Congratulations Bolivia!!

[Traitorfish]

More (potential) consumption per capita.

Fair dos.

It's still true if the rural population flows into the cities. First, rural labor is scarce so a company wanting to pay low wages can't depend on an urban influx forever.

Granted, but the Bolivian population is at this point about two-thirds peasant, so it's a way off yet.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, why are laborers leaving the rural areas for the cities to take up low-paying jobs? The low-paying jobs must have some attraction: either they pay greater than their jobs in the field, or they offer more security, or they offer better working conditions. In that case, there is still an improvement in the standard of living of Bolivians, it just isn't enjoyed by those already enjoying a (relatively) higher standard in the cities.

That's fair enough insofar as it's accurate (which is not always the case), but it doesn't say very much. Subsistence agricultural is not much of a baseline.

It doesn't matter. The mineworkers and factory workers will still take their wages and buy goods in their communities.

I don't deny that, but that doesn't mean that Western involvement doesn't end up as a net export of wealth. The defence there is that it is the only way to increase the total amount of wealth to the point that Bolivians are still better off from it, and I don't know if that's something that we can simply assume.