While the top 10 percent of Brazil's earners saw their cumulative income rise by 7 percent from 2001 to 2006, the bottom 10 percent shot up by 58 percent
One of the points made in the article was that Brazil had used a basic welfare payment to bring people into the regular economy. People used the welfare payment to cover basic needs, and then were able to take microloans to build businesses that are in the formal economy.
So the question is how much of this improvement is economic formalization and how much is a change in the underlying distribution of income? And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
