A new survey conducted by the international agency Oxfam revealed that, at the current pace, Brazil would take 75 years to reach the current level of income equality of the United Kingdom, or 30 years to match that of Argentina.
Despite lifting millions of people out of poverty in recent decades, Brazil still faces a huge gap between the richest in the country and the rest of the population. Previously, Oxfam had revealed that just six people have as much wealth as the poorest half of the country.
“This is an unfair, unacceptable, and unsustainable situation,” said Katia Maia, executive director of Oxfam Brazil. “We can no longer avoid this; confronting inequality head-on is everyone’s responsibility. This report is our way of kicking off that conversation.”
Even worse, inequality threatens to reverse the progress the country has made in ending poverty. Current projections from the World Bank show that up to 3.6 million people are expected to fall back into poverty this year in Brazil. About 16 million Brazilians already live below the poverty line.
“All Brazilians, regardless of social class or race, are affected by the inequality crisis. That is what unites us,” Maia adds.