New research conducted by the in-ternational agency Oxfam revealed that at the current pace, it would take Brazil 75 years to reach the United Kingdom’s current level of income equality, or 30 to Argentina’s.
Despite lifting millions of people out of poverty over the last decades, Brazil still faces a huge gap between the country’s richest and the rest of the population. Previously, Oxfam had revealed that just six people own as much money as the poorest half of the country.
“This is an unjust, unacceptable, and unsustainable situation,” said Oxfam Brazil’s executive director, Katia Maia. “We cannot dance around this anymore; tackling inequality head-on is everyone’s responsibility. This report is our way of kick-starting this conversation.”
Worse still, inequality threatens to reverse the progress the country has made in ending poverty. Current World Bank projections show 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. This is what unites us”, adds Maia.