Re:Is Brazil finally ready to fulfill on its destiny as the ...
by muhfuhkuh on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @05:48PM
(#2006074)
Really, I've read that it's less than 20%[1], which isn't 1/3. Abject poverty or indigence (the "no clean water or sewers") rate, according to the link I dug up, is 7%.
I mean, compare the poverty threshold is US$10000, wherein 15% of Americans fall in. Additionally, 6-7% fall in extreme poverty, where US citizens make less than 50% of the poverty threshold[2].
So, as in your argument, it's all about scale.
[1]http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/09/20/2954375.htm
[2]http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/the-poorest-sta...
Re:Is Brazil finally ready to fulfill on its destiny as the ...
by anamax on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @06:41PM
(#2006251)
> I mean, compare the poverty threshold is US$10000, wherein 15% of Americans fall in. Additionally, 6-7% fall in extreme poverty, where US citizens make less than 50% of the poverty threshold[2].
The poverty thresholds are different. (In addition, the US, the poverty numbers don't always count govt aid received.)
Would you rather be poor in Brazil or poor in the US?
And the US produces 4x as much oil as Brazil uses.
The reason Brazil is able to be energy independent is because of poverty. They use less energy because fully 1/3 of the country is poor on a level that is incomprehensible in the developed world (living in shanty towns and slums without access to clean water or sewers).