I received a message from someone very uncomfortable with a Minh speech, with Marcos Lisboa and also columnists from Sheet. The person said that I was offering a “romantic” view of reality by suggesting that on average the poor do not see the boss as an enemy. That instead he aspires to occupy this place. For this critic, there was a lack of structural reading, a recognition of daily violence and barriers that prevent this dream from materializing.
But the point was not that. My argument is not that everyone will become bosses, nor that Brazilian inequality can be overcome by mere willpower. What I defended, and I still believe, is that this desire to take the boss’s place is, for many people, a symbolic gesture of dignity. He expresses a desire for autonomy, recognition and ability to generate opportunities for others. It is a dream with economic and moral meaning. And the public policy you want to connect with these people must at least consider this horizon as legitimate.
In this sense, as the economist recently stated, there seems to be a growing consensus among decision makers: the poor wants to work. It sounds little, but it is not. This is a relevant change in the imagination of social policy. The task now is to understand that this desire is not homogeneous. It is expressed through different aspirations, which do not always fit in the structures that the state usually offers. Accepting that vulnerable people have projects, even if disconnected from local opportunities, is the first step.
Thus, approaches such as attracted the attention of policy formulators around the world. The model combines initial financial support with monitoring, training and connection with local markets, generating lasting impacts on income and autonomy. But the most relevant is the premise that each person is the protagonist of their process and that it is necessary to invest time and institutional intelligence to understand their contexts, abilities and desires.
In Brazil, some recent programs point in this direction. Promotes intersectoral follow -up and seeks to connect social protection to productive insertion. In Paraíba, the focus on family farming and the promotion of sustainable activities. The federal program bets on microcredit, qualification and connection with formal vacancies.
More recently, it proposes personalized plans for poverty families, combining income, access to services and follow -up. They are distinct proposals, but which share a common intuition: it is necessary to start from the dreams and realities of those who want to include. It is still early to know if these programs have achieved their goals. External evaluations will be essential for measuring their effects on the lives of beneficiaries.
When I say that the “dream of being a boss” is legitimate, I mean that it is not made politics ignoring the aspirations of the most vulnerable. Part of these dreams will not be realized, as many of ours are not realized either. But this is the starting point. The task of politics is to build plausible paths, without delegitimizing what people want.
Perhaps the hardest work of social policy is this: listening without promising what can not be fulfilled and yet do not betray what has been heard. Dignity is not only in the realization of dreams, but in the right to continue having one.
Gift Link: Did you like this text? Subscriber can release seven free hits from any link per day. Just click on F Blue below.
