Limit No. 1: BRICs and Inequality

Abstract

Imagine for a second that you were poor in the BRICs. You can neither improve your lot through economic opportunities – you lack the assets, the land and the education to seize them – nor make policy more propoor – policy is shaped by a coalition of politicians and the economic elite. Your economic prospects are bleak, and politically speaking, you are effectively disenfranchised. What is left to you? The streets. Whether you take to them or not depends on how frustrated you are and how visible the enrichment of other classes is. With the BRIC ‘economic miracle’ under threat, frustration and visible enrichment are both reaching high levels in the BRICs. This chapter investigates the reasons for this situation.