FW: RICH BRAZILIANS RISE ABOVE RUSH-HOUR JAMS - The New York Times
Signs of the times. Or this is one outcome of a two tier society. -- From: Sid Shniad Subject: RICH BRAZILIANS RISE ABOVE RUSH-HOUR JAMS - The New York Times Date: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 2:28PM The New York Times 15 February 2000 RICH BRAZILIANS RISE ABOVE RUSH-HOUR JAMS By Simon Romero SÃO PAULO, Brazil, Feb. 14 -- At night the skyline in this city of 16 million is a dazzling display of lights that can easily remind visitors of Manhattan. But something is different. Many of the lights are moving. The skies of São Paulo, Latin America+s financial capital and the richest big city in the developing world, are filled with helicopters. Like a fleet of airborne limousines, the helicopters are increasingly used by privileged Paulistanos to commute, attend meetings, even run errands and go to church. Helicopter landing pads are now standard features of many of São Paulo+s guarded residential compounds and high-rise roofs. Illustrating what may be a Blade Runner-esque glimpse of the future in metropolises where rich and poor are crammed together, helicopters are the vehicle of choice for more than just their convenience. Many of the roads here are hopelessly clogged with traffic. Carjackings, kidnappings of executives and roadside robberies have become a part of the risks of daily life for anyone perceived to have money. So the demand for private helicopters in São Paulo has turned the city into one of the most vibrant markets for helicopter dealers. For pilots, navigating the city by air is like flying through an endless concrete maze. -My favorite time to fly is at night, because the sensation is equaled only in movies or in dreams,- said Moacir da Silva, the president of the São Paulo Helicopter Pilots Association. -The lights are everywhere, as if I were flying within a Christmas tree.- At 400 and growing, the total fleet of private helicopters in São Paulo is the biggest of any city in the developing world. Although the fleets in New York and Tokyo are larger, the helicopters in those cities are owned mostly by corporations, not rich individuals. Moreover, the growth of the São Paulo fleet has quickened in recent years, even with the slowdown in Brazil+s economy after the currency devaluation crisis a year ago. While Brazil+s economy grew less than 1 percent in 1999, the nation+s helicopter fleet rose more than 7 percent, to nearly 800. Most of that growth was here. -São Paulo commands the most favorable characteristics of any city in the world for the civil helicopter industry,- said Fabrice Cagnat, the president of the Brazilian subsidiary of Eurocopter, a venture between DaimlerChrysler and Aérospatiale of France. The most favorable is the traffic, a byproduct of São Paulo+s haphazard expansion in recent decades as millions of migrants from poorer parts of Brazil moved here in search of work. Roads were never sufficiently expanded to accommodate the swelling population. Subway lines can barely handle a fraction of the residents, and an efficient freeway system remains a distant dream. With the city+s crazy-quilt layout that is part Los Angeles, because of sheer horizontal breadth, and part Manhattan, because skyscrapers are so numerous, navigating by car is daunting. -Money is time, and the time lost in traffic is substantial,- said Marco Antônio Audi, the Brazil representative for Robinson Helicopters, which is based in Torrance, Calif. The use of helicopters to avoid traffic has grown to the point where some people use their choppers to commute daily to work or to retreat to their country estates or beach homes every few days. -One member of my congregation regularly comes to Sabbath service by helicopter to escape the horrendous Friday night traffic,- said Henry Sobel, the senior rabbi of São Paulo+s largest synagogue. The most affordable and best-selling helicopter in Brazil is the Robinson R44, which can comfortably seat three or four people. It costs about $380,000, or roughly 90 times the average annual income of a São Paulo resident. Another popular model is the Bell 407, which seats as many as seven people and costs about $1.5 million. -Why settle for an armored BMW when you can afford a helicopter?- said Eric Wasson, a Latin American sales representative for Bell Helicopter of Fort Worth, Tex. The helicopters of São Paulo are not universally admired. Critics consider them an obscene barometer of the financial power enjoyed by the affluent few in a sea of poverty. According to the World Bank, Brazil+s richest 10 percent control more than 50 percent of the country+s wealth while the poorest 10 percent control less than 1 percent. It is easier for a wealthy person to buy a helicopter than it is for a working-class person to buy a car. Rich Paulistanos have access to financing that often is
FWk Historical Context of the Work Ethic C
X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2000 09:51:51 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Tim Rourke [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Historical Context of the Work Ethic C Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk The Work Ethic in America Although the Protestant ethic became a significant factor in shaping the culture and society of Europe after the sixteenth century, its impact did not eliminate the social hierarchy which gave status to those whose wealth allowed exemption from toil and made gentility synonymous with leisure (Rodgers, 1978). The early adventurers who first found America were searching, not for a place to work and build a new land, but for a new Eden where abundance and riches would allow them to follow Aristotle's instruction that leisure was the only life fitting for a free man. The New England Puritans, the Pennsylvania Quakers, and others of the Protestant sects, who eventually settled in America, however, came with no hopes or illusions of a life of ease. The early settlers referred to America as a wilderness, in part because they sought the spiritual growth associated with coming through the wilderness in the Bible (Rodgers, 1978). From their viewpoint, the moral life was one of hard work and determination, and they approached the task of building a new world in the wilderness as an opportunity to prove their own moral worth. What resulted was a land preoccupied with toil. When significant numbers of Europeans began to visit the new world in the early 1800's, they were amazed with the extent of the transformation (Rodgers, 1978). Visitors to the northern states were particularly impressed by the industrious pace. They often complained about the lack of opportunities for amusement, and they were perplexed by the lack of a social strata dedicated to a life of leisure. Work in preindustrial America was not incessant, however. The work of agriculture was seasonal, hectic during planting and harvesting but more relaxed during the winter months. Even in workshops and stores, the pace was not constant. Changing demands due to the seasons, varied availability of materials, and poor transportation and communication contributed to interruptions in the steadiness of work. The work ethic of this era did not demand the ceaseless regularity which came with the age of machines, but supported sincere dedication to accomplish those tasks a person might have before them. The work ethic "was not a certain rate of business but a way of thinking" (Rodgers, 1978, p. 19). The Work Ethic and the Industrial Revolution As work in America was being dramatically affected by the industrial revolution in the mid-nineteenth century, the work ethic had become secularized in a number of ways. The idea of work as a calling had been replaced by the concept of public usefulness. Economists warned of the poverty and decay that would befall the country if people failed to work hard, and moralists stressed the social duty of each person to be productive (Rodgers, 1978). Schools taught, along with the alphabet and the spelling book, that idleness was a disgrace. The work ethic also provided a sociological as well as an ideological explanation for the origins of social hierarchy through the corollary that effort expended in work would be rewarded (Gilbert, 1977). Some elements of the work ethic, however, did not bode well with the industrial age. One of the central themes of the work ethic was that an individual could be the master of his own fate through hard work. Within the context of the craft and agricultural society this was true. A person could advance his position in life through manual labor and the economic benefits it would produce. Manual labor, however, began to be replaced by machine manufacture and intensive division of labor came with the industrial age. As a result, individual control over the quantity and methods of personal production began to be removed (Gilbert, 1977). The impact of industrialization and the speed with which it spread during the second half of the nineteenth century was notable. Rodgers (1978) reported that as late as 1850 most American manufacturing was still being done in homes and workshops. This pattern was not confined to rural areas, but was found in cities also where all varieties of craftsmen plied their trades. Some division of labor was utilized, but most work was performed using time-honored hand methods. A certain measure of independence and creativity could be taken for granted in the workplace. No one directly supervised home workers or farmers, and in the small shops and mills, supervision was mostly unstructured. The cotton textile industry of New England was the major exception. Rodgers (1978) described the founding, in the early 1820's, of Lowell, Massachusetts as the real beginning of the industrial age in America. By the end of the decade, nineteen textile mills were in operation in the city, and 5,000 workers were employed in the
FWk Historical Context of the Work Ethic B
X-Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Unverified) Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 20:42:38 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Tim Rourke [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Historical Context of the Work Ethic B Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk Protestantism and the Protestant Ethic With the Reformation, a period of religious and political upheaval in western Europe during the sixteenth century, came a new perspective on work. Two key religious leaders who influenced the development of western culture during this period were Martin Luther and John Calvin. Luther was an Augustinian friar who became discontent with the Catholic church and was a leader within the Protestant movement. He believed that people could serve God through their work, that the professions were useful, that work was the universal base of society and the cause of differing social classes, and that a person should work diligently in their own occupation and should not try to change from the profession to which he was born. To do so would be to go against God's laws since God assigned each person to his own place in the social hierarchy (Lipset, 1990; Tilgher, 1930). The major point at which Luther differed from the medieval concept of work was regarding the superiority of one form of work over another. Luther regarded the monastic and contemplative life, held up as the ideal during the middle ages, as an egotistic and unaffectionate exercise on the part of the monks, and he accused them of evading their duty to their neighbors (Tilgher, 1930). For Luther, a person's vocation was equated as his calling, but all calling's were of equal spiritual dignity. This tenant was significant because it affirmed manual labor. Luther still did not pave the way for a profit-oriented economic system because he disapproved of commerce as an occupation (Lipset, 1990; Tilgher, 1930). From his perspective, commerce did not involve any real work. Luther also believed that each person should earn an income which would meet his basic needs, but to accumulate or horde wealth was sinful. According to Weber (1904, 1905), it was John Calvin who introduced the theological doctrines which combined with those of Martin Luther to form a significant new attitude toward work. Calvin was a French theologian whose concept of predestination was revolutionary. Central to Calvinist belief was the Elect, those persons chosen by God to inherit eternal life. All other people were damned and nothing could change that since God was unchanging. While it was impossible to know for certain whether a person was one of the Elect, one could have a sense of it based on his own personal encounters with God. Outwardly the only evidence was in the person's daily life and deeds, and success in one's worldly endeavors was a sign of possible inclusion as one of the Elect. A person who was indifferent and displayed idleness was most certainly one of the damned, but a person who was active, austere, and hard-working gave evidence to himself and to others that he was one of God's chosen ones (Tilgher, 1930). Calvin taught that all men must work, even the rich, because to work was the will of God. It was the duty of men to serve as God's instruments here on earth, to reshape the world in the fashion of the Kingdom of God, and to become a part of the continuing process of His creation (Braude, 1975). Men were not to lust after wealth, possessions, or easy living, but were to reinvest the profits of their labor into financing further ventures. Earnings were thus to be reinvested over and over again, ad infinitum, or to the end of time (Lipset, 1990). Using profits to help others rise from a lessor level of subsistence violated God's will since persons could only demonstrate that they were among the Elect through their own labor (Lipset, 1990). Selection of an occupation and pursuing it to achieve the greatest profit possible was considered by Calvinists to be a religious duty. Not only condoning, but encouraging the pursuit of unlimited profit was a radical departure from the Christian beliefs of the middle ages. In addition, unlike Luther, Calvin considered it appropriate to seek an occupation which would provide the greatest earnings possible. If that meant abandoning the family trade or profession, the change was not only allowed, but it was considered to be one's religious duty (Tilgher, 1930). The norms regarding work which developed out of the Protestant Reformation, based on the combined theological teachings of Luther and Calvin, encouraged work in a chosen occupation with an attitude of service to God, viewed work as a calling and avoided placing greater spiritual dignity on one job than another, approved of working diligently to achieve maximum profits, required reinvestment of profits back into one's business, allowed a person to change from the craft or profession of his father, and associated success in one's work with the likelihood of being one of God's Elect. Two
