Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0383/03834.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 40KB | 639 lines

$Unique_ID{COW03834}
$Pretitle{297}
$Title{Uruguay
Chapter 7A.   Living Conditions}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{The Director Foreign Area Studies}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{percent
housing
montevideo
construction
national
available
income
public
units
urban}
$Date{1971}
$Log{}
Country:     Uruguay
Book:        Area Handbook for Uruguay
Author:      The Director Foreign Area Studies
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1971

Chapter 7A.   Living Conditions

     The conditions under which people lived in 1970 were substantially more
satisfactory than those encountered in most parts of the world. The burden,
however, of numerous and generous welfare and welfare-related government
programs had contributed to an economic decline beginning in the mid-1950s.
Real income suffered a corresponding decline, and there was a growth in
popular unrest. Austerity measures were imposed in 1968 and real income
turned upward in 1969 and 1970 but in 1970 some discontent was still evident.
Even during the period of decline, however, the already superior conditions
of health and sanitation had continued to improve.

     Availability of medical care, access to stores, and variety of
recreational outlets are at their best in Montevideo, and in 1970 about half
of the population lived in the capital city. Amenities were fewer in the
cities and towns of the interior and fewer still in rural areas. Less than a
fifth of the population was rural, however, and even on the isolated farms and
in the rural slum conglomerates living conditions were superior to those in
similar places in many other countries.

     With an economy based primarily on stockraising and agriculture, there is
an ample and varied supply of food available to all except the relatively
small sector with the lowest income. The average daily per capita intake of
calories, as well as their protein content, rates among the highest in the
world, although the diet is not always well balanced.

     Ample diet coupled with good medical care, an extensive preventive
medicine program, and generally satisfactory environmental sanitation have
resulted in generally good health and one of the world's highest longevity
rates. As in other Latin American countries, there is a substantial and
increasing housing shortage, but in 1970, because of the country's low rate
of population growth, it had not yet reached critical proportions. North
American or European style of dress is customary, and clothing tends to be
conservative. The reluctance of the wealthy Uruguayan to flaunt his wealth is
illustrated by the fact that children customarily wear uniform smocks over
their clothing while attending school.

     The rather leisurely pace of the national life is reflected in short
working hours in stores, offices, and banks and in an ample schedule of
national holidays. This leaves considerable time for recreation, and
recreational outlets are available, at least to some extent, to all of the
population. Soccer is unrivaled as the nation's favorite pastime, but many
other sports are popular. The inviting beaches, stretching for some 200 miles
along the Rio de la Plata estuary, are crowded in summer; social and sports
clubs are numerous; games of chance are legal, and one or more of the various
forms of gambling are indulged in by almost everyone; motion pictures,
television, and radio are popular and available to much of the population;
and legitimate theater, ballet, and symphony of good quality are presented in
Montevideo. Most universal of the recreational outlets of gregarious
Uruguayans, however, is social intercourse-ranging from the wild gaiety of
Carnival week to casual conversations in bars and cafes between business
acquaintances as well as the exchange of visits between relatives and friends.
It is one of the major compensations of rural life that farms or ranch
outposts are located near enough to neighbors living in the general vicinity
that occasional visits may be exchanged.

     The central element in the country's extensive and advanced welfare
structure is its system of retirement and pension benefits. In one way or
another, all Uruguayans-and some aliens-become eligible for benefits whether
or not they have ever been gainfully employed. The amounts vary from meager to
extremely generous. The welfare system also includes family benefits for
low-income families. Conditions of employment benefits established either by
law or collective contract are numerous. In general, public welfare and
related programs are so comprehensive that private welfare activities are far
less in evidence than in many other countries.

     Several important criticisms have been leveled against the public
program. The large number of retirement and family allowance plans, many
operating entirely independently from one another and under separate
legislative authorization with different rules and standards, has led to
confusion, invited abuse, and often resulted in prolonged delays in making
payments. In addition, the excessive number of people employed by the
government (more than 20 percent of the labor force) is a kind of concealed
welfare program.

     The opportunities for early retirement are so extensive that in the late
1960s the number of pensioners was about one-fourth as large as that of the
economically active population. Aware that the welfare system had gone beyond
the country's ability to support it, the government in 1970 had already taken
the first steps toward bringing order to its complexity and was studying means
of revising the schedule of retirement eligibility-probably by advancing the
minimum retirement age.

Nutrition and Diet

     The people are among the best fed in the world. Although the adequacy and
composition of nutrition and diet vary by region and by level of income, and
the diet is often nutritionally unbalanced, starvation is unknown and serious
malnutrition is rare. According to information available in 1969, there was an
average daily consumption of 3,030 calories, as compared with the daily intake
of 2,200 calories cited by a United Nations agency as an adequate worldwide
average. The 3,030-calorie diet included up to 100 grams of protein daily. On
the basis of a comprehensive 1962 survey conducted by the United States
Interdepartmental Committee on Nutrition for National Defense, the nutrition
was significantly deficient only in vitamins A and C and in thiamine, and it
was calculated that an increase in the production of pork products and
utilization of greater quantities of fruits and vegetables would result in a
very satisfactory nutritional balance.

     Meat is traditionally the most important item in the national diet
(accounting for more than one-third of the national caloric intake), although
the per capita consumption is unevenly distributed by locality and income
group. Even though beef is the most popular, in parts of the interior sheep
rather than cattle are slaughtered for local consumption. Lack of small-unit
refrigeration would cause loss of beef through spoilage.

     According to United States Department of Agriculture data, in 1967 the
average per capita meat consumption of 227 pounds was the world's highest. It
comprised 147 pounds of beef and veal, 20 pounds of pork, and 60 pounds of
mutton lamb, and other meats. Early in 1970, however, the government was
endeavoring to increase the quantity of meat available for export; as a
consequence, hotels and restaurants were prohibited from serving beef, veal,
mutton, and lamb on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

     In urban localities of the agricultural lowlands, particularly in
Montevideo, eggs and fowl are readily available but of limited popularity.
Fish and other seafood are good and plentiful (rock lobsters, in particular,
are of good quality) but seldom appear on the table. Starches and milk and
milk products are important diet components. For those who can afford a
varied table, the pattern of consumption in Montevideo and most other urban
c