By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Jan 14 1998 (IPS)

The walled homes that populate the suburban neighborhoods of Buenos Aires – built by the rising middle class more than 30 years – still look nice.

The facade on nearly evbery house remains intact, the walls solid, the shingles well-aligned and even a space for the car.

But behind the facade it’s a different story. In many homes the roof is leaking, walls and floors have become moldy, wallpaper has peeled off and utility services are not functioning.

The middle class has found itself trapped in increasing poverty – unthinkable only a few years ago when the upwardly mobile “yuppies” were masters of the social scene. To outsiders, middle class Argentineans behave the same as always – in education, lifestyle, their way of speaking and their dreams. But on the inside, economic misery is the same, sometimes even worse, than among poorer sectors of the community.

According to a recent survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Census, the middle class has been the most affected – in relative terms – by income distribution, dropping from 36.3 percent to 35.9 percent of the total income in six months.

In that period, the poor fared better – 500,000 unskilled jobs were created by the government last year but unemployed among the middle class, trained for more skilled jobs, are still waiting.

Living conditions for the middle sectors in Argentina have done nothing but get worse since 1980, when the the middle class accounted for 40 percent of the total national income.

High levels of unemployment in industry, the low salaries of teachers, doctors and retired people, the shrinking of the role of government workers and the privatization of public enterprises were some of the factors that weakened the middle class.

Since the stabilization of the economy, the rate of unemployment reached a high of 18.6 percent. It has since dropped to 13.7 percent (in October 1997) due largely to the increase in unskilled jobs with salaries below the minimum wage, created by the government as a remedy against unemployment.

But the middle class, with its ideals about education as the means to progress and “being someone in life,” has been reluctant to accept official handouts. Most people prefer to wait – reducing their expenses and giving up their consumer habits while waiting for better times.

According to a report published at the end of 1997 by the Equis consulting firm, the poverty that is on the rise here is not the same as can be seen in shanty towns. It is more dispersed and, while it should be ‘interpreted’ as poverty, it is not defined as such, the company said.

In Argentina, one third of the population is poor. That represents about 11 million people. In addition there are 4.5 million “traditional” poor, who live in overcrowded conditions in precarious houses, without basic services or garbage collection, and who barely have a primary education.

Geographically, they can be easily identified in the shanty towns, some of which are in Buenos Aires and in the main cities of the interior, and many others in the outskirts of the capital, where migrants from the interior and neighboring countries tend to settle.

But this is not the case of the so-called “new poor” or “income poor” – typical families that face serious employment problems or who cant afford to send their children to college.

Between temporary jobs, unemployment compensation, and second jobs, a middle class household may be able to pull together some 1,000 dollars a month – not enough to cover basic subsistence needs. The monthly food expenses for a typical family currently surpasses 1,600 dollars, according to the National Institute for Statistics and Census. In other words, in order to have enough of an income to “progress” (to make home improvements, for example), a family needs at least 2,000.

“To identify these new poor, we have to open the door and go into the house, ” says sociologist Gabriel Kessler, who works for Equis and was one of the study’s authors.

A tour among houses for sale at between 100,000 and 150,000 dollars, can be full of surprises. It is common to find, for example, two families crowded among piled up furniture and heads of household at home during working hours. There are also incomplete improvements, like an upper floor with no doors or windows, walls and pillars with no roof, and precarious additions – with no windows or ventilation – and garages that have been turned into store fronts or workshops.

“This is the deeper and more extended poverty of the Argentina of the end of the century,” say the authors of the study.

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