Where's the Money?

Until his second term, Franklin Roosevelt was not a communist. Actually, it seems Mr. Roosevelt was president of the United States of America from 1933 to 1945 without anyone having found evidence that he was involved in a conspiracy against capitalism or its great entrepreneurs — the same entrepreneurs, as we all know, who make fortunes thanks exclusively to hard work and dedication.

Remembering Mr. Roosevelt today is easily done, for he is one of the few men who could have written a book entitled, “How I Saved Capitalism from Its Worst Crisis.” Such a book, if it existed, would be recommended reading for the directors of the International Monetary Fund, involved in scandals of all types, senior bank executives saved by the state (but who like teaching the perfect recipe for overcoming crises), and, finally, presidents of countries that were once seen as promising in terms of development.

In the book, old Franklin could tell how he passed a progressive tax law in 1935 that taxed the richest of the country by up to 75 percent (the strategically forgotten Revenue Act).

He could also select some of his speeches, like one that was given to Congress in 1942 in which he affirmed that “no citizen should have liquid profit, after paying taxes, of more than $25,000 annually” — what today would actually be around $350,000.*

With a policy that the great wise economists of today would call demented, crazy or simply “communist,” Franklin pulled his people out of misery, allowing the state to offer basic public services for its citizens, which lent them more tranquility to plan for the future as well as ensuring money for consumption and the development of their entrepreneurial spirit.

But if this model were forwarded to the Brazil of today, Franklin would be scratching his head trying to understand one of the biggest enigmas of humanity. Petrified, he would ask himself how it’s possible that a constitutional law that institutes a tax on large fortunes (Article 153, Section VII [of the Brazilian Constitution]) remains unregulated and therefore unimplemented after 25 years. A law that doesn’t legislate: A true paradox worthy of a more astute dialectic.

It joins, however, two sides of one equation: The moment the Brazilian economy defaults and national business investments vanish, Brazil will still have produced 23 new millionaires a day, reaching a milestone of 155,500 millionaires.

This begs the Rooseveltian question: Where’s the money?

*Editor’s Note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.