Between the base and the top: Brazil according to Os ricos e ospobres, by Marcelo Medeiros

Abstract

Marcelo Medeiros’s new book combines an accessible synthesis of contemporary research on income and wealth inequality in Brazil with a defense of a particular view on its nature and how to tackle it. His argument unfolds in two steps. Medeiros argues that describing inequality entails normative commitments and, in the case of Brazil, puts forward a dichotomous perspective. In this view, one side comprises a largely homogeneous mass of extremely poor and vulnerable people; the other, a small but heterogeneous group of the rich, some much richer than others. The second step is to draw from this diagnosis a set of controversial policy prescriptions: targeted programs would not be enough to tackle poverty, and education would have limited effects on reducing inequality. In this review, I place Os ricos e os pobres within the literature on inequality and discuss some of the tensions in how Medeiros bridges diagnosis and policies.