This country should have never normalized favelas. Just 50 years ago, places like Singapore and Seoul used to have slums that looked a lot like Brazilian favelas. But they invested in public housing and now look like sci-fi cities from the 25th century, while we were singing "quem mora no morro vive pertinho do ceu".

I understand your point and I see comparisons with South Korea a lot. Sibling commenter makes a good remark about education.

Another huge difference which can't be underestimated is the geopolitical importance of South Korea and the ensuing economic aid from the US.

Singapore also has uniquenesses (its location) that wouldn't translate well into other countries.

In no way does this diminish the merits of both those countries -- its great that they managed to develop so well, and they deserve applause for doing so. But I don't think we can easily compare either to Brazil.

Another big difference is that both of them were absolute dictatorships at the time, which means they would develop differently from democracies in general, let alone a very corrupt and flawed democracy like Brazil.

It's not as simple as the government fixing the problem by simply "investing in public housing". If it were that easy, Brazil would have already done it. Singapore and Seoul created educated populations and skilled jobs that were able to fit into growing industries like tech. The government can almost never just fix a problem by pouring money into it.