We Should Emulate Brazil

Saturday 29 May 2010 - Filed under Dumbassery + Economy

According to Secretary of State Billary Clinton, we should strive to be more like Brazil in our taxation by heavily taxing those with, in order to support those without.

Brazil has the highest tax-to-GDP rate in the Western Hemisphere and guess what — they’re growing like crazy,” Clinton said. “And the rich are getting richer, but they’re pulling people out of poverty.

Two comments:

1) Comparing American poverty to Brazilian poverty in any sense of scale is disingenuous.¹

2)Though Brazil may be doing better economically than it ever has, there is still far too much poverty in Brazil to start looking to it at some sort of social or economic model.  About 25% of Brazilians live on $1 a day, more than half do not get water, 25% do not have electricity, and almost 8 of 10 people don’t have any sort of sewage removal (city drainage or a septic tank).  Favelas² are proliferating throughout Brazil at a rapid pace. But somehow in the convoluted mind of a Demotard, Brazil is a place to be emulated.  I call bullshit.  If you’re going to cite Brazil as some progressive utopia, you can fuck off with your progressivism because I don’t want any of it.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love Brazil.  My wife is a Brasileira.  I’ve been there many times and will continue to go there often.  I love the people and their culture.  But economically and socially speaking, it isn’t a place to copy, and anyone who tries to tell me that we should instantly loses all credibility to their name.³

_______________
1. There far more poor Brazilians than there are Americans, and most of what we understand as poverty in the US is a significant step up for at least half of the population of Brazil.
2. Brazilian shantytown. Yes, they are that bad.
3. Which presupposes that I had much respect for Billary to begin with.

2010-05-29  »  madlibertarianguy