Reflexiones sobre el contexto económico y político del hábitat de las personas de bajos ingresos

Resumen

Mr. von Knebel concentrates his analysis on the new constraints that stem out of the international financial situation in which developing countries have to pay a considerable amount of their exports outcome for servicing their foreign debts. This is a severe hindrance for financing development projects, let alone social infrastructures for the poor in squatter settlements and housing. In this context, it does not seem assumable that the State will divert the resources needed to overcome poverty in these countries, on the contrary, most probably military budgets and such will continue at their present levels and suffer no cuts leaving very little space for social development budgets. Two are the alternatives open to the poor in order to revert this process: one, increase its social pressure on the State in order to obtain social reforms needed; two, to use their own resources to overcome their present state. Neither of the alternatives seems to lead to success on its own but it is necessary to merge them into one combined action between State and Í€œpobladoresÍ€; democracy seems a prerequisite in this alternative.

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