This comparision is striking because it shows a difference of revenues of up to 1800% between professors and congressmen. But the numbers are misleading. Let’s scrutinize each item in the tableau:

Salary: this one is OKay, really a “Professor Adjunto” with a PhD earns R$ 7.913,00. Yet there are two upper grades for teachers lessioning in federal universities: professor associado and professor titular. A professor titular would earn R$ 11.755,05 instead.

Auxílio Moradia: Congressmen can choose between gratuitous habitations or a monetary sum of money to pay for its costs. Even though teachers can’t earn money outright, they can opt to live in  a subsidized or even gratuitous habitation, and, what’s even better, inside the campus, which is in general a peaceful place to live in and very practical. You can’t live in the esplanada when you are a congressman.

Cota telefonica: Phone calls aren’t controlled in most universities. There aren’t any limits at all, so, the phone bill may be even higher than the one in a congressman cabinet. And a congressman has many assistants, whereas a teacher hardly ever has a graduate assistant.

Passagens: Congressmen travel around Brazil, yet professors travel around the world, usually. It’s normal for a congressman to receive money to pay for his deplacements, since his home isn’t the country’s capital. Yet many federal teachers bred in the same home state receive much money to travel to congresses around the world or in another university as an examination board.

Assinatura de revistas: Magazines are cheap. Yet academic journals are extremely expensive. Let’s be honest, any high-end University spends millions of dollars each year with magazines. Congress pales in comparision.

Assistência médica: most universities have an hospital, wich is extremely expensive for the public finances. Hospital Universitairo de Brasilia budget is around R$ 700.000.000,00 a year, for starters. The congress hasn’t.

Verba indenizatória and Verba de Gabinete: Any secretaria in an university costs way more than R$ 75.000,00 and employs fewer people.

13ro, 14to, 15to salário: It should be calculated on salario bruto plus verba de gabinete. C’mon, there aren’t 13 mensal magazine editions in a year.

Let’s be honest: the main revenues for a teacher are his works as a consultant, and for a Deputy, it is his pork ammendments to the budget to help his “district” (each deputy can have up to R$ 5.000.000,00 ammended guaranteed) that makes the big difference. This is the real cynical question that society should face.

The blog’s name is an homage to Friedrich Hayek’s Nobel Prize Lecture.