MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: 4 million young adults are poor says Catholic Church

Four million young adults in Argentina are poor, according to a report of the Argentine Catholic University published over the weekend. The UCA report called on the authorities “not to look the other way” and face the current situation.

The study was conducted between 2004 and 2007, and the current report underlines the substantial differences with the results published recently by INDEC the Argentine official statistics' bureau, according to which extreme poverty â€" people unable to afford staples â€" reached some two million people, while the number of poor â€" those unable to fill the "family shopping basket" â€" totalled 7.1 million. The report questioned Argentine political leaders who "use power to impose new economic conditions that generate more conflicts and destabilization". The main culprit is always the government, because it has the power to peacefully resolve the conflicts and interests of all social strata and agents," said UCA Executive director Joaquín Ledesma, a Ph.D. in Economics. Ledesma's remarks were made at the second session of the Pastoral Week in the coastal resort of Mar del Plata, focusing on "the fair distribution of wealth" in Argentina. In his presentation, Ledesma spoke about Argentina's "chronic poverty." He maintained that "825,000 adults 25 years old and younger do not work and do not study, while four million live in extreme poverty; we Catholics can't afford to look the other way". On the other hand, the UCA study reported that the access of poor people to minimum consumption levels has improved. Nevertheless, the conditions of homes and housing have only shown mild improvements, while the public health system has not improved at all. The UCA report stresses that the amount of poor people in Argentina is substantially higher than "the official story," and that consumption is down the slide. Regarding employment, even though the jobless rate has decreased, the quality of jobs has not improved, and most of the country's population are still unemployed and have no access to better jobs. The UCA report comes in support of several bishops that have been involved in a public debate with President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner about the real extent and number of poor in Argentina.