Once I read this heading at the BBC news website my first thought was: big deal! UK is still a far more fair place to live. Unemployment there sucks, so what? You get government help if you can`t find a job. In Brazil that’s not possible because people might just stop working since the government help would be probably better than the “almost-slave” jobs a lot of them have. What do I mean by that? I mean working 10 hours or more for about US$ 200 a month (which is not much in Brazil, believe me!). The minimum salary in Brazil is a monthly wage which doesn`t clearly specify how many hours you have to work every day to get it.
Anyways, the unemployment aid is one of the reasons why UK is in trouble, isn`t it? The less jobs, the more unemployed people, the more money spent on them. Besides that, there are always those people that just don`t want to work.
So the Brazilian government had this brilliant idea, right: to give money to poor families so that they would be middle class and the then President would be known as a hero who took so many people out of poverty. Well, of course none of this money came out of his pocket. He took it from the actual middle class, which is poorer now so that the poor could get richer. It works quite well, it became the party`s strongest electoral weapon.
What happened then was that the middle class had to work more to keep their lifestyles, while lower classes just stopped working. I saw this happen so many times, women counting how many children they needed to have in order to stop working. One of my friends` maid had her first child, so went on maternity leave. As soon as she got back to work she got pregnant again and quit. She figured 2 children would be enough.
The number of “informal employment”, or non-registered jobs, also increased. This way you can get paid by the government and have a normal salary. Who pays for that? Honest workers who declare incomes and pay taxes.
So where is all this money that makes Brazil richer than UK? High society has it, of course. Politicians, business men, rich families have it. To add to the disparities list, 3 neighbor states, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais are responsible for more than 50% of the country`s GDP. More than 30% is only in the state of São Paulo and 10% only in the city of São Paulo. That means most places in Brazil, which is a huge country (fifth largest) are not as economically advanced as the country claims to be. The people considered wealthy in São Paulo (the city) represent less than 20% of its population. It`s a pretty ridiculous number compared to the population of the entire country.
So why should we be proud? A huge country overtaking the economy of a little island, which still has a way better social reality? What`s the point of living in a rich country and having a heck of a life? What`s the point of such an awesome rank in the world`s biggest economies if the population has to deal with violence, bad hospitals, bad roads, heavy taxes and embarrassing corruption? Brazil has an enormous potential. If well administrated it could be self-sufficient. If well administrated it wouldn`t be so affected by the global crisis that decreases its growth. If something isn`t done soon, while the situation is favorable, Brazil will be risking to miss the chance to become a real super-power. People should start protesting for the right reasons!