According to the survey, in 1999 was 14.5% of the population living in households with income below the poverty line and 34.1%, with income below the poverty line. This corresponds to 22 and 53 million people respectively. Compared to the previous year, there was a slight increase: in 1998 there were 21.7 million poor and 50.3 million poor.
However, if you look at per capita income between Brazil and other countries, we can not consider it a poor country: international comparison on the per capita income places Brazil as the third richest country in the world. Only 36% of countries in the world have per capita income than Brazil but the degree of poverty is significantly higher than the average for countries with per capita income similar to that of Brazil. The poor of Brazil represents 30% of its total population, while in countries with similar per capita income that number is 10%. According to this comparison, Brazil should have only 8% of its population below the poverty line.
These data demonstrate that the origin of poverty in Brazil is not the lack of resources but poor distribution of existing resources. Few hold much and many do not hold almost anything. The average income of the richest 10% of the country is 28 times greater than the average income of the poorest 40%. In the U.S., for example, the ratio is 5 times, while in Argentina, and 10 times in Colombia, 15 times.
The conclusion is that the enormous degree of inequality in income distribution, almost stable in the last two decades, established itself as the main determinant of poverty in the country. Policies to combat poverty adopted by the Government are not effective in that only aim at economic growth. An appropriate strategy would be put together policies that stimulate economic growth, the growth of per capita income and better income distribution.
