An overview of Latin American traps

The experience and lessons of "Latin American trap" are profound and deserve our deep reflection. Its profound enlightenment is that in the process of modernization, we must adhere to Scientific Outlook on Development, put people first, coordinate overall, coordinated and sustainable economic and social development, educate all citizens to establish correct values, attach great importance to national education, fundamentally change, improve and innovate the ideas, roads, models and strategies of economic growth and social development, and build a harmonious society, thus jumping out of the "Latin American trap" of economic and social modernization development.

Summarizing the lessons of excessive urbanization in Latin America, at least the following four points are worth learning:

First of all, urbanization must be based on agricultural development.

The backward agriculture and wrong agricultural modernization model in Latin America have led to a large number of farmers being pushed out of rural areas prematurely and flowing into cities in disorder. Agricultural foundation is one of the key factors that determine the mode and road of urbanization. Urbanization in developed countries is mostly based on agricultural progress, and a virtuous circle of mutual benefit has formed between agricultural development and urbanization. Different from the natural urbanization based on the substantial increase of agricultural productivity in developed countries, the urbanization in Latin America did not originate from its own economic development, but was driven by external forces when domestic agriculture did not make a breakthrough and agricultural productivity did not reach a corresponding height. After World War II, most Latin American countries unilaterally equated industrialization with modernization, believing that industrial development takes precedence over agricultural and rural development, and even that industrialization is the best way to solve agricultural problems, especially rural-urban migration. Therefore, in the adjustment of economic structure, they adopted the policy of emphasizing agriculture over agriculture, which aggravated the decline and backwardness of agriculture. The unreasonable land system-big property right system and the agricultural modernization model formed on this basis make a large number of landless farmers lose their survival foundation in rural areas. Latin American countries are rich in agricultural resources and should be well utilized, but the agricultural modernization model chosen by Latin American countries fails to give full play to the potential of agricultural production. On the contrary, due to the wrong mode of agricultural modernization, when cities can't provide enough employment opportunities, a large number of agricultural population are pushed out of agriculture and rural areas prematurely and blindly poured into cities. As a result, the urban population explodes, the food supply is insufficient, the urban poverty intensifies, and the domestic purchasing power is difficult to improve. Facts have proved that accelerating urbanization in Latin American countries on the basis of relative stagnation of agriculture not only makes rural development increasingly poor, but also leads to urban poverty and crisis, which makes urbanization go astray.

Second, we must curb the excessive expansion of the inefficient traditional tertiary industry.

The excessive expansion of the traditional tertiary industry in Latin America has led to an abnormal concentration of population in cities. The tertiary industry not only occupies the largest proportion in the employment structure, but also its output value accounts for the largest proportion in the GDP. Compared with backward agriculture and weak industries, the tertiary industry is the most reasonable part in the development of Latin American industrial structure. It not only absorbs a large number of employed people, but also gives great support to the development of the national economy. The tertiary industry should be an industry that can promote the benign development of urbanization. However, if we further analyze the relationship between the tertiary industry and urbanization in Latin America and developed countries, we will find that the nature of the tertiary industry in Latin America and developed countries is fundamentally different. The tertiary industry in developed countries is the product of benign interaction with industrialization. Based on industrial modernization, it is a modern production service industry and life service industry with high added value. Such as finance and insurance, information consultation, real estate and tourism. The tertiary industry in Latin America is mainly the traditional life service industry, and the producer service industry is in short supply. Different from developed countries, the tertiary industry in Latin America does not grow naturally on the basis of industrial and agricultural development, but because of the excessive expansion of the industrial base. Due to the weak industrial base and the wrong development model, the ability of industry to absorb labor is very limited. Due to the lack of skills, a large number of farmers entering the city can only enter the simple life service fields such as low-end catering, wholesale and retail, and housekeeping. In fact, this only transfers the underemployment in rural areas to cities, which not only makes the tertiary industry a place where all kinds of hidden unemployment are concentrated, but also causes the excessive expansion of the inefficient traditional tertiary industry. Due to the relatively backward industrial development, the traditional tertiary industry has prematurely become the main driving force to promote urbanization in Latin American countries. Facts have proved that this urbanization is not from the needs of urban production bases, but is driven by the disproportionate expansion of low-end service industries, and it is difficult to form mutual promotion and benign interaction between industrial economy and urbanization process. Due to the lack of modern production and service industries with modern transportation, communication, finance and information as the core, the tertiary industry in Latin America cannot develop continuously in structure and quality to support urbanization; The slow development of urban economy also affects the improvement of people's living standards and the demand for life services, thus inhibiting the upgrading and scale expansion of the tertiary industry structure. Although the tertiary industry in Latin America has absorbed a lot of labor, the tertiary industry without the backing of industrial modernization can only temporarily alleviate the employment pressure and cannot solve a series of serious urban problems caused by it. The excessive development of Latin American cities and the excessive concentration of urban population are inseparable from the vicious expansion of the tertiary industry. Judging from the current level of productivity development and labor productivity in Latin America, the expansion of the tertiary industry has obviously exceeded the necessary limit. It has affected the further development of the economy.

Third, we should avoid the urbanization road centered on the rapid expansion of big cities.

The wrong urbanization road is the main reason why Latin America is caught in excessive urbanization. When Latin America began to industrialize and entered the stage of rapid urbanization, most people only saw the positive factors, and thought that this rapid and concentrated urbanization was the inevitable product of industrialization, which could provide the market and labor force for industrialization and promote the development of cities. When a large number of rural people flood into cities, the urban population increases rapidly, and a series of urban problems follow, they think that this is inherent in urbanization and Latin America's "dependent capitalism" development model, and it is meaningless or even wrong to consider eliminating the consequences of urbanization under the condition of accepting the "dependent capitalism" development model. Although a few people pointed out that compared with the economic structure at that time, there was "excessive" urbanization in Latin America, and the urbanization speed should be slowed down and the urban development should be dispersed, this view was never taken seriously.

The urbanization of Latin America has always been centered on the rapid expansion of big cities. Excessive agglomeration of urban development makes population and investment gather in big cities. In order to cope with the uncontrolled population growth in big cities, the government can only increase investment in big cities, so the gap between urban and rural areas has further widened, triggering a new round of population migration. This vicious circle is an important reason for the excessive urbanization in Latin America.

Fourth, it is the responsibility of the government to guide and regulate the population flow in a timely and reasonable manner.

The absence of government management and the mistake of policy orientation are the important reasons for the runaway urbanization in Latin America. First of all, the transfer of rural population to cities in Latin American countries has been in disorder for a long time. The government's attitude was first laissez-faire, and then it was helpless, failing to contain and guide the tide of domestic immigration in a timely and reasonable manner. Different from developed countries, the reason for the migration of rural population in Latin America is not that the improvement of agricultural productivity has caused a large number of rural surplus labor, but that a large number of farmers flock to cities because of unreasonable land system and wrong rural modernization model. At this time, the industrial base of Latin American countries is still very weak and does not have the ability to absorb a large number of jobs. The large-scale transfer of rural population is bound to have great blindness, and timely and reasonable guidance and regulation is the unshirkable responsibility of the government. However, Latin American governments believe that farmers' migration to cities is a natural phenomenon of urbanization, and a large number of rural labor outflows can alleviate social contradictions in rural areas, so they never guide and regulate the spontaneous migration tide. Secondly, during the period of rapid urbanization, the Latin American government allowed its urbanization to develop along the road centered on the rapid expansion of big cities, which led to excessive population pressure in big cities. The social contradictions in rural areas, which should have been alleviated, have also moved to cities, causing many more intractable urban problems. At this time, it is difficult for governments to curb the tide of immigration. In order to alleviate the pressure, the government only increased the investment in urban infrastructure, improved the social living conditions of the city, led to the increase of urban gravity, more immigrants poured in, and Latin American urbanization fell into a vicious circle.