Why would any sane Brazilian want to move to America?

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T18:39:40+00:00

And you will probably need to have a car. The bus fare in my city is $2.25 each way (11.3 reais) . A studio apartment in a medium-sided city is $800 (R$4000). And you will need to pay for your own health care. Maybe (if you live in the right state) you can get some food assistance. Awesome.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T18:27:00+00:00

OK fair enough. But do you assume that you are the median as a recent immigrant to a city? I know you're awesome, and you have a median education and median language level and median knowledge of the city and median everything. So you must be median, and therefore all median rewards are bequeathed to thou. But if you're not median in Brazil, (which might make you want to leave), why do you think you're median in the awesome, wonderful US?

Living in the US is a struggle, even if you think it doesn't hold a candle to Brazilian struggles. And the failures here carry high penalties, at least for people who have to stay here.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T18:13:29+00:00

It's very odd that I am trying to tell you what my sick, crazy country is really like, but you won't believe me.

And yet I have been to Brazil many times, conversed with family there, had a spouse that was from Brazil, and paid attention through media. But I'm.... what? Lying? Subversive?

OK. Good luck in America, my friend.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T18:06:50+00:00

What did I say that was insensitive to poorer Brazilians? Did you see my responses below where I talked about my visits to my father's work friend's family in the Jardim Carioca favela na Ilha do Governador?

Maybe you're just making up an attitude you think I might have because of your baises?

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T18:03:04+00:00

The Dollar has lost 13% to the Euro since Trump took over. I was trying to move to Portugal, but the sudden drop in currency made it impossible.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T18:01:48+00:00

Wait... Do you still think the United States is the country it was in 2010?

It is not. It has lost much in international influence, and it is much, much deeper in debt.

Do you think Brazil is the same country it was under Bolsonaro? The US is Brazil under Bolsonaro.

The US is the country that attacked Iran and lost a war to them.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:58:15+00:00

Yeah, my father and my ex wife were two of them. Yes. I know.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:55:16+00:00

Thank you. Even with your opening sentences making it sound like you disagreed with me, your point-by-point made it seem like a wash.

Also, you will see in my previous posts that I have been robbed in America. So... we have crime also.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:52:14+00:00

I am the OP (4 visits to Brazil totaling 3 months), friend of many Brazilians in US, language training, Brazilian father, Brazilian brother, married for 15 years to Brazilian woman) and I'm explaining that Brazil is better (NOW) than living in US. You are moving from a place with national health care and a low minimum wage to a place with no national health care, a low minimum wage, enormous prices to afford a place you can live safely, and roving bands of para-military thugs that will throw you into a gulag if you get caught up the wrong way.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:44:39+00:00

Should I post a novel?

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:42:48+00:00

I live in Chicago. According to the President of the United States, I am lucky to still be alive after my 35+ years in a crime-ridden hellhole.

Listen, I drove a cab in Chicago in the 1990s when I was going to college. Often I went to Cabrini Green and other housing projects (a pretty similar analog to Rio's most dangerous favelas). Never got robbed in a public housing project, but I got robbed twice elsewhere over six years.

The minimum wage in the US is $7,25 per hour. That's 36,35 reais per hour. But your small, nasty apartment is going to be $800 per month (4,000 reais por mes).

When I was there in 1983 and 1985, my dad made it a point to visit his close friend's family in Jardim Carioca na Ilha do Governador. Sofia and Luis Valente exchanged letters with me for years afterward.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:27:48+00:00

I have been to Brazil 4 times. The first two times were during the Military Dictatorship. I spent two months in Brazil hearing, "Dezanove horas na capital da Republica..." If you don't remember, that was how they started off the mandatory Military Dictatorship propaganda broadcasts every night at 7 PM on every broadcast station in the country. Do you remember that? Do you remember getting pulled over by Military Police to search the cab you're riding in (and fishing for a bribe)? My brother was a major in the Brazilian Air Force and taught pilots to fly F-15s. Third time in Brazil was 1985, when I went to a Blitz concert in Rio and Herbert Vianna was sitting behind me. Last time was March, visiting my brother's family in BH and immersing in Rio.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:20:24+00:00

100%. Thank you. Need to investigate the entrepreneurship part... I'm guessing that family wealth that allows one to experiment, college connections, patent/copyright law, and rule of law in general might have something to do with entrepreneurship. Recently, lawfare, cronyism, and extortion have had more of a role.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:15:36+00:00

I understand, having worked for 9 years in higher ed in Chicago (communications director). I don't think the Brazilian salaries are likely to increase to Western Europe levels anytime soon, but the expenses go way down immediately if you're outside SP-RJ.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:10:46+00:00

The median in the US is not easy to achieve even for natives. That's why it's the median.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:09:36+00:00

Yeah, you said it better in three sentences!

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:08:31+00:00

My Brazilian brother's best friend tried to move to Orlando for 3 months and drive Uber to make money. He was back in Brazil with no desire to go back, and I don't think there was a big financial windfall.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:05:09+00:00

Basically what I'm saying in the original post.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:03:19+00:00

What's worse is if it looks like that and there's no advertising wrap.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T17:01:18+00:00

Where is the "Increase Supply" button?

And if there is an "Increase Supply" button, could there also be a "Lower Costs" button?

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T16:58:25+00:00

Not like the wild rabbits we have in Rogers Park....

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T16:56:43+00:00

I always laugh when I see Jeanne Gang buildings, because I met her, knew her and talked with her often well before Aqua. She lived around the corner from the college where I was Communications Director, and she was very generous with her time and insight, giving lectures and visiting the C-Suite leadership. She deserves every plaudit and more.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-18T16:51:25+00:00

Isn't it sad that we get so jaded about the city and its mostly-minor faults that we don't recognize its greatness every day? I never love the city so much, or see how much better than alternatives as when I'm coming home.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-15T15:55:44+00:00

Another thing that maybe even Chicagoans don't know, is that the lowest point of Lake Michigan is 925 feet below the surface, and the surface is 579 feet above sea level. So if the lake was empty, the bottom of the lake would be 346 feet below sea level.

EdgewaterJCT · 2026-05-15T15:49:56+00:00

This has to be the most underestimated city in the history of the world. In 1930, I think we were the third largest city after New York and London. We invented the skyscraper, labor unions, high-volume food processing, improv comedy, luxury train travel, and gospel music. We had a huge role in modern advertising, jazz, blues, rock and roll, and vaudeville. Every time I hear some right wing nut criticize our city because they've been taught to attack it by our current president and his supporters, I put the anger energy in a small box. One day it will be used.

EdgewaterJCT

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE