The importance of social public spending for poor and black families – 07/07/2023 – Policies and Justice

Fiscal policy can be used by the government to boost the economy in times of recession or to respond to emergency situations, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. It has two main instruments: public spending and taxes. During the pandemic, fiscal policy was extremely important in meeting the demands of the health area and guaranteeing, even if partial, the income of the economy, with emergency aid, for example. This significant support ended up affecting the public accounts, which showed an increase in the primary deficit (difference between revenues and expenses) and an increase in the gross public debt.

In 2020, the primary deficit represented 9.2% of GDP and, consequently, the gross public debt, which is the form used to finance the deficit, reached approximately 96% of GDP. Despite IMF projections indicating that the primary deficit in 2023 will be approximately 2% of GDP and the debt of 88% of GDP, that is, it represents an improvement compared to 2020, the challenge for the government remains to improve the results of the accounts public. And what’s the best way to do that?

Many people blame this “red” result on social spending, mainly on income transfer programs, such as Bolsa Família, created in 2003 during the first Lula administration. Therefore, they start from the hypothesis that one of the ways to regain control of public spending would be to curb investment in social spending. But it is extremely important to understand these expenses in a three-dimensional way, recognizing the developments and positive effects that they can provide. There are many studies and bibliographies that demonstrate, for example, that Bolsa Família helps a portion of the population to overcome the challenges of poverty and achieve better living conditions.

Making a counterfactual of my family’s situation, for example, if we had had a similar benefit, certainly, things would have been less difficult. Imagine a couple living in Brazil in the 1980s, marked by economic recessions and hyperinflation, raising and keeping four daughters in school. Certainly any help from the government would have made a positive difference. Buying school supplies and a uniform at the beginning of the school year was always a challenge and, for our parents, the question always arose as to whether it was worth keeping us in school. In the end, they always concluded that yes, which made it possible for us to have a better life because of access to education. As my father used to say “I won”, he and my mother won, they managed to raise and study their daughters.

I won, but not everyone can. Felícia Picanço’s 2015 study indicates that in the year I completed my graduation, in 1998, the rate of black people with incomplete or complete higher education was only 3.2%. According to data from the PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), in 2022 this rate registered 18.2% (against 35.2% for white women).

So, I have no doubts, and no one else should have, that Bolsa Família, or any other social program, would have made a difference for us, just as it does for the thousands of people who currently receive it. It is imperative that we, as political citizens, position ourselves as allies to policies aimed at reducing social inequalities and the commitment to a more equal society.

The editor, Michael França, asks each participant of the space “Politics and Justice” of the Sheet suggest a song to the readers. In this text, the one chosen by Carlândia Brito Santos Fernandes was “O Rancho da Goiabada”, by João Bosco.

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