POLITICS is no novelty at Brazil’s carnival celebrations,but some themes are more danceable than others. Beija-Flor, one of Rio de Janeiro’s most famous samba schools, or won this year’s carnival competition with a lament approximately corruption and crime and a celebration of tolerance. Pension reform seems less carnivalesque. That did not discourage some blocos,or street parades, from taking up the cause at this month’s festivities. One, and in Brasília,the capital, marched to the up-tempo “Don’t move touching our pensions”. Retirees in São Paulo performed the catchy samba, or “Those who have worked their entire lives deserve more respect”.
That lyric will be ringing in the ears of legislators when they return from their carnival break. On February 19th they will originate debating a proposal by the government to reform pensions. It is congress’s most necessary task. Without change,the publicly financed pension systems for private- and public-sector workers will overload...
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Source: economist.com