From the political sphere, through the economic and the social, Venezuela is today a nation divided into two very different parts. The South American country has been living politically polarized for almost 20 years and socioeconomic inequality is becoming more pronounced.
It is no longer just about opponents and Chavistas, but the most tangible reality is that of social classes. A majority that is in extreme poverty that, according to various studies, reaches 80% of the population, and a small group that can access certain “privileges.”
Some economists and politicians see the latter sector as an “elite” group that has become richer, while others point out that it is the rest of a middle class that, they say, is about to disappear and of which there is no data. official, because the revenue is not public nor is there a definition of its own.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS?
According to the latest study on the Venezuelan middle class, published last February by the consulting firm Anova Policy Research, the real median income of this sector of society, “regardless” of the definition of the concept used, has fallen more than 70% since 2010.
“And today, approximately 9 out of 10 families considered middle-class at the beginning of the decade are no longer so,” adds the signature document that uses various concepts to define it, including a study by the Bank. World Cup 2011 that considers this sector as one that has income that allows it to protect itself in negative events and with a certain degree of economic stability.
This theory sets the lower income threshold at $ 10 per capita per day and the upper at $ 50, adjusted for purchasing power parity. According to this and the firm’s data, the percentage of population living with this income range went from 62.0% in 2010 to 15.5% in 2020.
The consultant clarifies that to reach the conclusion of the “abrupt and sustained” fall of the middle class conducted a merger of various theories and surveys of NGOs in Venezuela on households and notes that erosion for this sector began the 2013 with the “revenue shock”.
From that year, Venezuela faces a hard economic contraction that experts in the area allege to the policies implemented by the Government of the late president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) and that continued with their successor Nicholas Maduro .
The economist and former deputy Angel Alvarado summarizes these policies in three: the destruction of economic rights (the fall of the minimum wage to less than a dollar today, the expropriation of companies and thus the disappearance of jobs labor), country over-indebtedness and the destruction of the oil industry.
The middle class “is basically destroyed when jobs are destroyed and jobs are destroyed when the economy enters an economic contraction,” Alvarado argues, arguing that this sector “disappeared” in Venezuela.
DISPARITY
In the Caribbean country, there are sectors in large cities where the crisis seems non-existent. The rise of small new businesses, the sale of imported products, and brand new vehicles — an industry that has been paralyzed for years — are a sample of this sector of society that has certain privileges.
They are people who also have access to foreign exchange and a better quality of services, despite failing at the national level. Their purchasing power allows them to combat power outages with power plants, pay for a water truck to cope with the lack of this resource, or a more stable internet service than the state offers.
But despite having the purchasing power to combat the ravages of the crisis, their quality of life conditions are also affected, as there are inevitable situations at least with money.
The other large sector can hardly access any of these “privileges”. According to data from the Living Conditions Survey (Encovi), conducted by country universities, 80% of the population is in extreme poverty.
The study takes into account the minimum income of the population, malnutrition, services, education, employment or housing conditions, among others.
These people fail to get a basic food basket let alone consume protein, such as red meat or chicken, and have to face days without water, electricity, gas or the internet.