Economic and Cultural Drivers for Brazilians Moving to Florida

 Since the Great Depression in the 1930s, and especially since World War II, Brazil's economy and society have changed a lot. A small group of basic goods were exported for hundreds of years, but in a short amount of time, a large and varied industrial sector has taken over the country's economy. At the same time, Brazil's culture, which used to be mostly rural, is becoming more and more urban.These quick changes in society and the economy can be shown with a few numbers. In 1900, there were 17.4 million people living in Brazil. By 2007, there were 186.8 million, and by 2012, there were expected to be over 200 million. In 1940, only 30% of the country's people lived in cities. By 1970, that number had risen to 56%, and by 2006, it had reached 85%.1. In current prices, agriculture's share of the gross domestic product (GDP) fell from 28% in 1947 to 8% in 2005. Industry, on the other hand, saw its share rise from almost 20% in 1947 to 37.9 % in 2005.

After being industrialized for more than 50 years

Brazil made 2.4 million cars, 33 million tons of steel, 34.4 million tons of cement, 5.9 million TVs, 23.3 million cell phones, and 4.8 million freezers every year. In 1960, the country had 36,000 kilometers of paved roads. By 2006, it had about 190,000 kilometers. In 2004, Brazil had a fixed electric power capacity of 90,700 megawatts, and more than 60% of its exports were industrial goods. Since the middle of the 1990s, Brazil's EMBRAER has grown to become the fourth biggest plane maker in the world. Its main product is regional jets. EMBRAER sent 710 regional jets all over the world from 1996 to 2005. In 2006 and 2007, they plan to send another 145 and 150 planes. During these years, agriculture wasn't the most important industry, but it did grow a lot. In crops, the country's land area grew from 6.6 million hectares in 1920 to 52.1 million hectares in 1985 and then to over 65 million hectares in 2003. In 2002, 197 million hectares of land were used for grass, up from 74 million hectares in 1985. Brazil made more sugar and concentrated orange juice than any other country in the world. It also sent more soy, cow meat, and tobacco abroad than any other country. Even though these things were done, they did not make Brazil an advanced industrial country. Brazil stayed a less-developed country in terms of the well-being of its many people. In 2004, the GDP per capita was US$3,325. However, this number doesn't really show how well people are doing because income is very concentrated in certain income groups and areas of the country. Sixty times more money was made by families in the top 10 percent of the income scale at the start of the 21st century than by families in the bottom 10 percent.2 It was close to 0.6 for the Gini value. In 2001, the average income per person in Brazil was 34% higher in the Southeast than the average in the Northeast.

In many Northeastern states, it was less than half the average income for the country

In 2003, 89.6% of households had access to a water supply system, 55.3 % had access to a general sewage system,4 99.5% had electricity, 88.6% had regular garbage collection, 91.7% had a refrigerator, 90.3% had a TV, 38.4% had a washing machine, 57.8% had a landline phone, and 17.5% had a computer (13.2% with Internet access). In 2004, there were 20.6 doctors for every 10,000 people living in Brazil. In the US, that number was 27.9, and in Sweden, it was 33.7. In Brazil, there were 5.2 nurses and midwives for every 10,000 people that year, while in the US there were 97.2 and in Sweden there were 108.7. A baby died every 69.1 days in Brazil in 1980, but only 29.6 days in 2005. In the US, that number was 6.5, and in Sweden, it was 2.8. These social measures only show averages across the whole country. People were living in a lot worse conditions in many parts of the country than these figures show. For example, in 2003, 83.3 percent of urban households in Northern Brazil had access to a general water supply system, while 95.5 percent of households in the Southeast did. In the Southeast, 80.8 percent of homes were tied to a general sewage system, but only 34.7 percent of homes in the Northeast were. In 2003, 45.3% of families in Northeast Brazil made less than half the minimum wage, while only 15.6% of families in Southeast Brazil did. In 2004, people born in the Federal District could expect to live 74.6 years, while people born in the northeastern state of Alagoas could expect to live only 65.5 years. In 2004, the death rate for babies ranged from 14.7 in Rio Grande do Sul to 17 in São Paulo to 55.7 in Alagoas to 43.5 in Maranhão. The government had hoped that industrialization would not only help Brazil grow and progress, but also make the country less reliant on the world's traditional industrial centers for its economic needs.

Because of the international division of labor that started in the 1800s

Brazil and most other Third World countries are now the main suppliers of goods. In this way, Brazil's rate of economic activity depended a lot on how well the world's manufacturing centers did. The government had thought that industrialization that would replace imports would make the country more economically independent. But industry only changed how people depended on each other. The import coefficient (the ratio of imports to GDP) didn't change much, but the types of goods that were imported did. Because of this, Brazil was still at least as dependent on trade with other countries as it had been before. Also, a lot of foreign investment in the fastest-growing parts of industry helped industrialization happen. This meant that foreigners had a lot more control over the growth and use of the means of production. The way Brazil became industrialized was based on the ideas of market economies. This means that most of the governments that pushed for industrialization stressed the importance of private property rights and relying on private businesses in Brazil and other countries. On the other hand, for many years, the government got much more involved in the economy than was originally planned. That's because the private sector in the country didn't have enough money or advanced technology, foreign investors didn't want to get into some industries, and governments didn't want to let foreign investors into some industries.