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... ology, much of Brazil's new development is capital intensive. Few jobs are created, but not nearly enough to employ the millions of urban poor who come from the country side. Brazil now has an estimated 64 million working people; 17 % of people work in agriculture, most are landless peasants and 12 % work in industry. (each.
com) The Majority of the rest cannot find decent work and are forced to sell their labor extremely cheap in jobs that are economically unproductive for society and a dead-end for the individual. These economic roadblocks are another factor that has been damaging the status of Brazils economy by trying to support people who can't in return support the economy. With cheap labor and underemployment in Brazil many middle class families commonly hire two or more live in maids. This contrasts with five-year-old kids, who will never go to school, who sell chewing gum or shinning shoes.
People are hired to walk dogs, to watch cars or to deliver groceries. Even large crews of street sweepers clean the streets with homemade brooms. Hawkers on the beaches sell everything and earn almost nothing. Restaurants seem to have more waiters then customers. Unlike other countries like Mexico, the poor have no rich neighbors where they can go for possible employment and with minor financial reforms, there is no relief in sight. The fazendeiros, or estate owners, with their massive land holdings, are very influential with the government and apart from the occasional token gesture, they are unlikely to be interested in parting with their land so that the poor may accomplish themselves financially.
With land reforms a far dream for the country of Brazil, the government built roads into the amazon, the road between Belem and Brasilia in 1960 and the Transamazonica and the Cuiaba to Porto Velho roads in the 1970 's. The addition of these roads was for the soul purpose of increasing the intake of modernization to the country and to open up the Amazon to mineral and agricultural development, and also encourage settlement by the rural poor. The mineral poor Amazonian soil proved hard for the parents to farm. After cutting down the trees and opening up the land, peasants were forced off by large cattle ranchers.
Even today the settlement of the Amazon continues, particularly along the strip of Cuiaba, Porto Velho and Rio Branco, where boomtown's and deforestation follow in the wake of ambitious settlers. Over 50 % of Brazil's industry and financial security are clustered in and around Sao Paulo City. Most important of these industries is the car industry. Labor relations with the workers at Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford were managed by an idea that government approved unions were backed b the power of the military state. From 1968 to 1978 the workers were silent and passive, until the day one hundred workers at a bus factory went to work and sat down in front of their machines. Within two weeks 78, 000 metal workers were on strike in the Sao Paulo industrial belt.
Within a few weeks the strikes spread to other industries. There were mass assemblies of workers in soccer stadiums and the government-sponsored unions were replaced. At the invitation of the Catholic Church, union offices were moved to the cathedral of Sao Bernard. From this move the military and corporations were caught by surprise and were forced to give into substantial wage increases that lead the industries economic holdings to drop even more. (darkling) In 1980 there was a new wave of strikes, which were better organized, with greater rank-and-file control. Demands were made to democratize the workplace, with shop floor union representation and factory and safety committees. Many improvements were won and many have been lost, but the industrial working class had shown its strength and it has not been forgotten.
From all these drastic changes in the industrial world of Brazil, economists called the 80 's the Lost Decade since a number of wild boom-and-bust cycles decimated the economy from negative growth and explosive inflation followed record-breaking industrial growth fuelled by foreign capital. Until 1994, the only certainty in the Brazilian economy was it uncertainty. Then came the Plano Real, that stabilized the currency, ended the inflation that had corroded the salaries of the lowest wage earners, and provoked a rise in consumption. Out of the seven economic plans introduced in the last eight years, the Real was the first without shocks or broken contracts. The death of the previous monetary unit, the cruze rio real, was announced 52 days before the Plano Real introduced a new currency, the real. A record volume of international reserves economically backed the real, the real began on a one-for-one parity with the US dollar.
But as the real began to float financially investors began to hold Brazil to a tough standard. "The most important lesson is that no currency policy can work without strong economic fundamentals to support it. Sure Brazil had to act on its overvalued exchange rate, but the country is still very much on investors' watch list. Congress must carry out long-promised spending cuts and deeper reforms of the tax and social security systems to cut a budget deficit running at 8 % of GDP. Meanwhile, President Cardoso has to ensure that the profligate states make good on their $ 73 billion in debt to Brasilia" (Katz) Before the Real Plan began in action it was difficult to predict what business could survive with the changes in the economy.
With each step that the government used to lower the inflation there would always be some sectors of the economy who benefited with those steps, but unfortunately other sectors were effected severely where many business became bankruptcy. With the attempts at stabilization of the economy the construction and bank sectors were affected with difficulties, but now most of the economy is recovering and recuperating from the damage. The economic rules change and the competition is a strong factor to influence the institutions in order to better their services and their technologies. On the other hand, with this recent economic recovery that the Brazilian government put in action to reinforce the currency, it is difficult to predict what will happen with the economic stability and what kinds of markets will be affected. As a whole, many institutions in Brazil can survive for many years depending on the good administration to compete in open markets. (Economy) As for the political effectiveness of the country most of the political effectiveness in Brazil depends on time, the interests and the region in Brazil. For example, it is dependent on the time because in the time of elections the Brazilian people can observe the government in action, such as constructions and other political activities.
Everything at this time is done and concluded to guarantee the new election. In the interests of the regions, it means that the effectiveness of the government concluded some activities vary in political interests. As an example the distribution of the federal budget in the southern regions receive more benefits because it is more politically strong, and it is more populous and can guarantee more advantages in new elections. The difference between the north and south Brazil is that in the south they are more effectiveness like many developed countries because it is a rich industrialized region. But on the north region the activities take a long time to be approved or put in action, because it is a poor economic region. (Katz) Bibliography web web http: //darkling: w oregon. edu / sergio /barnes.
html#hi story web Economy (Brazil, China, and Venezuela) The Economist, February 20, 1999. Vol 350 pg. 102 Katz, Ian. Brazil: Still on the Edge of a Cliff. Newsweek. February 1, 1999. Issue # 3615 Page 59
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