Compared to all of the other countries in the G8, Brazil has higher HDI rank, meaning that the quality of life is not as good as the others in the G8. This being said, it has a lower or equal rank than the rest of the countries competing for this place in the G8, meaning that it is of the quality the G8 is looking to include from this year on.
Brazil, like other rich nations in the G8, has a low TFR (birth per woman). A low TFR are an indicator of a developed county because they show that contraception is readily available, that families can be planned and that a woman can choose how many children she has. Poorer countries have a higher TFR because contraception is not readily available and they need the children to work on the farms with them and look after their parents when they are older.
Compared to the other applicants who wish to join the G8 (China, India, Mexico and South Africa), Brazil has an average TFR, but still lower than India and South Africa. China’s birth rate is probably so low because of the one child policy in urban areas.
Brazil could add an insight from South America, since there are no other countries already in the G8, or competing for a place in the G8, from South America. It would also add an insight from a tropical country near the equator, since all of the countries already in the G8 are quite high up north. This would be helpful when discussing climate change, global warming, etc.
Inequality in Brazil, as measured by the Gini coefficient, fell from 0.59 in 2001 to 0.53 in 2007. Much remains unknown about why inequality has fallen, but two sets of known causes stand out. The first consists of improvements in education. In the early and mid-1990s, for example, the workforce gained more equal access to education. This is because of universal admission to primary schooling and lower repetition rates. In conjunction with other demographic trends, such as a decline in family size and improvements in family dependency ratios, access to education helped reduce inequality. We estimate that the impact of improved access to education on primary income distribution was 0.2 Gini points per year from 1995 onwards.
The second set of factors that reduce inequality are direct cash transfers from the state to families and individuals. These transfers improve secondary income distribution. For instance, a rise in the minimum wage leads to an increase in various transfers, such as the lowest level of the contributory pension system, partially contributory rural pensions, and non-contributory income substitution for those who are unable to work and who live in poor families. At the same time, conditional cash transfers, such as Bolsa Família, deliver substantial amounts directly to the poorest families. Together, these changes lead to reductions in inequality of another 0.2 Gini points per year.
Currently, 1% of the population owns almost half of Brazil’s land. And millions of rural families have no land, and are forced to work for big landowners . However, Brazil’s government is trying to make life fairer. It is buying land from big landowners and haring it out to poor people, with money to help them start farming. But the process is slow, and there’s a long way to go.
In conclusion, I believe Brazil should be admitted into the G8 (G9?) because of factors such as Life Expectancy at Birth, HDI rank and TFR. These factors show that Brazil is worth of being in the G8 as it shows that it is as developed as the countries that are already in the G8 and is more developed than countries that are currently competing.
