Only in the world of Thomas Friedman—and Reuters—is the arrival of McDonald’s a sign that development in Huancayo and the rest of Peru is taking place.
I have no doubt that, in Peru and elsewhere, the aspiring middle-class equates development with access to fast food and shopping malls. But that is very different from arguing that economic and social development—for the poor and working classes—is actually occurring.
Disclosure: I spent a year studying in Huancayo, from 1975 to 1976, at the Universidad Nacional del Centro del Perú.
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