8 ms·

Speaking as a Brazilian - the country is an odd one. If you go by GDP it should be a rich country but it just isn't. It's rightly classified as an emergent cou

by skuzye 6y ago

Speaking as a Brazilian - the country is an odd one. If you go by GDP it should be a rich country but it just isn't. It's rightly classified as an emergent country. It has deep social and poverty problems that needs addressing even though it's a regional economic force. Brazil is definitely capitalist but it's hard to do business there - 144th place in economic freedom index.

f00zz 6y ago
> If you go by GDP it should be a rich country Not really. GDP is large, but that's only because the population is large. Per capita GDP is around US$ 9k, which makes us poorer than Mexico or Argentina. For comparison, per capita GDP in Sweden is something like US$ 54k. I remember being taught in school that Brazil is the n-th richest country in the world, and if only that wealth were evenly distributed we could all enjoy a welfare state like in Europe. That is simply not possible. But I guess many people here still believe it because the country has a few highly visible pockets of wealth.
- pedrocr 6y ago
  Comparing to Sweden is a bit extreme. Portugal's comparable GDP is 24k. It's still a factor of 3x but a lot of the costs in a welfare state scale with the wealth of the economy as they are just directly cost of labor. Having a reasonable welfare state, that's not world-class but isn't the US either, should be possible.
  - 317070 6y ago
    Yes, Brazil is practically halfway between Portugal and Angola. It's half the GDP per capita of Portugal, but twice that of Angola: https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_cd&idim=country:AGO:DZA:ZMB&hl=en&dl=en#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_pp_kd&scale_y=log&ind_y=false&rdim=world&idim=country:AGO:PRT:BRA&ifdim=world&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...
    - rbanffy 6y ago
      Brazil is a country of contrasts. If you are upper middle class, you more or less live in a "Portugal", have excellent healthcare, your kids go to good schools and your retirement will be comfortable. If you are below a certain line, things get worse very quickly until you reach the poorest rural regions where you live effectively like the poorest people in the world.
- Synaesthesia 6y ago
  Brazil should be wealthy. It has every advantage, huge amount of resources, no natural enemies ...
  - Peepootoler 6y ago
    But it also has 3rd world demographics. AFAIK Asian / Jewish / White Brazilians hold significantly more wealth than the Pardo and Black populations.
  - olcor 6y ago
    Resource curse? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse

by skuzye 6y ago

f00zz 6y ago

> If you go by GDP it should be a rich country Not really. GDP is large, but that's only because the population is large. Per capita GDP is around US$ 9k, which makes us poorer than Mexico or Argentina. For comparison, per capita GDP in Sweden is something like US$ 54k. I remember being taught in school that Brazil is the n-th richest country in the world, and if only that wealth were evenly distributed we could all enjoy a welfare state like in Europe. That is simply not possible. But I guess many people here still believe it because the country has a few highly visible pockets of wealth.

pedrocr 6y ago
Comparing to Sweden is a bit extreme. Portugal's comparable GDP is 24k. It's still a factor of 3x but a lot of the costs in a welfare state scale with the wealth of the economy as they are just directly cost of labor. Having a reasonable welfare state, that's not world-class but isn't the US either, should be possible.
- 317070 6y ago
  Yes, Brazil is practically halfway between Portugal and Angola. It's half the GDP per capita of Portugal, but twice that of Angola: https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_cd&idim=country:AGO:DZA:ZMB&hl=en&dl=en#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=ny_gdp_pcap_pp_kd&scale_y=log&ind_y=false&rdim=world&idim=country:AGO:PRT:BRA&ifdim=world&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false https://www.google.com/publicdata/explore?ds=d5bncppjof8f9_&...
  - rbanffy 6y ago
    Brazil is a country of contrasts. If you are upper middle class, you more or less live in a "Portugal", have excellent healthcare, your kids go to good schools and your retirement will be comfortable. If you are below a certain line, things get worse very quickly until you reach the poorest rural regions where you live effectively like the poorest people in the world.
Synaesthesia 6y ago
Brazil should be wealthy. It has every advantage, huge amount of resources, no natural enemies ...
- Peepootoler 6y ago
  But it also has 3rd world demographics. AFAIK Asian / Jewish / White Brazilians hold significantly more wealth than the Pardo and Black populations.
- olcor 6y ago
  Resource curse? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse