When I went to the supermarket this week, I bought potatoes for about R$4 a kilo. I could just grab 6 of them, and pay a ridiculous price. I wouldn’t be making vodka with it, but I joked about it with my dad. We did some shopping for other vegetables. The cabbage was R$3 the pack. The eggs were R$12 for 20 units. There’s a system in place that gives discounts to clients when they input their social security number. In another kind of commerce, drugstores, there’s been reporting about data practices in Brazil that should’ve set a standard, but didn’t (and have already been addressed by this blog and also social media posts).

But a lot of people still focus on what they need in minimum amounts, using money they often get from a social benefit, and don’t enjoy the luxury of even thinking about buying a bakery snack if they want to eat something different. In healthcare, they don’t buy medicine; they go to the public hospital units that operate with SUS, making emergency situations as well as regular check ups free, and even surgeries and medication that is provided by a government subsidy.

So you’d think that a person can be doing pretty well if they have what to eat and they’re in good health. But are they working? It seems that the stakes have never been higher. To find a good paying job these days, you need to have prepared your whole life — and after a while, you’re easily replaceable. Convenience, business as usual, call it what you want: old people don’t get hired. And that’s not because they don’t have the experise or aren’t what the enterprise is looking for, but because it’s simply easier to fool a young person into staying at a job that barely respects their most fundamental rights.

I met someone special once who wanted to pursue a career as a counselor. The gig economy had already built a system for people like her: on constant demand, and needed everywhere. Betterhelp, a service that tailors therapy online to the patient, seemed convenient; but it demanded that she had a license, and she couldn’t pass an algebra test that hindered her from getting their hands on the very sought for diploma. She faced severe health issues, and later starvation, when she moved out of her parents’ home; but the work didn’t come. To get by, she collected Amazon gift cards from video games and discount websites. And then, when I asked what else she could do, she said not much, because she had a record.

Now, I’m gonna have to say that this person was one of my closest friends, even more than that. It was hard seeing her struggle, but I couldn’t do a thing, which led me to navigate a lot of frustration. But then, I thought about what was happening with me. So many years in the workplace, so many stories, countless clients, and no stability. After hearing that I was a pathetic failure, I decided to do things more seriously with my business, but that didn’t have the immediate effect that I wanted. Basically, I learned that the internet is rigged, and it doesn’t look good — only for the people who know how to strike the best poses.

And the state of American society? It’s a mess. I simply don’t buy that everyone’s listening to the news eager to know how much investors are betting on in the biggest tickers and what the CEOs and officials have said. I’m pretty sure they just want to get by. And I see the same thing here in Brazil.

While starting a business might be a bad idea in a country that can’t have a serious conversation about mission and values without revealing ill intention, maybe it all looks clearer. The people want a revolution. The educational system has been failing us, and so has the legal framework. We saw the abolition of working registers. We saw the pandemic. Today, I think the people who are making money in Brazil are selling products on TikTok.

And the Republican mindset has been contamined by this America First thing. If only they admitted that they’re into high school athletes and released the number of mom supervised accounts on Instagram! But they’d rather invest in the military industrial complex and make everyone think that progress rhymes with annihilation.

The C-suite doesn’t care. While some people might point to the “volatility” of markets because of the release of a drug, an Alzheimer’s afflicted family might never recover from the pain of dealing with disease and inevitable loss of their loved one. Meanwhile, announcements of anti-obesity pills are paired with over 10 billion dollars in gains, given the market.

I mean, we can always eat salad and avoid smoking. Is that MAHA enough?