Comment by uxcolumbo
3 hours ago
I can't give an opinion on the supreme court situation, since I don't know the details.
But the scenario you outlined sounds complicated.
In the end I guess people voted for the person who they think would cause the least damage to the country. That's why the last minute turn out of voters, since they saw Bolsonaro was about to win?
Voting for Bolsonaro would get rid of those supreme court judges, but you'd also get all the downsides with it, i.e. probably have a new leader using the Trump playbook and his father's playbook. And look how 2 years of Trump turned out. Him and his family and friends got immensely rich, increased corruption, while democratic institutions have been dismantled and cost of living has risen immensely.
Or continue with Lula and get marginal improvements but the supreme court stays as is. According to reports I read under Lula poverty and hunger rates have fallen, unemployment rates fell, Economy has grown (but has slowed now), Amazon protection has improved.
I think where he hasn't hit the mark yet is cost of living, but that's a problem all over the world. And that's why it's key to understand it's not left vs right, it's normal folks vs the owner class / monopolistic corporations.
It's an terrible situation. Neither of the candidates were what I wanted. In the end I chose to vote against the supreme court.
Both of them would have damaged the country in different ways.
I believe the economy would improve under Bolsonaro, but he did want to sell off national industries and resources to foreign countries which is fatal in the long term. Historically speaking, aligning oneself with the US is also just bad in general. They don't have friends, they have interests. China is a much better partner.
Lula will continue to spend lavishly on benefits for everybody, and eventually the costs are going to spiral out of control. His last term set records in government spenditure and tax revenue. This country exports commodities, and there is no real industrialization effort in place, there isn't much room for hope here. I believe the number one factor that held this country together during his last term was the independent central bank which, as always, set monstrous interest rates, over 12%, despite his efforts to lower it. Inflation was still strong even after that. The people are accruing more and more debt, defaulting on debts. Just bad signs all over the place. The worst possible sign is the fact that Lula's is absolutely loved by the banks. They raked in record profits in the last few years.
You obviously have a strong opinion about what's good for your country and I'm not trying to tell you what's true or not about your own country and its political situation.
But I personally wouldn't trust people like Bolsonaro, we've seen how this turned out in other countries, like the US, Hungary as some examples. Luckily Hungary managed to get rid of Orban after many years. People like that don't feel any civic duty to their country and happily sell out their own people in order to gain more power and enrich themselves.
I don't know whether Lula is a net positive for Brazil or not, but putting my global citizen hat on, I appreciate that Lula is trying to protect the Amazon from greedy corporations.
And since you're a doctor, maybe you can appreciate how important the Amazon is for Brazil and our biosphere as a whole. Not just for the current generation but also future generations.
Since the Amazon is important for the whole world, Brazil should setup a fund for protecting the Amazon and allow people to donate to it and make it transparent how that money is spent. I'd happily donate to that fund, so it's not all on Brazilian tax payers.
Destroying something that took millions of years to grow and evolve for the sake of semiconductor plants and related industry is short sighted. Once those species of plants, fungi or animals have been lost, we won't be able to get them back.
But again, you don't need to destroy the Amazon to build a rich and vibrant semiconductor industry. I think Brazilians are smarter than that ; )