|
 The economists prefer the verb "grow" while the poets choose "flourish." The politicians sided with the economists and were for decades successful. Our cities grew in population, number of buildings, shopping centers, viaducts; but they also grew in criminality, misery, abandoned children in the streets, child prostitution. The cities grew but without flourishing.
Our industry grew, transforming us into an economic potency; it filled the streets with automobiles and stores selling "Made in Brazil" products; it constructed hydroelectric and nuclear plants, airports, freeways. But for decades we confronted galloping inflation and regular currency-system changes. We became champions of indebtedness, income concentration and deforestation. Unemployment persisted; our interest rate is the highest in the world; 70% of the population remains poor. Industry grew but without flourishing. Agriculture grew, making us the second largest food exporter and our agribusiness an example of efficiency. But forests were devastated and populations, dislocated; landless people wander around our national territory. Agriculture grew but without flourishing. The number of children enrolled in school grew, but many do not attend classes, do not finish high school, do not learn what they need to know. Education grew but without flourishing. More than growth, our politicians must seek ways of making Brazil flourish- in other words, grow in a sustainable form, free of debts and of the depredations of inequality, of inflation, of interest rates. The road to this is growth from the base, benefiting the low-income population, and not growth from the top in hopes of income distribution that will never come. A growth that will respect fiscal equilibrium and maintain price stability, that will respect the environment, that will be capable of halting the tragedy of indebtedness and of reducing the interest rate. These objectives - growth from the base and equilibrated public finances - can be united. If well administered, if defined correctly and if they mobilize the population around them, these objectives can make Brazil grow flourishingly, satisfying the needs of the excluded and doing so with price stability and respect for the ecology. And this can be accomplished without dependency upon the debts and their interest. In the present Brazilian situation, there is no better strategy than growth from the base with social incentives employing the poor. Growth from the base without paternalism or government hand-outs, so that the poor will produce all that they need, will ensure that their children attend school, will work in water- and sewage-system construction and in reforestation projects. A large socially productive employment program. Besides producing what the people need, these public expenditures would dynamize the economy, generating growth. They would elevate productivity and liberate public resources currently spent on social-assistance programs. Health care and security expenditures would go down; a reduction in the number of students repeating a school year would diminish educational expenses; water and sewage projects would reduce illnesses and increase productivity. These incentives must not cause fiscal deficits. This is why they must be programmed according to resource availability. This availability will depend upon paying off the interest, which in its turn will depend upon the financial community's confidence in the future of the country. A reversal of the inequality will help build this credibility but it will signify, above all, controlling the relationship between debt and the GDP by replacing the floating-rate debt with the fixed-rate one, solving the debt/interest/exchange rate equation. This is technically possible but it will demand the formation of a base of political support so that Brazil will stop the "quick fix" and special-interest-group policies that rule its decisions and will formulate medium- and long-term alternatives for the entire country. This is a political problem, one for the politicians; it is not a technical one, for the economists. The economists, who had imprisoned the politicians, are now their prisoners. And the politicians see no exit; they continue imprisoned by the verb "grow," scorning and ignoring the concept of "flourish." Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PDT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage - www.cristovam.com.br - and write to him at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome -
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Open wide your toothless mouths :eek and lick the big white
d-ck of Uncle Sam :p so he can show you dumb f-cks how to run your toilet country which should be awarde Turd World status by the UN!! :grin