Is Brazil going nuts?

Over recent weeks there have been a number of major clashes between demonstrators and the police  in many cities starting off in Sao Paulo. Why? The short answer is - there was an increase in the bus fares. Under normal circumstance this would not cause a riot, but these are not normal times, there is increasing anger at the ever escalating cost of both the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Moreover there is poor education, health care and crime is going up in many towns across Brazil. As a consequence Brazilians feel they are being exploited by rich and corrupt politicians. As I mentioned a few weeks ago there is extreme stratification in Brazil, with the privileged whites at the top and the poor blacks at the bottom. This needless-to-say is a combustible combination. In the book The Spirit Level the authors Wilkinson and Pickett ague that with increased inequality there is a commensurate increase in crime. They suggest a correlation between the two. The premise is that - more equal societies do better economically and socially than unequal ones. Politicians in Brazil should wake up and smell the coffee - otherwise it will go nuts.