This is because Brazil is finally approaching the hard core of extreme poverty - those who are lacking in everything. Limited access to infrastructure and public services, low levels of education, precarious relationships with the world of work, minimal and unstable income, and little or no knowledge of their civil rights are some of the characteristics that combine to keep these people in poverty. Left to themselves, they do not have the necessary tools to break this perverse cycle, nor do they possess useful skills to offer the market.