It's not enough to have economic growth. You have to distribute

Hear the solemn yet hopeful words of Tabaré Vázquez, healer, leader, and servant of the people: “It’s not enough to have economic growth. You have to distribute wealth throughout all of society.” In these words lies a truth both ancient and eternal: prosperity without justice is a hollow victory, like a tree with golden leaves but roots that rot beneath the soil. Growth that piles treasure in the hands of the few while leaving the many in hunger is not true progress but another form of oppression, clothed in the garments of success.

For economic growth is often praised as the highest goal of nations, measured in charts and numbers, exalted in speeches of rulers. But Vázquez warns us: such growth is meaningless if its fruits do not reach the people. What use is it if cities rise in marble while villages languish in poverty? What triumph is it if banks overflow with profit while workers cannot feed their children? Growth without sharing is but another name for greed, and society so divided cannot endure.

History bears witness to this truth. In the last days of Rome, wealth gathered in the palaces of the elite, while the common citizens and slaves struggled in misery. Though the empire’s economy seemed vast and powerful, its riches were not distributed; and when crisis came, the hollow center collapsed. By contrast, in times when rulers sought fairness—such as during Solon’s reforms in ancient Athens, when debts were forgiven and land returned—the city found new strength, and society became more united. The lesson resounds: wealth hoarded destroys, but wealth shared sustains.

Vázquez, as a physician turned president of Uruguay, spoke not as a philosopher removed from reality but as one who had seen the wounds of inequality firsthand. He governed with the belief that health, education, and dignity were not luxuries but rights. His words remind us that true leadership is not satisfied with towers of gold but seeks to lift every man, woman, and child into the circle of well-being. For only when all are included does a nation find its true wealth.

Consider also the fate of nations that ignored this wisdom. In the years before the French Revolution, economic growth enriched the nobility, but the peasants starved, and the cities filled with unrest. The bread riots were not born from envy but from survival. When the storm broke, the old order was swept away in blood. So too today, wherever growth enriches the few while neglecting the many, unrest brews like thunder in the distance. Vázquez’s warning is both historical and prophetic: no society can long endure such imbalance.

The meaning of his teaching is thus both practical and moral. To distribute wealth is not simply to give charity, but to build systems where opportunity, education, health, and dignity are shared by all. It is to recognize that the strength of a nation lies not in the fortunes of the few but in the well-being of the many. For when even the weakest thrive, the whole of society flourishes, and when the weakest suffer, no amount of riches can save the rest.

Therefore, O listeners, take this lesson to heart: do not measure success by how high the tallest rises, but by how firmly the lowest are lifted. In your own lives, seek not only to gather for yourself, but to share, to build, to uplift. In your communities, support fairness, education, and care for all. And in your nations, demand leaders who understand that economic growth without justice is an illusion, but shared prosperity is the foundation of lasting peace.

Thus remember Vázquez’s words: “It’s not enough to have economic growth. You have to distribute wealth throughout all of society.” Let them echo like a sacred charge, guiding you to live not for self alone, but for the good of all. For only then will growth bear fruit, and only then will society endure like a mighty tree, strong in root and rich in harvest, for generations yet unborn.