Bolivia: Morales Asks Workers to Be Rational and Responsible for the Country http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/morales090510.html

President Morales exhorted workers to rethink, because the latest wage increase of 5 percent is superior to what previous governments offered and, moreover, over the four years under his administration, the wages have risen 40 percent. He called on workers' unions to compare this wage increase with the current inflation rate of 0.26 percent in Bolivia.

"While we have started to improve, I think that some compañeros want everything to go to wages and only wages. We have to invest in Bolivia. Only by investing can we create more jobs,''he said.

He asserted that a higher increase could drive the country into the economic situation experienced by other governments which had to obtain international loans from the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund, even to pay bonuses. "We can't do that. We have our dignity," he pointed out.