Yet, other indicators suffered. Sharp declines in measures of human well-being exacerbated a growing social crisis. Much hardship was thus generated among Venezuela's poor majority. Incidences of hunger, prostitution, murder, and other ills rose sharply, while continuing surges in Venezuela's national debt and flagging foreign direct investment inflows continued to hammer the Venezuelan economy. Further, the neoliberal reforms failed to lower high poverty rates of the 1990s. This continuing poverty complemented Latin American economies' general skewing towards satiating elite consumptive interests while simultaneously relieving upper classes from substantial taxes that would subsidize the poor.