‘Living proof that you can spend money on the poor’: Utopia comes to Mexico City
Excerpts:
"The mayor’s office believes the utopias have driven down crime in a neighbourhood that used to record one in every five of Mexico City’s murders. Serious offences such as assault, robbery and murder have dropped by between 25% and 74.1%, depending on the utopia....
“You know the programme is working when the rich are complaining that the poor have a gym and a swimming pool,” says Robles-Durán. “This is so pioneering, as it is an entirely new political economy where every citizen, no matter how poor, should have access to these services. And it is the first case in 20 or 30 years that Mexico has broken with the neoliberal dogma that there is no money for this.
“This is living proof that if you want to, you can spend money on the poor.”
Impoverishing the public realm is part of the neoliberal impulse for "labor discipline." Life is horrible, if you're poor, so you had better take that crappy job...that's the labor discipline message. Mexico is leading the way toward remedying this
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