[NousDefionsDoc]

Ok. I disagree with the concept as stated of the middle class. I also disagree that it is newly formed. So here's my .02 pesos.

What you have are the very poor, the very rich, and everybody else. I don't know what the percentages are and they very from country to country. This is not new and I would bet, when looked at objectively, most people fall in the "everybody else" or what could be considered middle class in this place, at this time, with these people.

Now to me, a big problem in LATAM is urbanization. Its one thing to be broke in the rural areas, its another thing entirely to be broke in the urban areas. The very concept of broke is different. To me, being broke is having electricity, water and telephone shut off for failure to pay. And no food. A campesino may not care that much if his one light bulb doesn't work, he gets his water from a well and the phone is at the post office. Plus, he can live for a month on yucca and rice.

With urbanization, the relative lack of wealth is much more noticeable. You see street people begging in front of the mansion. Since its easier to see, it offends people more. It facilitates them protesting about it. It facilitates the studies on the inequalities as a theme for a thesis. The reasons for urbanization are varied - in Colombia, it is mostly displacement to escape the violence. In many others it is economically driven. People know more about what is going on - technology, etc., and they want their share. So they move to town thinking that's the way to get it.

Bogota was designed and has infrastructure, by my eye, for about 2-3 million people. It has a rough population of 8 million. Quito, Caracas, Rio, etc. have the same problem. So you have an overcrowded prison with all the associated conflicts and issues. Plus, they spend everything they have to get there. When it doesn't work, they have no way to leave. In comes the criminal element to pray on them, exacerbating the situation, followed by the political element to recruit them.

In Colombia, there is a big problem with absentee landowners. They can't run the risk of living and working on the farms because of the violence. So they let them go to seed. What benefits they provided to the campesino class are erased, as the campesinos don't have the education level to operate the farms at a level to be competitive in today's world market. So the campesinos hate the landowners who are never there because they can't be. And the Gs are whispering in their ears the whole time.

I do agree that a class tends to shy away from accepting a "lower" class. Human nature - one does not wish to be reminded of where "There but for the Grace of God..." Doesn't the same thing happen in the US? You been hangin' out with donald trump lately? I don't think there is a a society that isn't in conflict. Everybody is always trying to get what the next group has.

Social mobility - given what we have above, where are they going to move to? If they become land owners, they will face the same problems the current land owners do and have to move to the city to survive. In the city, if you have infrastructure for 3MM, doesn't it follow that there will only be opportunities for 3MM? Where do we get jobs for the other 5MM that shouldn't be there in the first place? So mobility in this case is not restricted by lack of training, its restricted by lack of opportunity. They are competing with 5MM others just as qualified for 3MM jobs. And they are not competing nation-wide, because the nation is shrinking due to the violence or urbanization. 99% of the population lives on 1% of the land (I made those numbers up). In all these countries, there are vast areas uninhabited - violence, lack of infrastructure, "Save the Rainforest", etc. And the population is growing by leaps and bounds, not least due to the Catholic stance on birth control.

Its like Ethopia - you can be the best farmer in the world, but if it doesn't rain, its better to go into the UHaul rental business.

I agree to an extent about the recruiting in the universities. What you have are mostly the middle class (its not that hard to go). They see that they will still have a struggle when they graduate, they are offended by the poverty they see (without really knowing why it is that way). They are idealistic, like all young people. They are away from home for the first time. Then they listen to professional academics all day, many of them communists, tell them it is the fault of the US, the puppet government, the IMF, capitalism, whatever. Then add in the romance - Che, will I get to wear a beret, unite! Professional agitators giving them incentive. Plus, most universities are off limits to police and the military except under martial law, so there's no real fear of punishment. Its rather like Jane F in the '60s. She knew, no matter what she did, nobody was going to really screw with her. Her daddy was an icon, the movement had some popular support, especially among academics, judges, lawyers, etc. She was a young, famous, pretty actress. Where's the risk? Old, poor, ugly campesinos go to jail, not people like her.

At the end of the day, most of them don't even know why things are the way they are. And I don't think they really care. They rebel becuase they are at a rebellious age, and others take advantage of that to steer them in a given direction.

There are poor people! Get your beret and AK and take to the hills!

Its really fun to talk to them when they can't get away. I have a niece, young, pretty. Boys like this used to come around like hounds. So I would sit them down and make them voice the whys and wherefores of their political philosophies. Make them tell me who the guy on the T Shirt was. Yes, some of them had Che T Shirts. LOL. They would do really well, regurgitating the standard doctrine, until we got past the part they had memorized. Very disconcerting to have a gringo tell you more about your country's history than you know.

My wife studied psychology. She used to bring her study group home. They once picked terrorism as a topic for a dissertation and invited me to participate. LOL. Great days those were.