{"id":483,"date":"2025-04-18T00:59:34","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T00:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/poderemercado.com.br\/?p=483"},"modified":"2025-04-18T00:59:35","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T00:59:35","slug":"quando-o-estado-financia-o-lucro-e-certo-para-alguns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poderemercado.com.br\/en\/quando-o-estado-financia-o-lucro-e-certo-para-alguns\/","title":{"rendered":"When the State finances, profit is certain \u2014 for some"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the State finances, profit is certain \u2014 for some<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the week that the Lula government announced the creation of Track 4 of the program My Home, My Life<\/strong>, aimed at families with incomes between R$8,000 and R$12,000, a well-known name in the real estate sector came into the spotlight: Rubens Menin<\/strong>, founder of MRV Engenharia. In a statement enthusiastically reproduced by media outlets such as Brazil 247<\/em> and the CNN Brazil<\/em>, Menin praised the measure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis is excellent news, both for the construction industry and for Brazilian families.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But as always happens when the government \u201chelps\u201d, it is worth asking: who is really being helped?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The social facade of a guaranteed business<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Minha Casa, Minha Vida is sold as a social program, but in practice, it represents a direct injection of public resources into private companies<\/strong>, with profits assured by government contracts, subsidies and guarantees. MRV, the largest construction company in Latin America, was for years the largest beneficiary of this program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a report by The Intercept Brasil<\/em>, in 2018, 77.8% of MRV's launches were within the housing program<\/strong>. It is no coincidence that the company was celebrating record results. What is sold as \u201cpublic policy\u201d is, in fact, an indirect transfer of wealth: from the taxpayer to corporate profit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference:
The Intercept \u2013 MRV, the company that profits the most from Minha Casa Minha Vida<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The old \u201ccrony capitalism\u201d trick<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

From an economic point of view, subsidy is privilege \u2014 not social policy<\/strong>. The government chooses a sector, injects money, facilitates credit, reduces bureaucracy. But this does not create wealth. Only moves resources<\/strong>, creating artificial market distortions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Murray Rothbard was clear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWhenever the government intervenes, it benefits some at the expense of others. This is not neutrality. It is coercion disguised as benevolence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The case of the real estate sector in Brazil is emblematic. While millions of small entrepreneurs struggle to survive with tight margins and suffocating taxes<\/strong>, giants like MRV receive special treatment, cheap credit, guaranteed demand and applause from the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The invisible cost: inflation, distortion and bubbles<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By subsidizing housing, the government artificially inflates demand. This raises prices for the sector as a whole<\/strong>, reduces the allocative efficiency of capital and can generate speculative bubbles \u2014 as has already been seen in countries like the USA, with the collapse of 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economist Friedrich Hayek warned that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cGovernment manipulation of currency and credit inevitably distorts market signals, leading to misallocation of resources.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In other words: programs like Minha Casa, Minha Vida not only do not solve the housing problem<\/strong> \u2014 they make it worse by increasing the price per square meter, displacing investments and concentrating the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The alliance of capital with power<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It's curious how sectors that claim to be liberal in the economy rush to embrace the State when there is money at stake<\/strong>. Rubens Menin is not wrong in defending his company \u2014 the problem is a system that allows (and encourages) this type of symbiosis between politics and business.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creation of Faixa 4 is an explicit expansion of interventionism. Instead of correcting the fundamentals that make housing more expensive \u2014 such as urban bureaucracy, land monopoly and high taxes \u2014 the government chooses to expand subsidies for the middle class<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the taxpayer, who cannot get credit, continues to pay for the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The media applauds \u2014 and the competition disappears<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sites like Brazil 247<\/em>, CNN<\/em> and Value Invest<\/em> applauded the measure as \u201cinnovative\u201d, \u201cinclusive\u201d and \u201cstrategically correct to stimulate the construction sector\u201d. No line about the fiscal costs, the risk of a real estate bubble or the fact that smaller companies do not have access to the same financing channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Links for reference:<\/p>\n\n\n\n