Brazil is a survivor of inequalities

Social injustices, deeply rooted in our history, recycle themselves, transforming privileges into rules and inequalities into power structures. The aristocratic mentality remains alive, authoritarian and conservative.

The portrait of this inequality is exposed in the scandalous numbers displayed by the country. Starting with the insufficiency of budget resources for expanding investments in development and improving the living conditions of the population.

One of the aberrant class privileges, which appear naturalized as public policy, is, for example, the tax exemptions granted to large companies and high-income individuals. Federal tax subsidies reached R$ 564 billion in 2024. This tax waiver is equivalent to 4,8% of GDP, well above the 2% of GDP ceiling set as a target until 2029 by Constitutional Amendment EC-109.

Added to this is tax evasion, which exceeds R$ 500 billion per year, according to data from the Federal Revenue Service. This is a true reflection of the moral inversion: the poor religiously pay their taxes when they buy things, while the rich have defenders of their interests in Congress and battalions of lawyers hired for legal maneuvers in order to avoid paying taxes.

Tax litigation, a veritable labyrinth of appeals and legal loopholes, is another major front that has already accumulated R$ 5,5 trillion, of which more than R$ 1 trillion is paralyzed in judicial and administrative disputes.

This immense volume of public money is trapped in a web of legal appeals, while the State is forced to cut investments, delay projects, or justify the lack of more resources for health, education, and the social safety net for the most vulnerable.

When the government attempts to correct these distortions, as in the recent Provisional Measure 1303, which raised the IOF tax rate to achieve fiscal justice, the defenders of the privileged regime rebel. In Congress, representatives of the wealthiest, defenders of "economic liberalism," stand up against any attempt at tax justice. The result was the shelving of the Provisional Measure, a defeat not only for the government but for Brazil.

In this vein, inequality is renewed with each generation, sustained by a regressive tax system and a political elite that legislates for itself. Fiscal justice is the first step towards social justice. But, for this to happen, it is necessary to break the silent pact that keeps the country trapped between rent-seeking and servitude. No country in the world has become just and developed without confronting privileges.

Another drain on public resources that fuels the financial elite and inequality in the country is the interest rate, one of the highest in the world, set by the Central Bank, which remunerates government bonds. In the first half of 2025, interest payments and amortization of public debt reached R$ 1,313 trillion, representing 53,4% ​​of the total budget. Data from the Central Bank estimates that each percentage point increase in the interest rate adds another R$ 50 billion to the public debt.

With such inequality and so many privileges, it is time for Brazil to look at itself in the mirror of its history and decide whether it wants to continue serving the same interests of the powerful as always, or whether it will finally build a Republic of citizens equal before the law and the tax authorities.