Illiteracy, inequality, and the fallacy of propaganda.

Data collected by the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), released last week by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), reveals the chasm between the misleading propaganda displayed by the Workers' Party government and the harsh reality for millions of Brazilians. For the first time in 15 years, the country saw an increase in the illiteracy rate, which had been declining since 1997. Between 2011 and 2012, the percentage of people aged 15 or older who cannot read or write rose from 8,6% to 8,7%.

This increase represents an addition of 300 illiterate people, totaling 13,2 million citizens unable to read or write a simple note.

The staggering figures also show that the Northeast, praised by the Workers' Party propaganda as a symbol of the supposed progress made during the ten years of Lula and Dilma's governments, is the region with the highest percentage of illiterate people in the country: 53,8%, equivalent to 7,1 million people (the local rate increased from 16,97% to 17,4% in one year). It is also there that the most significant rate of functional illiteracy is recorded, with 28,4% of people who can read and write minimally, but have difficulty interpreting texts. The North follows closely in this regard, with a percentage of 21,9%, above the national average of 18,3%.

Another fallacy proclaimed by the PT (Workers' Party) that collapses like a house of cards based on IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) research is the supposed decrease in social inequality in the country. According to the PNAD (National Household Sample Survey), the income of the wealthiest segments of society grew at a faster rate than that of the lowest income groups between 2011 and 2012. At the top of the Brazilian social pyramid, where the richest 1% of the population is located, the acceleration was 10,8% during this period, while the income of the poorest 10% increased by 6,6%. Thus, the Gini index, a universal coefficient used to measure social inequality, slowed its rate of decline in the last year, reaching 0,498 in 2012, compared to 0,501 in 2011 (the closer to zero, the lower the inequality). Not coincidentally, the Northeast, which registered a worsening in income distribution during this period, is the only region in the country where this index increased.

The poor performance of the Brazilian economy, combined with slower income growth for the poorest and rising inflation, which erodes citizens' purchasing power and drives the search for loans, has caused Brazilian household debt to increase exponentially. According to the Central Bank, the index rose for the seventh consecutive month in July of this year, reaching a record 45,1% (it was 44,89% in the previous month). Since the beginning of the historical series calculated by the Central Bank, in January 2005, when it was at 18,39%, household debt in Brazil has been increasing. In February 2007, it reached 25%, exceeding 30% in early 2008 and 40% in 2011.

It has already been 33 months of Dilma's government, in addition to Lula's eight years, and the country continues to suffer from educational collapse and the social abyss between its regions. The PT government is an absolute fraud, a deception that leads Brazil from nowhere to nowhere, a piece of propaganda disconnected from the real world. It is necessary to interrupt this vicious cycle of incompetence immediately, before the future of the next generations is irrevocably compromised.