Imagine that you decide to give your relatives great pleasures so that they will love you more. And he does the “obvious”: he takes on debt, takes out a credit card, builds up retirement savings, asks for an advance on an inheritance, gives work – albeit not very productive – to those close to him, and much more. He spends on useful things and wastes a lot, but he is still praised angrily. What a wonderful guy!… Until the chuchaqui comes, you have to do the math and admit that there was only a short joy, and then you live for a long time in worse conditions than before the party.

We cannot forget that this happened to us for ten years, not that we are going back to the past, but because looking forward we must progress, but in a healthy and sustainable way, perhaps with less fun. And we can fall into the same serious temptation, when I hear the candidate Luisa González say that Rafael Correa will be a great adviser to her because he has proven to be successful.

Rafael Correa is convinced that his sentence will “fall” when the Civil Revolution comes to power, according to an interview with the newspaper El País

What to remember to avoid this? All that was done to “scratch the pot” and maintain the mirage (not to mention the corruption that is evidently behind it):

1) From the beginning, more than 3,000 million accumulated in funds were taken to face bad times.

2) The oil company Oxy happily disposed of the money that fell from the sky, a profit of more than HRK 1 billion per year (what was paid out after compensation is only a small part).

3) Spent all the high price of oil, which averaged almost $80 per barrel over 10 years, but almost $90 from 2007 to 2014 alone (as of 2018 we are at $60).

Jorge Glas refused to be a candidate, assuring that he was still “under attack” and that they were conspiring to make correísmo stumble

4) Billions of millions were withdrawn from international reserves, a significant part of which was the safety deposits of the financial system, that is, our money.

5) The external debt of the Government increased by more than 20,000 million dollars.

6) In bad faith, in 2009, creditors were told they would be paid 30% of the total, and if they didn’t like it, “have fun”. That’s why we had to go into pre-sale of oil with China: expensive, short-term, with huge guarantees.

7) Obviously useful things were done; the opposite would be the last straw in the total of 300,000 million dollars spent in those ten years, but so much waste: the Coca Coda power plant so endangered, the Esmeraldas refinery, the Aromo refinery where a piece of land that was later used for strange airplanes was flattened, the Collas route, Quito airport, Monteverde spheres, Santa Rosa airport where there are only flights every two days, Yachay, how much excessive construction and much more.

8) It was decided that it is not necessary to pay 40% of the pension “because IESS had enough cash” (not knowing that the problem of retirement is not how much is in cash, but how much will be enough for retirees in the future), and this was spent on other more politically attractive actions.

9) Various agreements with the Chávez government, which cost so much but nothing came of it, including deals for the famous Sucre.

10) Trade agreements with the world were stopped, although at least the one with Europe was signed “with the fair”.

11) Not to mention so much institutional damage, so much abuse and created hatred.

… and there is certainly more to remember. little? So much for building a healthy future. (OR)