The Good Life in Ecuador

A little background about "Buen Vivir", in which Ecuador is mentioned as a main proponent:

http://www.palgrave-journals.com/develo … 1186a.html

"The Buen Vivir has been the target of heated criticism. Critics see Buen Vivir as a mystical return to an indigenous past, lacking any practical strategy. This is not the case, in some contexts, Buen Vivir presents precise proposals and strategies. These include reforms in legal forms, introduction of environmental accounting, tax reforms, dematerialization of economies and alternative regional integration within South America."

Never before have so many words been used to say so little. The criticisms are valid.

jessekimmerling wrote:

Never before have so many words been used to say so little. The criticisms are valid.

Ja ja, point taken!  But, at least they *do* have a plan - and they also do accept more socialism/community in their lives, as a people, so this fits in with that worldview...

Sometimes for latinos, the process or the journey is more important than the end destination of actually getting anything done...one can make that same criticism of us, too...

Do they have a plan? Plans typically contain the details, the nuts and bolts of what you are going to do, not just a broad outline of the direction you intend to go. That was all middle management doublespeak and nonsense but with a socialist twist.

There is a complete version in Spanish - the English version is just a summary.

i haven't read the Spanish version (and may not).  You could read it and report back to us!

The only clear plan seems to be decentralization... making communities the managing authorities for pretty much all aspects of economic, cultural, and private life, while providing a vague socialist interventionist outline for those communities to use in guiding their decision making. Sounds a bit like communist collectives to me. The government is only playing lip service to this nonsense while they continue to auction off the national resources to the Chinese. The purpose of this document is to serve as a smoke screen that creates just enough confusion and indecision among the masses to allow the current government to cling to power a bit longer.