> like we're now seeing in Ecuador and other countries.

The protests in Ecuador are about IMF austerity measures. The sort of cruel anti-working class policy we've been seeing peddled by neo-liberals for a long time. The sort of policy that is now seeing a resurgent fascism and socialism.

Everyone loves to blame the austerity measures. Not the people or ideology that got them into the mess in the first place.

I'm sure the government can find better ways to pay the money back but it's still a massive burden put onto an already struggling economy which didn't have to exist.

Under Correa, living standards increased in Ecuador, and the economy grew. Hard to ask people to not have supported such policies.

Things always go great in socialist countries until they run out of other people's money to spend and then the whole thing gets exposed for what it is: an unsustainable system that just makes everyone poorer, all in the name of 'equity' and a bunch of hand-wavy misdirections so they can keep the lie their system is better than capitalism going.

What would you offer them instead? People want better lives. And it’s not as if a revolution caused that- the electorate willingly voted in those leaders.

In times of rampant inequality and growing economic anxiety, radical solutions become far more appealing to the desperate. While your point isn't far off, those propping up the current system need to actually "to fix what we have and try to be better".

For instance, will those who support capitalism as it is be willing to support for massive estate taxes? Increase the social safety net? Push for greater access to quality education? Otherwise then it just perpetuates the "there is no alternative" narrative that keeps the status quo as it is.