Global Crisis - Part II
Friday, 19. December 2008, 15:02:03
Regular people like me in Brazil are seeing that things are going to the 'hole' as we say here.
Companies firing. New offices and factories closing their doors. People are in debt... and much more.
The worse thing I've been watching is the price at supermarkets.
10 years ago, with R$ 300 reais (1 dollar = 2,60 reais... more or less) you would get out the supermarket with many things. A big quantity of itens and your car would be full. Now, when you go the supermarket, you spend 300 reais and you can't buy even the half of the things you used to buy.
Me and Francis need to go almost every week. Most because we need fruits and vegetables. And the best day for it is Monday. So, we go and buy fruits, vegetables and something else that have finished. We always spend almost 200 reais a week. So, in a month, 4 weeks, 800 reais. And we just buy what we need, not what we would like to. Because when we buy something 'out the list' the bill is much more than 200 reais. And we always get out there sad
We feel stolen.
Our dear President is always saying that everything is normal. He always says that.
The financial institutions give the numbers of the inflation, and he says 'that's ok'. Ok to him, that don't have to pay his bills. We do!
The only sector which is having profits untill now, is the banking. The brazlian banks are the number ones in the economic structure and they have more profits than anything else.
We, regular people, work at companies and offices (some have their own business). We have our salary once a month, or divided twice a month (15th/30th day) and besides the commom bills (water, gas, eletricity, phone, etc) we have to eat. And when we go every week we see more clearly how the products are getting more expesive each week.
Beans, that we used to buy at 3 reais/packet, now we buy for 6.
Rice, we bought for 1 real/packet, now 2 or 3.
Meat, we bought 10 reais/kg (good meat, quality one), now 15, 16 reais/kg.
The frozen itens, like lasagna, pizza, chicken, etc... you have no idea how expensive they are!
If we buy just the minimum, we spend a lot. If we buy some more, some deli, for example, we spend much more.
In the beggining of this month, I read an article at Folha about the food price. They did a market research in 17 states of the country and in 11 states, they had the 'basic' food price increased (where I live is one of them).
According to Dieese (Estathistic Department and Economic Education) the basic salary in Brazil should be R$2.007,84 (the necessary to provide food, home, health, education, cloth, means of transportation, personal hygiene, leisure and social security) and the real salary brazilians have right now is R$415,00 reais, in other words, 4 times less than the really necessary.
Of course, people have different salaries according to the companies they work and qualificatons, but the companies and offices which pay R$415 reais to an employee... you can imagine how miserable a life can be!
I can't imagine how would be living with 415 reais!!! It can be horrable! No good food, buy clothes and shoes once a year (not that I buy every month), no leisure... I have friends that get more than 1.300,00 reais a month and they really don't have a good life!! It's such a bad life and our dear President saying that everything is fine!
Living in Brazil is hard, specially when you have someone trying to force you to believe that the country is amazing and the economy is great!!!
Companies firing. New offices and factories closing their doors. People are in debt... and much more.
The worse thing I've been watching is the price at supermarkets.
10 years ago, with R$ 300 reais (1 dollar = 2,60 reais... more or less) you would get out the supermarket with many things. A big quantity of itens and your car would be full. Now, when you go the supermarket, you spend 300 reais and you can't buy even the half of the things you used to buy.
Me and Francis need to go almost every week. Most because we need fruits and vegetables. And the best day for it is Monday. So, we go and buy fruits, vegetables and something else that have finished. We always spend almost 200 reais a week. So, in a month, 4 weeks, 800 reais. And we just buy what we need, not what we would like to. Because when we buy something 'out the list' the bill is much more than 200 reais. And we always get out there sad
We feel stolen.Our dear President is always saying that everything is normal. He always says that.
The financial institutions give the numbers of the inflation, and he says 'that's ok'. Ok to him, that don't have to pay his bills. We do!
The only sector which is having profits untill now, is the banking. The brazlian banks are the number ones in the economic structure and they have more profits than anything else.
We, regular people, work at companies and offices (some have their own business). We have our salary once a month, or divided twice a month (15th/30th day) and besides the commom bills (water, gas, eletricity, phone, etc) we have to eat. And when we go every week we see more clearly how the products are getting more expesive each week.
Beans, that we used to buy at 3 reais/packet, now we buy for 6.
Rice, we bought for 1 real/packet, now 2 or 3.
Meat, we bought 10 reais/kg (good meat, quality one), now 15, 16 reais/kg.
The frozen itens, like lasagna, pizza, chicken, etc... you have no idea how expensive they are!
If we buy just the minimum, we spend a lot. If we buy some more, some deli, for example, we spend much more.
In the beggining of this month, I read an article at Folha about the food price. They did a market research in 17 states of the country and in 11 states, they had the 'basic' food price increased (where I live is one of them).
According to Dieese (Estathistic Department and Economic Education) the basic salary in Brazil should be R$2.007,84 (the necessary to provide food, home, health, education, cloth, means of transportation, personal hygiene, leisure and social security) and the real salary brazilians have right now is R$415,00 reais, in other words, 4 times less than the really necessary.
Of course, people have different salaries according to the companies they work and qualificatons, but the companies and offices which pay R$415 reais to an employee... you can imagine how miserable a life can be!
I can't imagine how would be living with 415 reais!!! It can be horrable! No good food, buy clothes and shoes once a year (not that I buy every month), no leisure... I have friends that get more than 1.300,00 reais a month and they really don't have a good life!! It's such a bad life and our dear President saying that everything is fine!
Living in Brazil is hard, specially when you have someone trying to force you to believe that the country is amazing and the economy is great!!!
(17%)
WIDGETIZE
I_ArtMan # 19. December 2008, 20:24
i'm afraid that greed has finally got the better of us.
wages age going down, while everything else is going up... the limit of tolerance is being tested. there may be a revolution soon if obama doesn't control things.
i go to the food bank and the thrift store for food and clothing and drive only when necessary... hard times. but we can still enjoy life.
b_laudanum # 19. December 2008, 21:29
Yes, our patience and tolerance are being tested. All of us!
I think we can still enjoy life, but it's bad when we need something we can't buy, or when our children ask for some toy and it's so expensive that we don't have enough money to give it...
This is worse when you're forced to have a 'modern' life!
clean # 19. December 2008, 23:14
For instance, a couple of years ago, we decided meat prices were going up a little too much, and thought we'd focus on the cheaper cuts and types - lamb for one - which was always considered a more affordable meat.
In approximately a year it went from $10 a kilo to about $25.
A year!
Of course, the supermarkets say they're trying to provide the most competitive prices
I suspect that they're not really competing against one another, though. If they did (let's say Coles drastically reduced their prices), profits would suffer (Woolworths would have to drastically reduce their prices). They wouldn't run at a loss ... they'd just get less profits.
(That's me being cynical, but it probably isn't too far from the truth).
Sure, there's Aldi stores popping up here and there, Foodstore, IGA, etc. But the 'big two' dominate the pricing here.
What's particularly annoying to a lot of people is importing goods we can grow here. For instance, less than half a day's drive from where I live, we can find banana plantations. Those bananas are shipped overseas, and we end up importing from Indonesia.
WTF?
Nothing against the Indonesians, but wouldn't it make bananas cheaper if they were delivered from local growers (and also improve the local economy) than if we imported them from overseas?
(Hmm ... actually ... thinking on that ... I've just realized imported seafood is cheaper than locally-caught ... hmm ... :confused ... )
Ah, well ...
The upside is that with all these strict budgeting skills we're all developing, when things turn around (somehow, eventually, maybe, after the revolution ... ?!
b_laudanum # 19. December 2008, 23:24
Yes, this financial situation is all around the world. I guess we're living some king of '29 crisis again, or even worse than that time.
I just wish that we can survive to all this and have a bit of patience to fight it.
Thanks for commenting
uttopia # 27. December 2008, 03:19
b_laudanum # 29. December 2008, 14:27
We were looking the bill and trying to find something that we didn't need and maybe we bought, but no! Just food!
I guess there will be a time where we'll have to raise animals at the yard to have food at the table! (again)
I_ArtMan # 29. December 2008, 22:38
i think we should throw all the politicians out and simply hire some honest accountants and honest accountants to watch them. why do we need presidents and senators anyway?
but please... not a bloody revolution.... so sick of that. it just puts new egomaniacs in control.
b_laudanum # 29. December 2008, 23:39
but you know, I was thinking about what I said in the last comment, the thing of raise animals at the yard... if many of us start with this, maybe the commerce will be pushed to put low prices, otherwise they won't sell.
it's another way to make a revolution!
I_ArtMan # 29. December 2008, 23:57
certain people dedicated their time and energy to keep the place afloat. upriver in washington state people were neighborly and it was the best example of coexistence i have ever seen. no pressure, no rules.
b_laudanum # 30. December 2008, 01:38
my father used to have a vegetables garden for a long time and many times we, instead of buy at the market, we just picked up the ones we wanted at the garden.
it's great when you have this opportunity! and it's a way to avoid the 'mad' consumption when you go the big markets!
I_ArtMan # 30. December 2008, 01:45
b_laudanum # 30. December 2008, 14:28