If You Aren’t In Debt, You’ve Got Nothing

Juvêncio is an almost-neighbor, and I have easily been able to keep track of his professional ascent, since we run into each other often at the same bakery, the same branch of the bank, the same corner bar. Juvêncio is one of those people whose rather nebulous profession goes by the name of "cultural producer,” always involved with projects ranging from musicals to recording CDs of fundamentalist Christian music, from symposia on psychoanalysis to debutante balls. A bachelor, he lived, when we first met, in a modest one-bedroom apartment, but now he has moved to one of the nicest penthouses in the area, and has just bought, he tells me, a four-bedroom apartment that is under construction in the Barra de Tijuca district of Rio de Janeiro.

Juvêncio is one of the representatives of a culture which defines itself by the motto, "if you aren’t in debt, you’ve got nothing.” A few days ago we shared a few beers at the bar, accompanied by bits of provolone on toothpicks, and he came out with this pearl, "I love this down-home stuff. People say I'm a snob, but I'm sentimental too - I love to remember the days when we met, when we used to come here like two penniless guys." I reminded him that I still "came here,” and still without two coins to rub together, and he retorted "Come on, BT. You are a poet, from Paraíba...it's part of your job to like this stuff."

The system which keeps Juvêncio afloat is simple. He was flat broke for a while, unable to pay off his numerous credit cards. At the beginning he paid off one with another, in a feat of financial prestidigitation which I could never understand, but which he assured me was possible. Then, he arrived at the conclusion that it was much easier to let the debt build up, making the famous "minimum payment' every month, and let the future take care of the problem. As his debts kept building up, soon he would be paying in interest what he had been paying for his total expenditures the year before. He began to go to the banks and do with them what he had done with the cards: in order to pay off his loan at Bank A, he got another loan from Bank B, and after a while he would pay Bank B with cash from Bank C....

The debt that Juvêncio has accumulated over the last few years is more money than I have earned in my entire life. He seemed to be following that wise sentiment attributed to Getúlio Vargas: "One doesn't pay old debts. And one lets new debts age." Juvêncio is living in a surreal bubble of prosperity, like most of the countries in the world, from Brazil to the USA. Everything in today's economy is paid with checks dated 2050 or later. Others accept our rubber checks, we accept theirs, and the economy bumbles its way forward, nourished by this financial placebo that everyone pretends to believe in. It reminds me of the old times when we used to drink at the Bar de Benedito, in Rua João Pessoa, everyone without a penny to their names. When we asked for the bill, the total was far beyond what we had in our wallets, and since there was no way we could pay, we would ask for more roast chicken, and another round of beers. If you aren’t in debt, you don't eat.

* Translated from the original Portuguese by Tom Moore. Tom is a classical musician and translator who lives in Rio de Janeiro. His most recent CD of trio sonatas by Boismortier is available from A Casa Estúdio.

Start Planning Your Trip to Brazil

Discuss Your Travel Plans and Share Your Experiences on the BrazilMax Travel Forum