Adiós to poverty, hola to consumption

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9645142#top

Reading Report 25

Title: Adiós to poverty, hola to consumption
Source: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9645142#top
Date: Aug 16th 2007

Vocabulary:
Winding: bending or turning; sinuous
Depots: A warehouse or storehouse
Amid: in the middle of; surrounded by; among
Grinding: To shape, sharpen, or refine with friction
Ubiquitous: existing or being everywhere, esp. at the same time; omnipresent
Ply: a unit of yarn
Plethora: overabundance; excess
Nadir: the lowest point; point of greatest adversity or despair
Remittances: The sending of money to someone at a distance
Abjured: to avoid or shun
Clawed: To scratch, dig, tear, or pull with or as if with claws


Summary:
During the last years, Latin American governments have maintained an average stability which allowed a big amount of poor people to improve their lifestyle. These people have reached a new level among social classes, broadening the circle which embraces a middle class community. Those who are now part of this middle class society are the ones who spend more money consuming goods. The sad part is that in the same way, lot of people suffered a top-down change by becoming poor. In Latin American countries the main problem resides in the incredible fragility of the economic system.


Personal Reaction:
I don’t know quite much where lays the dividing line between middle class and poor people. In my particular case, my husband has a great salary, I think. We can live our lives worrying less than others about reaching to the end of each month. If needed, we can borrow some money, knowing that we will be able to give it back in short time. We have our own house and van, which also is more than the average expected. Among the people we know, none of them being our age have neither the things we already have, nor the possibility of having them soon. In fact, even when my husband doesn’t have such positive perspective, he is free to go hunting and fishing every other weekend, or several times a year. What’s more, I can also decide going to seminars in other provinces without doubting if we would have the means or not. Of course, I agree on the aspect of living in a time of high consumerism, but if you don’t take advantage of the possibilities you may have, what’s the sense in saving forever and ever, by depriving your family and yourself of things that, urgently needed or not, provoke some kind of pleasure which is priceless.