Role of the State
Source: Correio Braziliense, 25/05/2009
The Brazilian got used to looking at the state as an indolent son sees his father complacent. No matter how silly you are or how paralyzed you are, you always wait for a father's hand to get you out of trouble and stroke your head. It is more comfortable than growing up and facing your own problems. This goes for companies and individuals. Companies have become accustomed to state capitalism, in which the risk of large companies is absorbed by the Treasury. The worker believes that the government must fix what is wrong with his life or community.
English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) created the figure of the Leviathan monster to illustrate his contractualist thesis. Unable to provide security for themselves, men gave up part of individual freedom in the name of state protection. Without it, its institutions, laws and sanctions, we would live in a permanent state of war, where the most skilled would prevail over the weakest in the struggle for survival. Barbarism, at last. The primary objective of the State, therefore, would be to guarantee social peace. But the bureaucracy, once born, started to have survival as its mantra.
In some nations, with roots more deeply rooted in individualism and the capitalist spirit, companies and citizens generally assume their risks and problems. Unless the trouble is so great that it puts the economy of the entire country at risk, as is now seen with the US Treasury lulling broken automakers and broken banks. In Brazil, where people were cradled by the black mother under the shade of the leafy mango tree, the order is different. If the state is too big, we will use it. He has an obligation to provide jobs for everyone, maintain public companies, help private ones and provide quality services. All this by charging few taxes.
Infantile adults
The post of Minister of Finance in Brazil must be one of the most dull in the world. It has inherent challenges in a country used to high inflation and low growth. The bore comes from enduring, almost every day, the cry of businessmen. There is not a single sector of the Brazilian economy that does not consider itself worthy of any State aid: a tax cut here, a BNDES money there and so on. The champions in the rental of ministerial ears are the automakers, the rural producers, the civil construction, infrastructure, capital goods and electro-electronic companies. Not to mention the lobby of business federations and confederations.
Ordinary workers do not have access to official offices. If I could complain, I would have a rosary of reasons, mainly regarding the deplorable state of public security, health and education. But the intention of many is different. It is to dive into the bowels of the monster. When I started working, no more than 18 years ago, the rule was to look for jobs in private companies. Joining public officials was the exception. Today, thousands of Brazilians graduate and are not going to work. While continuing to live off Daddy's sweat, infantilized adults spend years on end competing. They saw “concurseiros”. As if that were a profession. The very existence of that word is an outgrowth.
The Brazilian State needs a general cleaning. To free you from thieving politicians, unprepared rulers, the nails of businessmen seeking privileges, corrupt judges and policemen, lazy servants, lenience, complicity, the way ... The claim that all of these are cultural traits, guilt or not from our Iberian genetic load, it does not exempt anyone. There is no point in blaming the other - another national sport. The Brazilian state is like that because voters vote, election after election, for people who reproduce the same addicted schemes. Just look at the Congress. And the voter, when given the chance, also puts his hand in what he thinks is his right, but it is not.
social-liberal
In a country with Brazil's social needs, defending the adoption of a liberal state is unrealistic. But it is necessary to have it as a model, even if platonic. At the G-20 meeting, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the end of the Washington Consensus. In the center of the arena, he wanted to please the venerable public. With the exception of countries dominated by ridiculous figures, such as the three South American stooges (Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and Rafael Correa), nobody defends fiscal irresponsibility, inflation, high tax burden, artificially fixed interest and exchange rates, closing the country to imports and foreign investments, privatization of companies and disrespect for property.
The feared Washington Consensus advocates just the opposite of all this. Therefore, it is not dead. It is very much alive. The only point that the crisis seems to have suspended was that of deregulation. But this is just the pendulum's turn. It is regulated now, it loosens later. The only example of a winning liberal proposal in Brazil was that of Fernando Collor. Almost everything that was done afterwards followed a good part of those guidelines. In general, the State must take charge of safety, health and quality education, giving equal conditions for people to compete in the labor market.
There should be social programs for those who were left out, but encourage private pension. It must create macroeconomic and institutional conditions for development. It should sell (expensive) companies like Banco do Brasil, Petrobras, Eletrobrás and Correios. They serve corruption. It must have a small number of servants, but reach where it is not today: slums and the periphery. He must take care of those who need him, getting as little as possible into the lives of others. In short, a social-liberal state. Ricardo Allan is an economics reporter