And at a time when Brazil's one-booming economy is stuck in a prolonged lull ,
the government is being tight even with money it does have to invest. las years , Brazil spent less than 10% of the funds it allocated for urban transport projects ,
according to data compiled by contas abertas , a watchdog group.
the result is poor public services. for those who rely on them , day to day life is a battery of hassles that , at best , are a terrible grind , but often even dangerous and deadly.
Two-hour commutes , or worse , aren't rare in big cities like sao paulo or rio not to mention the grimy , unpredictable and overpriced trains and buses. In april , during an arment with an irate passenger , a bus driver careened off an overpass , killing nine.
when brazilians get home , often in neighbourhoods where basic trash collection and sewage are lacking , they worry about some of the highest violent crime rates in the world.
the homicide rate in brazil , as tallied by the united nations , was 21 deaths per 100,000 people in 2010 compared with 4.8 in the united states , and one in china. sometimes it's not police brazilians look to for protection , but drug gangs or other criminal factions that control entire suburbs.
their kids are less truant than in years past , thanks to a welfare plan that pays parents to keep them in school. but children aren't learning a whole lot once there. literacy rates and test scores lag behind those of many other developing counties , let alone the advanced economies that brazil so hopes to join.
those who can't afford private health insurance and most brazilians can't are at the mercy of public hospitals that often lack sutures , spare beds and , increasingly , doctors , some of whom are so disgusted with the public health system that they limit their work to private providers. such is the shortage of physicians in public hospitals that the government wants to import them from Cuba.