Percentage of population below the extreme poverty line in Brazil, year by year. Check this out.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

The last 7 years are Lula. The 8 years before that are his rich-fucks-friendly predecessor. See a pattern?



Fundação Getúlio Vargas has been doing these measurements year by year for decades. Here is a nice Flash version with links to newspaper articles from relevant years. Er, um, they're in Portuguese. Sorry.

The explanation is painfully simple: the Lula administration steadily and consistently raised the minimum wage year by year. That got the economy going, created jobs, meaning even more money in the hands of people intent of spending it, and so on and on and on.

All of this without undue inflation.

Please send good vibes for Lula's party's candidate for President this October, Dilma Rousseff. Amazingly, polls have her in a dead heat with the guy form the rich-fucks-friendly group.

[flvegan]

1. Vibes for Rousseff.

Hey, Obama...maybe you check this out, eh?

[noamnety]

2. I don't want to detract from the main point, which is a great one

but as a graphics person, I hate these sorts of charts which visually lie. They've distorted and exaggerated the decrease. The end point should be a little less than half the height of the start point. Instead, since the axis doesn't go down to zero, they've given the impression when you first look that it's been almost completely eradicated.

[Warpy]

3. How to lie with statistics

You've hit on one of the best methods, chop off most of the bar graph so that changes look bigger than they actually are.

However, that doesn't minimize Lula's staggering achievement, cutting the poverty rate nearly in half and the decrease continuing during the international economic disaster.

South American countries that took advantage of Stupid getting the US involved in 2 unwinnable wars around the planet and turned left are reaping considerable rewards. I hope the rest follow and we do, too.

That right wing stuff just never works, not for them and not for us.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. We're on a roll.

[noamnety]

5. I absolutely don't want to minimize his achievement

which is stunning.

(It's more of an OCD thing with me that I have a hard time letting charts like that go without comment.)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Probably the designer didn't want empty space in the graph.

Sloppy, perhaps.

[Hydra]

7. It is sloppy, unfortunately

I'm pretty OCD too on scientific stuff, and I think it would be more effective showing the percentage points shaved off(More than 50% reduction, most impressive), rather than where i look and see the bottom and whee 0 should be, it's 15.5.

Great post though.

[spinbaby]

13. How to Lie with Statistics is the name of a great book

It was written in the 50s, so the numbers can be rather comical, but it's still a great read.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/0393310728/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1279191359&sr=1-1

[Warpy]

15. I know, it's on the book shelf right above the puter screen

It's one of my favorites of all time and should be required reading for anyone who is interested in deconstructing propaganda.

The other classic is Vance Packard's "The Hidden Persuaders," a little dated but still packed full of useful information on visual propaganda clues.

Symbolic logic is also good to play with when deconstructing bafflegab.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. Just put those two on my wish list. Thanks! -nt

[BolivarianHero]

8. good point

This shit makes cringe. I ever see it in academic and government stuff.

But what you also have to consider is that those who are still below the poverty line are almost certainly better off than they were 8 years ago. They're likely below the poverty line by a lesser margin than they may have been before and they probably have access to more and better social programs that do not require wealth or income to take advantage of.

What's even more hilarious is that people who are doing in Latin American and elsewhere in the developing world what social democrats and Keynesian-minded liberals and conservatives did in the developed worlds before the 80s (where shitty electoral systems have allowed the right to subvert the will of the people in many politically and economically powerful countries, Britain, Canada, and the U.S. coming to mind, and lay waste to a lot of this. Fuck 16 Billion on war vehicles in Canada and 30 billion in Afghanistan from Uncle Sam. If there's an afterlife, I'm sure Brezhnev is laughing at all of us, Bush and Obama especially. Afghanistan and the extremism that exists there is in large part America's sword. Perhaps Uncle Sam should be retired in favour of Brutus.) are being presented as left-wing extremists.

Here in Canada, Tories nationalized hydro in the early 1900s to stop robber barons in Ontario from extorting people and allowing future governments of various political stripes to bring about rural electrification. Similar, the 1960s saw Quebec's Liberal government create Hydro-Quebec to stop Anglo-American elites from plundering Quebec's natural resources and to ensure that the province's massive hydroelectric resources and the revenue they bring in benefit society as a whole rather than a few particular interests. How is nationalising oil in Venezuela any different? I guess the Third World still has to operates on a different set of bullshit rules, a fact that Iranians learned the hard way in the 1950s. You look at the situation now, and it's obvious that we're all paying a Hell of a lot for Churchill's cheap Iranian oil.

[Hannah Bell]

14. it's a graph of the percentage of the population in poverty. the points are clearly labeled, with

percents.

you'd have to work at it to misinterpret the last value as zero.

it's written in big numbers: 16.02

my only issue is why the change from decimals to commas in the percents for the last few numbers in the series.

[noamnety]

16. I take it you aren't a fan of Edward Tufte. (nt)

[Greyhound]

21. And yet...

Well, it did kick the thread.

[noamnety]

22. Yep - I kicked - and recommended the thread.

I can appreciate what the chart is saying, while critiquing the graphics from an information design point of view.

[Greyhound]

24. Another kick; The big numbers at each data point avoided confusion for me.

:rofl:
:hi:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

25. Kids, kids, let's not fight over silly things, OK? Here, have some hot cocoa and cookies.

[Greyhound]

26. No fight here, just a few more kicks.

And if it came off as too snarky, my apologies.

Writing is a difficult medium and misinterpretation is all too easy.

And Gingersnaps!? I fucking hate Gingersnaps! You all hate me!
:rofl:

[EFerrari]

9. Lula has been a truly amazing leader.

It's very sad to see his term come to an end.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Amazing, and wonderful. All this progress while raising the minimum wage steadily, too.

Don't think I've ever seen right-wingers create this kind of progress, even with their deviant, soulless, anal tactics.

It's enchanting seeing that decrease head downward EVERY year.

Hope you will get a good President this election, Commie Pinko Dirtbag. I'm afraid to see how Lula's party's choice is doing, so much depends on her winning. We'll be waiting and watching, you can be sure.

Thank you for a look at a REAL record by a man who takes his job seriously, who has acted like a true leader always. Brazil should be so proud of him.

Recommending.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

18. I wonder where the usual LatAm threads suspects are.

Grinding their teeth in rage, maybe.

[onestepforward]

11. Sending vibes to Rousseff.

What an accomplishment. Very inspiring.

[Greyhound]

12. Imagine that. Pumping money into the bottom of society makes ti better for everyone.

What a concept! But of course "nobody could've predicted this"...
:kick: & R

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. I want this to be spread far and wide. And rubbed on the idiots' faces. -nt

[Statistical]

20. Somehow he did it all without nationalizing (stealing) assets and putting disenters in prison

like another Latin American leader who is more beloved on DU.

Very interesting to look at the economies of Brazil and Venezuela over the same period of time.

Brazil is also a great emerging market to invest in. Lula has been able to improve the standard of living in Brazil while still keeping the company attractive to investors, thus a massive amount of capital has flooded into the country.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. Nationalization or not, he and his policies are still leftist.

He did wealth redistribution. (Something that can be done in many ways.)

And it worked.

Hurts, innit?

[Ignis]

28. The histories and demographics of the two countries in question are identical, right?

:eyes:

[LostinVA]

30. I don't think nationalizing certain industries is stealing

I think it's stopping an oligarchy from scamming citizens. I think energy, insurance, and health SHOULD be nationalized.

[Statistical]

31. Nationalization without compensation IS STEALING.

I have no problem with vital industries being nationalized however to simply seize assets and say they belong to the government now is stealing pure and simply.

If I buys assets from you and operates them = legit
If I seize assets from you and operate them = stealing

If the govt buys assets from you and operates them = legit
If the govt seize assets from you and operate them = stealing

Sorry I wasn't clear I am talking about nationalization without compensation like what was done in Venezuela and had the predictable result of crushing any economic activity and sinking the country into a recession at a time when rest of Latin American is booming.

[LeftishBrit]

27. kick for Lula!

and hoping for many more years of good presidents. Even 15.54% is too high a figure, and more work is needed to reduce it. But Lula deserves huge credit for his achievements so far.

I have Brazilian friends, whom I first met in 1987, when Brazil was *just* starting a tentative move to democracy, after many years of military dictatorships, and it was not at all clear whether it would last. The progress since then has been amazing! But more is still needed!

[Ignis]

29. K&R, thanks for posting this.

Lula's not perfect, but he's done some great things for Brazil. :thumbsup:

[femrap]

32. S. America

seems to be the rising place on the planet. May it continue.

[2Design]

33. hopefully the olympics helps too n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

34. Too far ahead. So far, the only thing it's been able to help is the general mood.

The (2 years before Olympics) World Cup construction work is just now starting to kick into high gear. But with all else going on, it's hard to say if its influence is, or is going to be, measurable.

[IndianaGreen]

35. K&R

Ditching neo-liberalism has reduced poverty.

[pampango]

36. Great news when a poor country makes such progress in 18 years.

Not only has the country's economy grown tremendously but the economic benefits have been shared with the working class of the country.

I wonder if the decades of the 1990's and 2000's (even with the debacle of the last few years) will have seen the greatest reduction in world poverty in history.

[Mika]

37. The commies must be stopped!

:sarcasm:

Thanks for posting this hopeful information.

:hi:

---

[Odin2005]

38. Yay Lula!