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This is a product of socialism without protections. Put simply, you have high taxes to redistribute wealth. Unfortunately, the government takes their cut. As go

This is a product of socialism without protections. Put simply, you have high taxes to redistribute wealth. Unfortunately, the government takes their cut. As government becomes increasingly large / naturally corrupt that cut becomes larger. The wealthy can leave and gain more else-where and many leave. Increasing the burden. If you don't have heavy border controls, people who are less advantaged move to the country to gain from the social system. You'll also have remote workers move into cities because it is cheaper than their home region. This drives up costs in cities, but isn't enough tax revenue to offset the loss in wealthy people leaving, as it's highly focused. You'll also have people investing and buying property, which also drives up the costs. At the end of the day, if you want to improve life, you have to focus on (a) strict immigration policies (reducing pressure from immigrants) (b) strict import controls (raising internal wages) (c) reduce social system, focus on citizens and potentially reduce general services (d) reduce taxes on income, land and sales (e) increase import taxes and potentially tax on foreigners If you do the above, it'll reduce the burden on the individuals and protect & improve the internal labor market.

rubyn00bie 5y ago
You are out of touch with the reality of modern economics. Your advice reads like a brochure from the 1920s and is flat out bad. You’re essentially saying strip social services and become isolationist. Neither of which does any good for the economy or citizens. If people do what you suggest they will have a bad time because it’s empirically proven your suggestions are mostly shit.
- user743 5y ago
  We can see now that without import controls corporations are going to chase slave-like labor around the globe until there isn't another country left to go to. I'm guessing everyone is against worker exploitation. What else is the answer? Globalization circumvents any wins for human rights made locally.
- 988747 5y ago
  The advice worked for both Japan and South Korea. Probably it is the only way to jump from "emerging" to "developed" category, economically.
  - handrous 5y ago
    Nitpicking, but Japan and South Korea rose by being, deliberately and thoughtfully, protectionist, not isolationist. China's doing the same thing now.
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  What's wrong with isolationism?
cheriot 5y ago
Is Portugal that much more socialist than Denmark, Finland, Germany, etc?
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  No, it was basically the longest running explicitly corporate oligarchy in Europe until the carnation revolution in the 70s. Hilarious to be blaming this on socialism.
  - Jensson 5y ago
    50 years is enough to go from undeveloped to developed, you can't really blame what happened back then for what the state is now. Under these 50 years Portugal didn't make any progress at all, it is still just as economically behind the main European powers as it was back then.
    - whimsicalism 5y ago
      Uh, no a disadvantage from 50 years ago will absolutely show up 50 years later. Indeed, much of the reason Portugal remains behind can be traced back to further than that. If you have a whole generation only recently retiring that wasn't educated because your state didn't fund schools, that is going to drag on your economy even to today. Kinda just sounds like you don't know what you are talking about.
TheGigaChad 5y ago
Were you dropped on your head as a child?
MomoXenosaga 5y ago
Surprisingly rich people don't leave Northern European countries for Dubai. You can tax the SHIT out of people if they think they get something in return.
- dsomers 5y ago
  True. I’m probably paying 60% of my income in tax living in Amsterdam. I could easily relocate to somewhere like Chicago or Austin, and pay way less and have cheaper living expenses, but I’ve seen enough of American cities to know I find their wealth divide so cruel I personally consider it a crime against humanity. It’s just plain depressing to live in a society like that.
  - whimsicalism 5y ago
    The crime being the existence of poor people? Europe is way worse on these fronts, they just hide their poor people better and put them in the suburbs.
    - dsomers 5y ago
      Where have you been in Europe or the US? I have family on both sides of the Atlantic and know both continents quite well from personal experiences. The crime is letting people die from preventable illness because of unwillingness to provide universal healthcare, and a segregated system that makes higher education difficult to attain and keeps poor people in poverty. On your second point I wholeheartedly disagree, I’ve been in small villages in Serbia, and I know people from there very well. I also grew up 10 minutes from the Michigan boarder and have friends and family there too. From my experience, the poorest people in Serbia are less at risk of abject poverty and dying from preventable diseases than the poorest in Michigan. Sure if you look at the average salary for someone in Michigan vs someone in Serbia, Serbia is way lower, but if you actually look at quality of life factors for the bottom 10% of both those places I’d bet Serbia pulls way ahead. Edit: and I just use Serbia as an example because it’s one of the poorest countries in Europe and I still think it’s better than a lot of US states in how it helps its poor. When you look at health, safety, and educational outcomes of middle income and rich European countries they are often far ahead of the US averages. Christ, not everything is about maximizing GDP. Look at the average lifespan of an EU citizen that’s almost 10 years longer than an American citizen.
pelasaco 5y ago
We tend to talk about "socialism" in Portugal, but few countries that I know are more neoliberal than Portugal. Almost everything is private or is managed by private companies. Portugal is one of the few countries which exchanges visa for money. Our approach to Uber and Airbnd was until 2019, pretty liberal. I'm not saying that is right or wrong, just that even though the people vote for socialism, what we get in the end is neoliberalism.
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  Portugal has nothing on the anglosphere here, but yes is probably liberal by European standards.
- galfarragem 5y ago
  Not correct. Locals get socialism. Foreigners ultra capitalism. Portugal is a tax haven but only for foreigners. We exchange EU visas and tax isentions for money to sustain the socialist ideology.
  - JetSpiegel 5y ago
    > We exchange EU visas and tax isentions for money to sustain the socialist ideology. What? The Golden Visa program was created by the liberal government of Passos Coelho. It's legalized corruption (the head of a government agency was even arrested in connection with this a while back), putting upward pressure on the housing market, than the money earned by the visas themselves.
whimsicalism 5y ago
> This is a product of socialism without protections. Put simply, you have high taxes to redistribute wealth. Unfortunately, the government takes their cut. As government becomes increasingly large / naturally corrupt that cut becomes larger. To blame this on socialism proves you don't know the history of Portugal.

rubyn00bie 5y ago

You are out of touch with the reality of modern economics. Your advice reads like a brochure from the 1920s and is flat out bad. You’re essentially saying strip social services and become isolationist. Neither of which does any good for the economy or citizens. If people do what you suggest they will have a bad time because it’s empirically proven your suggestions are mostly shit.

user743 5y ago
We can see now that without import controls corporations are going to chase slave-like labor around the globe until there isn't another country left to go to. I'm guessing everyone is against worker exploitation. What else is the answer? Globalization circumvents any wins for human rights made locally.
988747 5y ago
The advice worked for both Japan and South Korea. Probably it is the only way to jump from "emerging" to "developed" category, economically.
- handrous 5y ago
  Nitpicking, but Japan and South Korea rose by being, deliberately and thoughtfully, protectionist, not isolationist. China's doing the same thing now.
matheusmoreira 5y ago
What's wrong with isolationism?

cheriot 5y ago

Is Portugal that much more socialist than Denmark, Finland, Germany, etc?

whimsicalism 5y ago
No, it was basically the longest running explicitly corporate oligarchy in Europe until the carnation revolution in the 70s. Hilarious to be blaming this on socialism.
- Jensson 5y ago
  50 years is enough to go from undeveloped to developed, you can't really blame what happened back then for what the state is now. Under these 50 years Portugal didn't make any progress at all, it is still just as economically behind the main European powers as it was back then.
  - whimsicalism 5y ago
    Uh, no a disadvantage from 50 years ago will absolutely show up 50 years later. Indeed, much of the reason Portugal remains behind can be traced back to further than that. If you have a whole generation only recently retiring that wasn't educated because your state didn't fund schools, that is going to drag on your economy even to today. Kinda just sounds like you don't know what you are talking about.

TheGigaChad 5y ago

Were you dropped on your head as a child?

MomoXenosaga 5y ago

Surprisingly rich people don't leave Northern European countries for Dubai. You can tax the SHIT out of people if they think they get something in return.

dsomers 5y ago
True. I’m probably paying 60% of my income in tax living in Amsterdam. I could easily relocate to somewhere like Chicago or Austin, and pay way less and have cheaper living expenses, but I’ve seen enough of American cities to know I find their wealth divide so cruel I personally consider it a crime against humanity. It’s just plain depressing to live in a society like that.
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  The crime being the existence of poor people? Europe is way worse on these fronts, they just hide their poor people better and put them in the suburbs.
  - dsomers 5y ago
    Where have you been in Europe or the US? I have family on both sides of the Atlantic and know both continents quite well from personal experiences. The crime is letting people die from preventable illness because of unwillingness to provide universal healthcare, and a segregated system that makes higher education difficult to attain and keeps poor people in poverty. On your second point I wholeheartedly disagree, I’ve been in small villages in Serbia, and I know people from there very well. I also grew up 10 minutes from the Michigan boarder and have friends and family there too. From my experience, the poorest people in Serbia are less at risk of abject poverty and dying from preventable diseases than the poorest in Michigan. Sure if you look at the average salary for someone in Michigan vs someone in Serbia, Serbia is way lower, but if you actually look at quality of life factors for the bottom 10% of both those places I’d bet Serbia pulls way ahead. Edit: and I just use Serbia as an example because it’s one of the poorest countries in Europe and I still think it’s better than a lot of US states in how it helps its poor. When you look at health, safety, and educational outcomes of middle income and rich European countries they are often far ahead of the US averages. Christ, not everything is about maximizing GDP. Look at the average lifespan of an EU citizen that’s almost 10 years longer than an American citizen.

pelasaco 5y ago

We tend to talk about "socialism" in Portugal, but few countries that I know are more neoliberal than Portugal. Almost everything is private or is managed by private companies. Portugal is one of the few countries which exchanges visa for money. Our approach to Uber and Airbnd was until 2019, pretty liberal. I'm not saying that is right or wrong, just that even though the people vote for socialism, what we get in the end is neoliberalism.

whimsicalism 5y ago
Portugal has nothing on the anglosphere here, but yes is probably liberal by European standards.
galfarragem 5y ago
Not correct. Locals get socialism. Foreigners ultra capitalism. Portugal is a tax haven but only for foreigners. We exchange EU visas and tax isentions for money to sustain the socialist ideology.
- JetSpiegel 5y ago
  > We exchange EU visas and tax isentions for money to sustain the socialist ideology. What? The Golden Visa program was created by the liberal government of Passos Coelho. It's legalized corruption (the head of a government agency was even arrested in connection with this a while back), putting upward pressure on the housing market, than the money earned by the visas themselves.

whimsicalism 5y ago

> This is a product of socialism without protections. Put simply, you have high taxes to redistribute wealth. Unfortunately, the government takes their cut. As government becomes increasingly large / naturally corrupt that cut becomes larger. To blame this on socialism proves you don't know the history of Portugal.