Built on unequal social foundations, Brazil has not yet overcome historic challenges such as income concentration, mass unemployment, and the lack of prospects for the younger generations.

The disease of hunger was already spreading throughout the country long before the COVID pandemic. After some weak, yet somewhat effective government-based income redistribution programs, Brazil has adopted a logic of “spontaneity” which involves avoiding well-defined public policies as a means of confronting social problems.

The tragedy of food insecurity

Food insecurity refers to the uncertainty that meals will be affordable or when people can expect to have their next meal, which is one of the most salient indicators of low income, underemployment, and loss of purchasing power.

The possibility of having three meals a day is less and less palpable, and there is no programmatic interest in confronting the problem. Thus, collective and social dramas are relegated to the individual in a society where “man is man’s wolf.”

Without basic food security—one of the most basic needs of human existence—it is pointless to even discuss any technical, economic, or scientific progress, and the consequences are brutal.

The world ranking of economic inequality

Brazil is the new most unequal country in the world. According to data from the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) based on parameters set by the World Bank, from 2012 to 2019, the country’s share of extremely poor rose from 6.5% to 13.5%, which is more than double. Topping the list are South Africa, Namibia, and Suriname, respectively.

Socioeconomic inequality is both a cause and an effect of innumerable structural problems, and there is a direct correlation between the ability to reduce social gaps and the construction of a fairer society in all aspects.

The most developed countries are those where these gaps are smaller and, on the other hand, the poorest nations are the most unequal. There is no real prosperity without reducing misery and the distance between those at the bottom and those at the top of the social pyramid.

Back to the hunger map

The pandemic has had its effects on Brazil’s social problems and increased poverty, but it has also been used as a “scapegoat” by the government to justify the increase in social chasms.

Before the current global health crisis scenario, Brazil had already returned to the hunger map in 2018. Today, with 59.4% of the population living in food insecurity, the country is advancing into unchartered territory for increasing poverty. This is one of the most expressive indicators of an economy in crisis and a society on the brink of collapse.

Abandoning policies to fight hunger

As a liberal democracy based on alternating power, federal and state policies are inconsistent. In particular, policies designed to fight hunger are often delayed or even thwarted.

Embracing a government willing to break with the norm and become the antithesis of everything represented by the opposition (consolidated around the Workers’ Party), the current administration has widened the social chasm by consistently neglecting, undermining, or even annulling income redistribution and social equity policies.

There is a direct correlation between the expansion of income redistribution social programs and the decrease in misery. For instance, in 2013, food insecurity affected 22.6% of Brazilians, compared to 2009 when it affected 30.2% of the population. This equates to a 7.6% decrease in 4 years.

With the decree of the end of Bolsa Família, the projections are that food insecurity numbers will continue to rise.

Many with little, few with much

Figures released by the World Inequality Lab show that in Brazil, the richest 10% get 58.6% of the total wealth produced in the country. Meanwhile, the poorest half of Brazilians only get 10% of the total national income. The richest have incomes 29 times higher than the poorest, on average.

By comparison, the richest in France earn 7 times more than the average income of the poorest, which means that the social gap between the richest and the poorest is more than four times larger in Brazil than in France.

It is no coincidence that the most unequal countries are located precisely in the so-called “periphery of capitalism,” which is made up of former colonies with economies built on slave labor and based on extractivism. Economic activity in these former colonies favored extracting raw materials and exporting them to Westerm countries where they could be further developed into secondary goods. While this helped build industry in the developed world, it severely limited it in these former colonial countries. Brazil is no exception.

Here, the concentration of income is a colonial inheritance and construction. The donatários, who extracted rents from the mills and slave labor, made up the elite. They inherited privileges granted by the metropolis in Portugal and subsequently created the structures and conditions that continue to favor the modern day elite and allow them to keep most of the wealth for themselves.

Imbalances in political processes

Extreme social inequality implies unequal conditions in every way. The nation’s poorest have less access to federal universities and higher education, thereby also leaving them with fewer opportunities to enter the job market and fewer prospects for social growth.

These unequal opportunities directly affect political processes. With fewer prospects for dignity and growth, the population’s poorest loses political participation power as their interests are increasingly marginalized in favor those with the resources to invest in political lobbying.

In Brazil, lawmakers compose the so-called “bench of the Bible, the ox, and the bullet,” which represents the interests of the religious and economic elite based on large sects including religious conglomerates (the Bible), agribusiness (the ox), and interests in maintaining military repression (the bullet).

This caucus has politicians who legislate in favor of their own interests, which do not include reducing social inequality. To the contrary, they are among the sectors that benefit the most from this unequal concentration of income.

Loss of socioeconomic dynamism

Extreme income inequality results in less dynamic economies. Instead of circulating, money becomes concentrated in speculative activities while the productive sector declines. Brazil’s deindustrialization is one of the increasingly direct consequences of this.

From 2013 to 2019, Brazil lost more than 28,700 industries and more than 1.4 million jobs. Now, the country’s economy is continuing to “ruralize” as its economic sector generates fewer jobs compared to those that can be generated by developing industries.

In the global scenario, this implies a loss of competitiveness and technical improvement, with an economy increasingly dependent on primary sectors.

Important conclusions

While it is important to discuss technological and scientific development as well as improvements in infrastructure and the use of resources, these topics are practically unfeasible with such a large segment of the population living in extreme poverty. When social indicators start to worsen, ignoring the symptoms is tantamount to ignoring a serious illness or administering the wrong remedy to said illness.
Without real efforts to guarantee basic sanitation, health, food, employment, income, and all the other aspects that are fundamental to minimal standards of living, it is impossible to project a healthy future.

And if this is the scenery peeking over the horizens at younger generations, the message is that there is no future at all—at least not one with dignity.

Any development project requires, first of all, ensuring that there is food on the plates and in the pantries.

_{Photo by Raphael Nogueira on Unsplash}

About the Author

Jean Augusto G. S. Carvalho is a Brazilian historian and translator. He graduated in history from the Faculdade da Educacional da Lapa (FAEL) in Brazil.