El gobierno uruguayo está proecupado: la inflación está alta, y no hay margen para intervenir subsidiando productos. Los sindicatos quieren los salarios sigan subiendo, y piden que se controle la inflación bajando la ganancia de las empresas.
Por una vez estoy de acuerdo con la meta, aunque seguramente no con la manera de hacerlo. Los sindicatos quieren, «ensandwichar» a las ganancias empresariales, fijandoles los precios y subiéndoles los costos. Yo propongo algo más sencillo y ortodoxo: fomentar la competencia. El resultado es el mismo: bajan los precios, pero en vez de distorsionar el mercado y espantar las inversiones el efecto es el opuesto.
Hay demasiados monopoliios, oligopolios y colusiones en Uruguay. Es hora de empezar a tirarlos abajo. Nos vamos a beneficiar todos.
Pablo Brenner & Sergio Fogel Blog 
El costo político/social/sindical de terminar con un monopolio estatal es mucho mayor que lo que pueda ganar un gobierno bajando un par de puntos la inflación (sea del partido que sea).
La idea es interesante pero (lamentablemente) no es practicable a gran escala. Saludos.
No son solo monopolios estatales, tambien privados.
Y ademas, se han hecho cosas a nivel estatal y se puede hacer mas. Por ejemplo, se abrio la competencia en celulares, en seguros, en AFAP. e puede hacer mucho mas.
Hay monopolios naturales. Por ejemplo la distribución de energía, la telefonía fija, el agua. Donde se ha desmonopolizado esos servicios simplemente se ha diversificado la cantidad de empresas, pero uno como usuario no puede elegir. Si vivis en tal lugar, te toca una empresa determinada y chau.
Ante monopolios naturales, yo personalmente prefiero el monopolio estatal al monopolio privado.
Qué monopolios hay privados?
Dirás carteles y grupos económicos no?; porque los monopolios privados son ilegales….
Probaste viajar en barco a Buenos Aires? Hay mucha alternativa? Y qué tal la TV por cable (técnicamente no es un monopolio, sino colusión)? Cuál es tu fabricante favorito de cervezas? Podes elegir entre Ambev y… Mastra! La telefonía celular es un oligopolio. Y si entramos al espacio público, hay monopolios en los combustibles, la telefonía, Internet, la electricidad, el agua, las carreteras, etc.
Hello. I read this blog with interest. I have harbored similar thoughts Sergio. I am British and married with an Uruguayan and now living in Montevideo. It is incredibly expensive here – almost 30% higher cost of living than London. Regarding inflation, I have kept accurate records of our consumerism over a three year period since we arrived and our inflationary figures come close to around 12% p/a, not circa 8% as officially published.
I don’t know the details for sure but I would assume that taxation here is so high because the state needs the money for it’s over financially burdened public infrastructure. With that It would be great to see more entrepreneurship and private investment here in Uruguay, and a more diverse enterprise and workforce to strengthen further the economy. At the same time a move to reduce the financial cost of the said infrastructure. It seems that at the moment the existing tax model is dictatorial and slanted toward the consumer. There are problems with relying too much on funding the treasury this way. Cash flow moves way too slow domestically and consumers financially squeezed. Unless one is dependent on export, a slow cash flow directly translates to pressure on small business. Local disposable income is of high importance to the health of the economy and serves to help fund and build new business, so this could be seen as a knock on effect. Encouraging more competition internally is a good thing. I would argue that the Government should continue to work on ways to develop private enterprise and allow start ups and small business sufficient lead time to grow their businesses by ensuring consumer space and creating policy that allows greater cash flow. Tax always has to be generated from somewhere and we are all going to pay it (as my father use to say, there’s only two things to be sure of in life, death and taxes), and it pains me to say but perhaps some of the state infrastructure should be sold to reduce the high costs? The debate over state employment vs costs/inflation goes on, but if this is carefully and delicately achieved together with private enterprise creating jobs it could work. The results open the door for a more robust, diverse and competitive market place. The Government faces the challenges of balancing the cost of its infrastructure together with inflation.
Thanks for your comment. Many have tried to change this, but the public seems to mistrust private enterprise, and love big government.
Regarding inflation figures, you are probably right, the figure is higher for a couple of reasons: CPI was reduced a bit by government tweaking (like december rebates for electricity, or control of some staples), inflation was kept low by imported products, probably stuff that you don’t consume, and price of services (which you probably consume a lot) went through the roof.