progress but do not speak of opportunities for all. We must reject these mercantilist politicians and socialists.
We need change in Ecuador, a change that mentions work and opportunities, that talks more about freedom and less about obstacles, so that there are greater incentives to invest and create money for the future.
