In Brazil, Social Welfare Programs Worked
In Brazil, Social Welfare Programs Worked
11/01/2013 @ 5:40PM
In the U.S., say the word “welfare” and certain types of people cringe and see hammers and sickles. Admittedly, the same goes for those in richer south Brazil. But even a middle class south Brazilian recognized the need for massive social welfare programs to rid the country of a poverty that even embarrassed people unaffected by it. If there was one thing wealthy Brazilians from Rio to Port Alegre could agree on, it was the African-style poverty in the north and northeast was a rotten shame on an otherwise great country.
While states like Bahia and Para are still home to the bulk of the country’s poor, Brazil’s “Bolsa Familia” took millions out of no-water, no-sewer, no-shoes poverty.
The sweeping social welfare program launched under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in 2002. For families to get on the program, children had to be in school, get vaccinations from diseases that were putting needless stresses on hospitals with already lackluster services, and at least had to be looking for a job. They got more money, a little under a hundred dollars more a month, for a piece of society already earning under $200 a month at the time. They took that money and bought more rice, more chicken, more diapers, and the northern half of Brazil suddenly joined the modern era. What once looked like the Congo now started to look a bit more like the Brazil many in the country wished to see.
It’s not perfect. But the program never made Brasilia go bust, and it took 22 million people out of the poor house.
The program celebrated its 10 year anniversary this week. And according to the U.N., 6.3% of Brazilians were living on just a dollar a day in 2000. By 2009, it was reduced by half to around 3%.
More:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/11/01/in-brazil-social-welfare-programs-worked/
