THE URBAN POVERTY IN THE CURRENT PERIOD AND RECONFIGURATION OF LOWER CIRCUIT OF THE ECONOMY

Abstract

The economic transformations that have occurred recently in Brazil allowed the expansion of consumption by low-income population. In this context, the two circuits of the urban economy, particularly the lower circuit, it has been reconfigured, and such reconfiguration is expressed primarily through its dynamics and its expansion. In this regard Baumann (2008) mentions that we would be living in a "consumer society", as Ballesteros and Carreras (2006) and are even more categorical claim that consumption is up now more important from the perspective from which one should understand differentiation of social classes, postponing the classic explanation on the ownership of the means of production. The expansion of consumption is directly related to the advancement of society credit, in other words, access to credit cards, debit and shops is booming. However, concomitant with the expansion of consumption has witnessed the advancement of indebtedness and delinquency population. Based on these considerations, this paper conducts an analysis of the political and economic transformations that enabled the expansion of consumption by the population, especially the poor, as well as the consequences of excessive consumption. The theoretical analysis is performed based on authors who discuss the topic in question.