Purified and Enlightened on Capitalist Pragmatism: Brazil to Shape, Not Rule

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Carnival. Caipirinha. Poverty. Crime. favela. These are the stereotypes about Vasily that haunt the Swiss. A report about the South American country itself passes with a strange tremor of pity, behind which lies a sense of one’s own superiority. What mistake! Brazil is a country that promises more than ever opportunities for development. Switzerland, on the other hand, seems to me to be a land of skittish cats who only care about losing what they have gained or inherited.

For family reasons, I am also spending this Swiss summer in the Brazilian winter. The mood is pleasant not only because of the temperature on the street about 20 degrees, but because here it blows fundamentally positive, everyday capitalist spirit. People take their lives into their own hands. They experiment, become self-employed, learn, do without, invest, fall, get up again, dare the next adventure.

Here, too, they complain, but not about others who have or can do more than he does, but about corrupt politics. Otherwise, you don’t complain about problems, you solve them. Private Brazilian pragmatism is downright beneficial to the spoiled European. The discussions are not about what others owe you, but about what you owe in life. And you pay the price of guilt by making the best of your situation.

I have been visiting the country for 20 years. The speed of progress is breathtaking. Just a few years ago, dusty runways led from the airport to the center of Belo Horizonte, but today it is four-lane highways lined with shiny new-build facades. The expanded airport, operated by Flughafen Zürich AG, is performing well with a capacity of over 20 million passengers per year. The skyline of a city of three million soars upwards. Chic districts are emerging, gastronomy is rising to unimaginable heights, the lifestyle of the upper middle class is no longer different from that of a Central European. And all this is happening despite the wretched politics.

So, what did I take away from my stay in Brazil this time? There are two types of society. Those who manage the existing. And those who shape the future. Those who only talk about distribution. And those who want to grow. Brazilians admire Switzerland for its prosperity and success – how much longer?

René Scheuil is a philosopher and director of the Swiss Institute for Economic Policy (IWP) in Lucerne.

Source: Blick