The Preferred U.S. State for Brazilian Immigrants

Introduction

 Social Security pensions, but make it lit AF. Brazilian public pensions are like, totally set up as this mandatory pay-as-you-go system, you know? And they're divided into two subsystems, or regimes as we say in Brazil: one for peeps working in the private sector and another for those in the public sector. It's like, a whole thing, ya know? Even tho both subsystems are paid with public resources and share some common rules, they're like, totally different.

For real tho, there are like three major diffs we gotta highlight. First and fore- most, the private sector regime has a legit cap that limits the values of its pensions and the employees’ Social Security contributions. 

This cap don't apply to the public sector pensions, fam. Recent reforms have totally shook things up, but it's gonna take forever for their vibes to really hit because the cap only applies to peeps who hopped on the public sector train after the reforms were official. Like, it's gonna be, like, thirty-ish years before both regimes are, like, on the same page about the benefit cap. Even then, there will still be some major diffs, 'cause these reforms also made voluntary retirement funds to flex on the public servants' pensions. These funds are gonna have way stricter rules than the current setup, but they're still gonna be partly subsidized, ya know? The second big diff is all about the minimum wage, fam. Both pension regimes are like, totally linked to the minimum wage, which is like, the legit floor for all Social Security benefits. Anyway, like, there aren't many retired public servants making minimum wage, but like, around two-thirds of private sector pensions are at that minimum wage level (R$ 465 as of June 2009, or PPP$ 272, which is like seven times less than the cap of PPP$ 1882). This is, like, majorly important 'cause the yearly changes to the minimum wage really mess with these private sector pensions. 

Social Assistance transfers, fam

Social Assistance is like all the no-contribution cash benefits, except for the Rural Pensions, which are part of the Social Security pensions. It's all about that free money, ya know? Two major fed programs are like totally responsible for almost all transfers: the Benefício de Prestação Continuada (BPC) and the Bolsa Família. The BPC is, like, this lit monthly benefit that's equal to one minimum wage, ya know? It's totally targeted to poor peeps who are 65 or older or have mad disabilities. The Bolsa Família program started in the early 2000s cuz they combined a bunch of old cash transfer programs, ya know? It's aimed at fams who are broke af, especially those with kiddos. what's called "earnings parity" with current public servants, cuz their benefits are like automatically adjusted when the latter's wages go up. The reforms approved in 2003 and 2005 have like totally yeeted this privilege, but all public servants who hopped on the public sector train before 2003 are eligible for pensions with earnings parity.

In like, summing it up, it's like not even controversial to say that the rules for public servants' pensions are way more lit than for the private sector. Both regimes be runnin' big annual deficits – like 1% (private sector regime) and 2% (public servants’ regime) of GDP – so they gotta get some help from the State, ya know?

For the Gini decomposition, the public pension incomes were like split into two big categories, ya know? We got pensions for peeps in the private sector and pensions for peeps in the public sector. This squad was like totally split into pensions that are equal or below the cap and pensions that are above the cap, ya know? Finally, the pensions above the cap were like totally split into two income factors, one equal to the cap and the other representing the "surplus" some retired public servants flex as they don't gotta deal with the pension cap that private sector workers have to deal with.

Unemployment benes

Formal workers gotta chip in to this employment insurance fund, ya know? It's called FGTS in Brazil, for real. These contributions are like, totally registered in individual accounts, ya know? After getting fired, workers are totally gonna get a monthly benefit for, like, a specific amount of time. This benefit is lit AF and totally proportional to the cash I was making before. They can also flex the funds of their individual accounts when they get fired, retire, or get hit with serious illnesses (like HIV or cancer), or to flex on buying something cool. crib. Both the insurance premium and the drawdown were like totally classified in the category of unemployment benefits and computed as they are in the database, ya know?They end up getting disconnected from what the people put into 'em, ya know? Since the minimum wage has been flexin' and rising since the mid-1990's, you could say that a big chunk of pensions in Brazil have become a mix of contributory and non-contributory benefits. This is like, totally true of the so-called "Rural pensions", which were created by the 1988 Federal Constitution to protect rural workers and subsistence farmers who couldn't keep up with their contributions and like, expanded the scope of Social Security in Brazil beyond the formal, mostly urban labor market. The third and final diff relates to the rules governing the adjustments of the benefits. For private sector workers, benefits either flex with the minimum wage or get lit every year for inflation. Former public servants, tho, be livin' it up