BRASIL: cinco séculos de riqueza, desigualdade e pobreza.

This paper presents a bibliographic review of the historic situation of income inequality and poverty within the evolution of Brazilian economics. It compares the statistics which rank Brazil as a medium human development economy with one of the ten largest economies of the world by its GDP, with the elevated degree of income inequality that brings millions of people to situations of poverty. These factors are complimented with some reflections about Brazilian development in regards to the five hundreds years of discovery. Effective actions for the access to education and information are proposed for the exercise of civil and political rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]