Jorge Capelan, Managua con Amor, July 29th 2019
https://managuaconamor.blogspot.com/2019/07/con-trabajos-en-el-estado-n…
The Ministry for the Family Economy (MEFCCA) distributes
credit support to women micro-business workers in Managua.
A meme has been circulating on social networks with the following message: "We ask that all Sandinistas who are unemployed be placed in a dignified job instead of a coup-plotter. This is a totally erroneous demand and gives the impression that it was written by the enemy in order to sow confusion and division. Let's remember that there are millions of Sandinistas in the country but the unemployment problem is the same despite political beliefs.
First, the misnamed "soft coup" caused the loss of at least 120,000 jobs. Replacing those jobs cannot be by Nicaragua's public sector, which has 130,000 workers, the vast majority (90,000) of whom are teachers and health workers; another part are members of the army and police (30,000) and the rest are civil servants (about 10,000).
State jobs are financed by taxes paid by all of us under the principle that whoever earns the most contributes the most. I believe that there is still a lot of progress to be made in this direction, but not by bankrupting companies with taxes that are so high they jeopardize their economic viability. Ultimately, the strength of the public sector depends on the productive development of the country as a whole.
If the programs being promoted, for example, hospitals and highways that are being built, have an impact on national production, all of society and also the public sector will be strengthened.
The State plays a fundamental role in Nicaragua by creating the conditions of sovereignty, stability, promotion of policies and investments in order to guide the development of the country with social justice. But the economy is in the hands of the private sector within which the popular economy (small and medium-size businesses and producers) has a decisive weight, occupying almost 95% of the companies, employing some 3 million people (more than 70%) producing nearly half of the GDP and controlling most of the income and expenditure in the economy.
It is that part of the economy where the popular sectors become economic protagonists with a power never seen before in the history of the country. It is because of this sector that the coup plotters could not paralyze the country. However, the struggle of this sector is to gain decisive spaces in the field of finance, international trade and the use of the wealth it produces.
This sector is the one that is being especially supported by the State with property titles, training, financing, fairs of all kinds, laws that give it greater access to markets, and so on.
But there are other aspects related to the demand to "employ the unemployed Sandinistas instead of the coup-mongers," arguing that there are many capable Sandinistas who are unemployed.
First, we would have to see if it is true that the unemployed coup-plotters receive work in the state while the Sandinistas do not. I don't think that's true in general. If the state were full of coup-plotters, then project execution rates would not be 90% or higher, among the highest in Latin America. If the state were full of coup-plotters, then it would have been paralyzed during the coup, but it was not. Except in places like Masaya and Jinotepe, the state continued to function, schools remained open, ENACAL wells continued to draw water, and so on.
Beyond any criticism that can (and should) be made, Nicaragua's public sector is very efficient in terms of Latin America. Surely there are people who actively participated in the coup in state institutions and there are also people looking to conspire from those institutions, but that is not a generalized phenomenon and irresponsible campaigns making generalizations do not help to favor reconciliation and work efficiency.
Second, just because a person is right-wing, he cannot be fired from work. Those who were involved in crimes or those political positions that by their nature depend on the loyalty of the worker are another thing. But the government would be giving a very bad signal if it started to fire people just for being right-wing. That is not the country we want to build.
Finally, there are people who believe that decent work is synonymous with work in the public sector. That's not true. First of all, it can be said that dignified work is work that one dignifies by giving it the importance it deserves and claiming the dignity of those who carry out such work. As we explained at the beginning, the public sector is not the main generator of wealth and employment in the country, but the private sector, which in turn has a very high social component: that of the popular economy. The general wealth, and the general dignity of work, will be conquered as we develop the economic base of the country and the people appropriate the fruits of the wealth they produce.
That is why, rather than requesting jobs in the public sector, which actually have a marginal effect in solving the employment problem, let us request more property titles, more support for entrepreneurs in the popular economy, more efficiency in the work we do in all sectors, especially in social programs and government works, and so on. In that sense, it is better to ask for land to work than to ask for a job in the State. There are college graduates who can't find a job in their area, it's true, and we have to see how to resolve these situations, but ultimately they can only be resolved by developing the country's productive base.