This girl is an Ecuadorian from the community of Yaracruz whose parents were among a group of farmers that tried to acquire a fertile plot of land in 1983. The farmers agreed to pay fifteen percent, 3 million sucres, or about $120, of the total 20 million sucres and the Ecuadorian government agreed paid the rest. The farmers paid the 3 million, but the rest was never paid. Meanwhile, inflation soared out of control until, fifteen years later, the property was worth 3 billion sucres. The landowner claimed that the farmers had to pay the rest of the 450 million sucres (around $17,000) that was the new fifteen percent. This pressure due to this disagreement built up and led to the destroying of the farmers' homes, crops, and in some cases, lives.
When the farmers first tried to purchase the land, Ecuador was just coming out of a seven year period of military reign. Those first few years of democracy were unstable, and the economically shaky years that followed added to that instability. In fact, much of the huge inflation was caused by the then President of Ecuador, who changed the official currency from the sucre to the dollar, leaving the wealthy wealthier and the poor scrambling to try and change their useless sucres into dollars.
This, to me, stands as a warning against excessive government involvement in the economic activities of a nation. While government has it's place, uncontrolled participation in an economic system often has dire consequences for that system and those affected by it
"Ecuadorian Sucre (ECS) Currency Exchange Rate Conversion Calculator." Calculator for Ecuadorian Sucres (ECS) Currency Exchange Rate Conversion. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2013.
Halberstadt, Jason. "Ecuador Government Overview & History." Ecuador Economy Government. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2013.
Salgado, Sebastião. Migrations. New York: Aperture. 270-71. Print.
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