To hold the line against rampaging inflation, Brazil's new President João Café Filho is firmly and conscientiously risking his personal popularity. Earlier this month he vetoed a pay rise for 15,000 doctors who work for the federal government or institutes it sponsors. Last week, as a result, Brazil's doctors threatened a nationwide sitdown strike.
Most of the doctors make such small salaries from government hospitals and the laborers' free-care institutes that they maintain private practices on the side. But with Brazil's spectacular rise in the cost of living, working-class sick or injured now flock to the free-care centers...
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