poverty, inequality and social policies in brazil: social productive keynesianism?

SPK: a theory behind CCT

Cristovam Buarque Conference on New Approaches to Poverty and

Inequality Reduction in the Global South An Overview of Poverty, Inequality and Social Policies in Brazil

04/27/2012 – IPC-UNDP

The five global crises

Financial Economic

Ecological Social

Paradigmatic crisis

The five global crises Financial

The five global crises

Economic

The five global crises Ecological

The five global crises Social

The five global crises Paradigmatic

The paradigmatic crisis

Economic Growth Poverty reduction but global warming

The paradigmatic crisis

Financial Instability Social Crisis

Economic Recession Quest for Sustainable Development

The paradigmatic crisis

Environmental Control

Social Security and Pension Reform

Social Crisis

Economic Slowdown Cuts in Public Spending

The paradigmatic crisis

• Previous harmonic coexistence of four vectors

• Breakdown of balance with entrance of ecological dimension

Political democracy

Economic growth

Social welfare

Scientific & technological advancement

Ecological balance

The catastrophes ahead Inequality

Life expectancy = 86 years Life expectancy = 39 years

The catastrophes ahead Social Apartheid

The catastrophes ahead

Homo sapiens Homo

sapiens

Neo homo sapiens

Biological mutation

The catastrophes ahead Unemployment

The catastrophes ahead The need of walls

The catastrophes ahead Global warming

The catastrophes ahead Technical advancement without ethical

development

The catastrophes ahead Vulnerability

The catastrophes ahead Widespread migration

The catastrophes ahead Urban chaos

The catastrophes ahead Scarcity of natural resources

The catastrophes ahead

The Third-world World

The bad development

Depletion, pollution, waste, residues

Work

Population

GDP Nature

Production

Consumption

Ecological balance

New objectives

Consumption

Reduction of waste, depletion, pollution

Work

Population

Production

GDP Nature

A new proposal

Space of social exclusion avoided by social policies

Space of tolerated inequality defined by individual talent and

persistence - thanks to good education for all

Space of superfluous consumption prevented by rules

of environmental protection

Ecological limits

Social limits: SSN

Schooling effect: SAL

SAL: Social Ascension Ladder

SSN: Social Safety Net

a. New objectives • Good growth without ecological unbalance

• Degrowth with social well being

• Happiness without growth

• Free time with cultural practices

The New Development

b. New products: • Public and immaterial goods (culture,

education, health, security)

The New Development

b. New products: • Private and material goods for the basis of the social

pyramid

• High tech products

The New Development

Mass products

Exclusive products

c. Renewable resources

The New Development

d. Reduction of waste

The New Development

Traditional Keynesianism x Social Productive Keynesianism • Traditional Keynesianism expands the aggregate demand, using public funds to

employ manpower, even to produce “no-goods” that don't meet consumer needs: monuments, unnecessary infrastructure, weapons. The worker earns just enough to buy products that will boost the aggregate supply.

Traditional Keynesianism x Social Productive Keynesianism

• Social Productive Keynesianism proposes the use of public funds to finance employment in order to produce goods that will meet population needs and ecological balance.

New conception to fight poverty and promote economic growth Social productivism:

• From SSN: social-safety-net

• To SAL: social-ascension-ladder

• To pay poor people to produce what poor people need – mobilizing the poor

The SSN keeps the poor in the poverty line, without a door to a way out.

The SAL mobilizes the poor and offers them a way out of poverty.

Two different conceptions:

Cash transfers

• Unconditional Cash Transfers (Traditional Keynesianism) X Conditional Cash Transfers (Productive Keynesianism) • Social Safety nets (SSN) X Social Ascension Ladder (SAL)

Absolute poverty

No poverty

Social safety net

Social ascension ladder

Permanent poverty

Cash Transfer Programs

Can be unproductive or productive

• Unproductive: reduces some of the poverty burden, without conditionalities related to production and with no provision of adequate goods and services

• Productive: requires that beneficiaries produce goods and services to attend the poor’s needs

Cash Transfers Programs

Unproductive /

unconditional cash transfer programs

offer a minimum income

to relieve the poverty needs

by the purchase of private

goods at the market

Cash Transfers Programs

Social / conditional

productive cash transfer programs

offer an income to relief

private needs through the market and mobilizes the unemployed poor to produce and increase the offer of public goods and services to overcome social disparities

Social Productive Keynesianism – SPK

Bolsa-Escola – part of a strategy aimed at:

Social inclusion

Economic competitiveness

Alleviating poverty

Overcoming poverty

Efficiency

Inventiveness

Social Productive Keynesianism – SPK

Bolsa-Escola, the first Productive Conditional Cash Transfer program:

Payment of a stipend, in cash, requiring that poor families ensure that their children were attending school, with the following requirements:

• the per capita family income is under a pre-defined level close to the poverty line;

• all children of school age have to be enrolled in a public school;

• all of them must comply with a minimum of 90% school attendance. Failure causes suspension of the monthly payment, until all children of the specific family are regularly attending school.

The Bolsa-Escola History:

• Theoretically proposed in 1987

• Published as a book in 1994

• Implemented in Brasilia in 1995

Social Productive Keynesianism – SPK

The Bolsa-Escola History:

• Implemented at Federal level as of 2001 – over 4 million families benefited

• Implementation worldwide as of 1997: initially in Mexico, later in Ecuador, Argentina, Sao Tome and Principe, Mozambique, Tanzania, Chile, Bolivia, El Salvador, and Guatemala

• Reached in Brazil, until 2010, up to 12 million families, or 50 million people under the name of Bolsa Familia, with a reduction of the educational requirements

Social Productive Keynesianism – SPK

Social Productive Keynesianism – SPK

The impacts of Bolsa-Escola

Promotes local governmental

empowerment Increases

adult literacy

Enhances education quality

Drastically reduces drop out

Eradicates child labor

Defends human rights, especially children’s rights

Inhibits migration

Enhances family bonds

Empowers women

Brings poverty relief (increases income, brings

better food, health, housing)

Creates job and income growth

Promotes economic growth from the bottom

of the social pyramid

BOLSA-ESCOLA

Impacts on children’s life and education

Impacts on society and economy

Impacts on citizenship and solidarity

Poupança-Escola (School Savings Program)

• Program implemented in Brasilia in 1995, consists of depositing a certain amount of money for the students receiving the School Scholarship who are promoted to the next grade. • Up to half the amount deposited can be withdrawn when the student finishes fourth grade and enrolls in fifth grade. • Another withdrawal can only be made when the student finishes eighth grade and enrolls in the first year of secondary school. • Finally, the student can only withdraw the entire amount deposited if he or she finishes secondary school. • If the student quits school at any time, he or she loses the amount deposited.

Social Productive Keynesianism (SPK) – the Social Incentives

Bolsa-Alfa (Literacy Scholarship)

Social Productive Keynesianism (SPK) – the Social Incentives

Mala do Livro (Home Lecture Program)

Social Productive Keynesianism (SPK) – the Social Incentives

Bolsa-Floresta (Forest Protection)

Social Productive Keynesianism (SPK) – the Social Incentives

Universalization of water and sewage services

Social Productive Keynesianism (SPK) – the Social Incentives

Recovery of rivers

Social Productive Keynesianism (SPK) – the Social Incentives

Urbanization and revitalization of shantytowns: pay poor

people to improve their urban and housing

Social Productive Keynesianism (SPK) – the Social Incentives

Micro-credit: offer poor people financial support for economic

production and income growth

Social Productive Keynesianism (SPK) – the Social Incentives

Domestic Agro-industries: support

rural workers to build their own micro-industries

Social Productive Keynesianism (SPK) – the Social Incentives

A new proposal – the Educationism

• A worldwide revolution in education and through education

• Education for All

• A school committed with the ecological and social balance

• A connected civilization

Global benefits

• Reducing migration

• World-scale increase in efficiency

• World-scale increase in demand

• Reducing conflicts, especially cultural conflict

Difficulties

Epistemological

Mental Political

Social

Juridical

Demographic

Technical

Economic

Difficulties

Ethical values

Social objectives

Economic rationality

Technical choice

Sense of ethical-modernity

Sense of technical-modernity

The concept revolution

The change in logic

• the poverty of Economics

• the cost of omission

• the feminization of social logic

• growth from the base of the social pyramid

The Educationism Global Social Marshall Plan for Education

• Requires additional US$200 per child = US$ 200 billion

• Equivalent to less than 0,5% (5/1000) of the world personal income

• Equivalent to 10% of the U.S. banking system rescue package (US$2 trillion) in the 2007/2008 crisis

• Nearly equivalent to what President Obama spent in education for American children (US$ 127 billion), as part of the economy rescue plan (US$ 819 billion)

http://twitter.com/Sen_Cristovam http://twitter.com/cbbrazilianview www.cristovam.org.br www.educacionista.org.br

Social Productive Cash Transfers to face the global crisis

The Educationism Some bibliography by the author

• Abolishing poverty: a proposal for the eradication of poverty in Brazil http://bit.ly/IpxdxB

• Bolsa-Escola: A poverty recovery plan for Africa – Bringing children first http://bit.ly/HzWLso

• Social incentives: a program to abolish poverty in Brazil http://bit.ly/HLcgfB

• The revolution of small things http://bit.ly/HAiWzn

• The progress of the idea of progress http://bit.ly/IiYgaw