Trabalho, Educação e Saúde - TES (Work, Education and Health) is an open access scientific journal, edited by the Joaquim Venâncio Polytechnic School of Health, from Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.
Based on the workforce overexploitation category, formulated in the context of the Marxist Theory of Dependence, we critique the thesis that Brazil is becoming 'a middle class nation' and state that a substantial contingent of what has been named the 'new middle class' is, in fact, one of workers - and their families - living in overexploitation conditions. The article is divided into three sections. In the first, we questioned the basic assumptions of the 'Brazil, a middle class nation' thesis. In the second, we explain the fundamentals of the overexploitation category and show how it increased in Brazilian capitalism production relations in the 2000s. In the third, we showed how the access the working population has had to consume durable goods in recent times, before the ascent to the supposed 'new middle class,' is a renewed type of overexploitation. Finally, we highlight the links between the Brazilian working class' labor conditions, health, and rights and the trends in world capitalism, questioning the false neoliberalism and neodevelopmentalism dilemma in the current debate and putting the real dilemma in terms of the emancipation of the working class against the despotic power of capital.
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