Brazilian youth and the civil service exam
Autor: Jon Dold | Publicado: 2012-03-14T03:05:00-07:00

Globo's Jornal Nacional ran a positive story yesterday about people that made their dreams come true by passing in Brazilian civil service examinations.  These are typically people that studied hard, graduated from college (or even two colleges) and even quit their jobs to spend a whole year studying for exams.  Many took 6 or even a dozen exams, in as many states, before they finally finished in the top spot.Civil service exams are a mania in Brazil.  In small towns with no major company presence, civil service exams often seem the only real ticket to a high salary, doing something like working in a state-run bank or pushing papers in the social security office.  Corruption is high, and Brazilian law accordingly requires the tests as a way to ensure that the candidate will be picked for merit.  The interviewees on the news yesterday had acheived their "dreams" with government jobs such as financial auditors of government programs, or as judges or other public law officials.Then came the salaries these people make.  One auditor makes R$12,000 per month, 10 times Brazil's GDP per capita, and is about equivalent to what I or my wife can hope to make in an entire year as teachers.  The girl that won the job (after taking six or eight tests) is 24 years old, and probably has done nothing in life beyond get her diploma and study for tests.  A certain judge was earning a government salary of R$50,000 per month (yes, per month, not year), a sum similar to the earnings of the US President.  So in a year where minimum-wage earning police officers are fighting for raises, and on a day where the national teachers union is enacting a "paralization" (where they don't teach for a couple days, but without any demands - apparently just a quick flexing of the muscles) to bring attention to their low pay, why does Brazil shower preposterous salaries on officials like auditors?  Obviously they should be high-quality employees, to avoid corruption.  But these prices are many multiples of what similar people can probably expect in the private sector.  And I doubt that coming in first place on an exam of minutia is a good indicator of high productivity at the work place.  And given Brazil's labor laws, it's a good bet that almost no one hired by civil service examination will ever be fired if they don't do their job well.Finally, there's the distortion of incentives.  Brazil's best and brightest are dedicating years of their lives to study for tests to become highly-paid paper pushers, in guaranteed jobs where they have no incentive to perform well.  Imagine all the better ways Brazil's tax dollars could be spent.  And the productive things these apparently intelligent people might do with their time, if the government wasn't dangling obscene salaries in front of them.Interestingly, Globo went on to interview students at a science fair in São Paulo, where they were hawking inventions such as an electricity-generating rocking chair, a cheap alternative to currently-used prosthetic feet, and a glove that translates sign language to spoken Portuguese, among others.  I thought it was a pretty incredible show given the youth of he student participants.  The report wasn't meant to contrast with the paper-pushing all stars interviewed before it, but when a student being interviewed said something like "it probably won't make any money, but I think it can help a lot of people", it made the segment on civil service examinations look even more pathetic.I hope the day comes where the Brazilian dream is no longer passing the civil service examination to become a beaurocrat.  Braziilan youth can do better.