The Posse - Brazil

November 2000
The gap between rich and poor in Brazil is greater than anywhere else in the world - and that gap is nowhere more evident in the sprawling city of São Paulo, with its 15 million population living in conditions ranging from millionaires' penthouses to rat-infested tenements and shantytowns - favelas. This is where City Life meets the Posse - a group of six young friends, united by their love of rap music, trying to make the best of their lives against all the odds.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Journeyman
• Pictures
• Brazil
• Sao
• Paulo
• Posse
• inequality
• favelas
• rap
• music
• news
• documentary
• current affairs
• journeyman
• journeyman pictures

[Rogerioapsandrade]

Man, that´s too old. Sao Paulo has changed since then (The gap continues, though)

[2bbgunsup]

Different language same story.

[TheUnknownGrower]

@Rogerioapsandrade but it got worse

[garybsg]

@CUMBICA1970 You are confused. Money is not wealth. They are two different things. Money is printed by governments which creates inflation and is a tax and yes very destructive. Wealth is flat screen TVs, cars, new inventions, new innovations, etc... Wealth is unlimited like our imagination is unlimited. The 12 year old boy in you was right.

[CUMBICA1970]

@garybsg But you know what? I used to think that way too till I was like 12-year-old. Like, why the gov just print money at will to make everybody millionaire? Then soon you start to understand that wealth is very much finite. That the expression wealth is "created" is just a figurative manner of speaking when in reality is just "transferred." That you have huge inflation (ie devaluation of money) when you have inbalance of paper wealth/real wealth.

[CUMBICA1970]

@garybsg oh yeah like any ponzi scheme things are wonderful while it works.

[garybsg]

@CUMBICA1970 Sorry but I don't agree. Wealth is not limited. Look at the amount of wealth in the last 200 years it has gone up 15,000%. 200 years ago a Japanese person hardly had enough food to eat. Today he has plenty, watches flat screen TV, antibiotics, flies in jets around the world and on and on. Socialist are totally wrong on this. Wealth like imagination and innovation is unlimited.

[CUMBICA1970]

@garybsg True, Gates and Buffets get their $80 bucks legitimately. But since I see no other way to the rest to get a minimal amount of the pie than limiting the bite of each one, the problem is in the system. Oh why not triple the wealth? If that worked, the US - the wealthiest country in the history of mankind - wouldn't be in that social mess.

[CUMBICA1970]

@garybsg "If somebody makes 10M is bad?" It depends. If somebody's making this money in a country like Ethiopia (where the average income is $220,) that's too bad. You need to start with the fact that wealth is limited. Let's say you got $100 to share with 10 guys: if the first one takes $80 and 2nd $10, no-brainer the rest will end up with peanuts or nada at all. And you're saying "oh but he got the $80 bucks legitimately, so I see no problem."

[CUMBICA1970]

@garybsg people are not that dumb around here. You see news from the world about those hundred million lottery winners, and yet no one is demanding it should be that way in Japan too. On the contrary, they see with incredulity like "how come they allow such thing??" Japanese travels a lot, they know pretty well how better their society is. And btw, lottery here sells as much as anywhere else (around U$18 billion a year.)

[garybsg]

Japan like America is a fiercely capitalistic country saddled with a socialistic government that is suffocating it. The lottery is a perfect example. The more the government takes the winnings(for equality), the less lottery tickets they sell. People don't buy lottery tickets to be equal.