Poorly worded but you know what I meant. I hope.
The middle class on upward are now paying taxes. That explains most of their losses over Chavez's terms. The level of tax avoidance in Venezuela was staggering.
Why is it sops to the poor if their income grows disproportionately? The not-so-poor are doing noticeably better but are not seeing the same level of gains as the truly poor. Why is that a problem? Until we bring the standard of living of the poorest among us to a decent level why shouldn't the majority of gains be skewed that direction?
For unexplained reasons the not-so-poor are opting out of many of the gains they could take advantage of. This is a real mystery in Venezuela and the Government is trying to figure out just why this is so. Why do the not-so-poor refuse to take advantage of the Mercal discount stores or the Barrio Adentro health care program? Their income is flat but they have opportunities to take advantage of social services that nearly half of them decline.
I don't know that I'd label that polarized. The upper income people almost always do well so it's not exactly surprising that they would capture some of the gains of high crude prices. The middle class are also seeing gains in the last two years for the same reason. It is only the lowest paid formal economy wage workers that have not experienced income gains in the last two years. If everyone except the lower-middle class is experiencing income growth why label that polarized income gains? The problem seems to be that they aren't poor enough to get the benefits intended for the truly poor but also not wealthy enough or situated socially to have the power to demand wage hikes. Venezuela knows this is a problem and is working on it.
John Thornton