Why We’re Ungovernable, Part 17: In Latin America, Soaring Population + Soaring Debt = “Brutal Justice”
There are two ways of looking at the intersection of debt and population. One way says that if debt is rising population should also rise to allow future workers to pay for the retirement of today’s. More people thus make debt easier to manage.
The other point of view is that debt and population soaring simultaneously creates a negative feedback loop that eventually destroys a culture.
Today’s Latin America appears to validate the second thesis. Debt and population are both soaring, and big parts of the culture seem to be collapsing.
The following chart shows Latin America’s population more than tripling since 1950:
The next chart shows the government debt of Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, spiking since the end of the Great Recession:
Brazilian Government Debt % of GDP
source: tradingeconomics.com
As for the culture collapsing, consider this (rather grisly) excerpt from today’s Wall Street Journal:
In Latin America, Awash in Crime, Citizens Impose Their Own Brutal Justice
The 16-year-old had spent a balmy Saturday afternoon in May with his high school friends at a funk music party in Brasília’s central park, not far from the country’s presidential palace.
As he headed home shortly after sundown, someone in the crowd grabbed his classmate Ágatha from behind and snatched her phone, witnesses told police. She spun around and saw Victor. Believing him to be the thief, she screamed out for help. Her friends knocked him to the ground and began to beat him.
Hearing Ágatha’s shrieks, another group of partygoers presumed he must be the same teen who had swiped a pair of sunglasses from them earlier. One of them jammed a broken bottle into Victor’s stomach.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
