Monopolies and working impediments in Colombia

Personally, from what I have seen in my parent’s experience in their work I could think there many working conditions, laws, and forms of corruption that have been making it impossible for people to find a stable job. Starting with capitalism, we will find out ways in which this situation can improve and the real roots of the problem.

Speaking about the country we live in; capitalism is a much-needed spirit that we need to apply to our lives every time more and more. It is an idea where the factors of production are privately owned and money is invested in businesses to make more profit.  Capitalism itself follows what Adam Smith called the natural laws of economics which are, self-interest, competition, and supply and demand. These three laws can improve our economy in a way in which people work for themselves, make an effort to make a better product, and they would meet the demand in the market economy. In the country we live in – Colombia – we could say there is capitalism but not well exercised. All we see here is corruption between the government and companies, monopolies made by big companies who disguise themselves under the names of different brands, eradicating competition and making it extremely difficult for someone to start their own business, all of that accompanied by a government that is promising subsidies to delinquents instead of promoting work and improvement of the economy and of course, people chose to receive subsidies than to work.

If we are to talk about labor, law and working conditions, disguised as worker protection organizations, the country discriminates against the most vulnerable. The minimum wage is extremely close to a medium salary, in addition, 50% of the people in Colombia earn less than the minimum wage, and the extra non-salary costs are more than 50% of the salary of the person. This makes it hiring excruciating for small and mid-size companies since they are affected by the monopolies that the government anonymously promotes and therefore cannot afford to pay all of those costs, if we didn’t have a monopoly, small and mid-sized companies could have a better income.

Maybe unions could have some benefits for workers. They engage in collective bargaining and speak for all the workers to improve their work conditions, grievances, higher pay, and job security, for sure this is the best possible thing for workers. However, unions have restrictive work rules that forbid employers from being more productive and taking responsibilities outside their job descriptions. In the end, unions encourage “group think” and could discourage individuality and the law of self-interest.

The government instead, if they want our economy to improve, should stop supporting monopolies and corruption for their own personal wealth. At this point, I have to agree with the Laissez-faire economics which states that if the government allowed free trade the economy would grow stronger. In addition, the government should create a more flexible labor market that promotes employment and a generalized employment protection system that discourages informality.

While I am addressing a very specific problem in the Colombian government, this is the same everywhere, how visible and advanced it is can vary, but politics are the same everywhere, they all follow very similar patterns and we can find corruption in every single government. We will always find those twisted minds that will support misfortunes for the country’s economy – monopolies – just to get their ration of money, mindlessly destroying a country’s economy bit by bit, and making it a hostile terrain for new starting businesses. All of this is allowed by many government members who will just receive some jam – money under the table – to stay shut and receive their benefits.

At this point, I cannot stress enough how much repugnance I feel about this. Every politician could be just another looking out for their interest at the expense of a nation. And this makes me ask myself, why do they do it? If you want to get involved in politics it should be because you want to make a change, not deceive people, you should want to support starting businesses and workers, instead of making their success impossible by supporting monopolies and making laws that make it impossible for new businesses to afford new employees and therefore leaving too many people unemployed, you want to improve the economy and imply the natural laws of economics, you want to create opportunities for the people instead of giving them subsidies, and stop lying to themselves considering the people that only earn the minimum wage as middle class. Then why are all these people doing the opposite? When did we stop thinking of “us” and begin thinking of only “me”?

We need to stop thinking of selfish creatures and start thinking as a group. We need more awareness of the fact that the mark we are going to leave on earth is based on our impact, not our money, not on how rich we will be but, on the changes, we made, how we improved humanity, the advances we made, and how we used or time on earth.

This ends up making corrupt politicians and desperate people look for some sort of fulfillment or satisfaction in stolen money, money that for its very characteristics of being stolen, is based on nothing and therefore is nothing, it is a nonsense that destroys countries and dreams just for the thirst of fake power of a few, stupidly convincing themselves it is real power, and therefore feeling free to do with it as they wish. Even though we could call this a huge pile of nonsense based on nothing doesn’t mean it does nothing, it delays a country in many years of what could have been advances, and all because of some people who couldn’t do anything meaningful for a country, instead, chose satisfaction and a life full of fake fulfillments. It is time we get our heads out of the hole and start addressing our own government’s problems, instead of continue making ourselves blind, deaf, and dumb.

Works Cited

Urrea, Iván Leonardo, and Catherina Rey. “An End to the Occupational Crisis in Colombia.” Periodico Unal, 9 Aug. 2021, periodico.unal.edu.co/articulos/an-end-to-the-occupational-crisis-in-colombia/.