BRAZIL: Brazil's middle class surges to more than half of the population.

Record ID: 277727

  • Title: BRAZIL: Brazil's middle class surges to more than half of the population.
  • Date: 15th October 2012
  • Summary: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (FILE) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) CONSTRUCTION WORKER VARIOUS OF CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AT RIO DE JANEIRO'S MARACANA STADIUM VARIOUS OF SHOPKEEPER FINALIZING A SALE AT CLOTHING STORE
  • Embargoed: 30th October 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Economy,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEJSZW0QB78TEU7WH9VL3VV55D
  • Story Text: Brazil's middle-class population tops 50 percent after millions climb the socio-economic ladder.


    The ranks of Brazil's middle class are swelling, with more than half of the country's population now falling into the socio-economic bracket.
    Fifty-three percent of the South American nation's population is now defined as middle class, according to a recent study by the Brazilian government. That figure means that 35 million Brazilians have moved up the social ladder in the last decade.
    Fifty-five-year-old Lusimar Barbosa and her family are the embodiment of Brazil's newly emerged middle class, as defined by the government. Barbosa, who has worked for 34 years as a civil servant at Brazil's Ministry of Defence, came from humble beginnings.
    She left school at a young age due to her family's precarious financial situation and started working for the army as a cook. At times, Brazil's inflation levels were so high that she didn't have enough money to feed herself and her infant child.
    Now, with a monthly income of $1,500 and retirement just around the corner, she says her life has dramatically improved. Barbosa and her two sons live in a comfortable three-story house on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, and have another home under construction.
    Gone are the days when she and her eldest son lived in a tiny one bedroom flat and struggled to make ends meet.
    She credits former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for improving the lives of millions of people like her.
    "Lula! I absolutely love him. I think he's a true Brazilian, just like me. I love my country, and I'm really grateful for the opportunities given to me, for having three TV sets at home, for being able to buy everything you see in this house. I'm really thankful to the government, but it's also due to my hard work, as well," she said.
    Critics, however, claim the government's research is flawed.
    Its results are solely based on monthly income per capita, and don't take into account social factors, such as level of education and access to health care.
    Barbosa and her two sons never finished school or went to university.
    Brazil's Strategic Affairs Minister, Moreira Franco, hailed the government's initiatives during the last few years to foment social mobility, and said the government is correct to focus solely on economic barometers.
    "What the middle class needs from the government are economic and not social reforms. Things to do with access to credit, a set of laws that protects workers and consumers, job security, and measures to prevent short-term contracts, which are still very high in our economy," he said.
    Critics also say the jobs held by those who have recently ascended to the middle class are likely to be in areas such as construction and commerce, sectors that traditionally are not considered middle-class industries.
    Ricardo Ismael, a political science professor at Rio's Pontifical Catholic University, says this new middle class has a long way to go to acquire the social privileges of their counterparts from previous decades.
    "This new group that has just ascended to the middle class based on family income still doesn't have the same standard of living of the middle class from the 1960s and 70s. That middle class (from the '60s and '70s) had a much higher quality of life in terms of housing, retirement plan, private education for their kids, private health plan, which this new middle class still cannot afford," he said.
    Barbosa's sister chose to leave Brazil to move to Europe with her two small children 25 years ago in an effort to improve their lives. For Barbosa, leaving Brazil was never an option.
    "To leave my country: never! It's not that my sister doesn't like Brazil, but I just absolutely love my country. I love Brazil and it saddens me when people decide to leave. I never lost hope," she said.
    For her part, Barbosa says life has never been better. These days, the fridge is always full, and concerns about having enough to feed herself and her family are gone.
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