A beautiful land

Full screen HD is available from youtube

Portugal is a beautiful country with a wonderful people (some politicians excepted).  It is time the people claim it back.

BTW it is obvious tourism is a big industry in Portugal.  Watching the prize winning video it is easy to understand why the potential is even bigger.

Public Servant

Hat tip and credit: Schamblers

In Portugal we call a public servant, an employee of the public service, "funcionário público":  public employee.

They used to be known as public servants, servidores públicos.  In 1935 there were 25000, in 1969 there were 165000 and today we have around 730000 (or less than 600000 depending on how you count - probably nobody knows the real number if you add consultants, members of "PPP"s, employees in public companies etc.).

This number is actually not large compared to countries in Northern Europe.  Less than 15% of the working population.  However the sector is inefficient and expensive and must be reduced.

I would like them to be called public servants in Portugal again.  "Servidores Públicos" or even "Serventes Públicos".  I think the name and attitude matters.

A public servant should be a person of high integrity that has sworn to uphold the republic and the constitution.  More often than not a public servant will have access to confidential information and have large powers over other citizens.  A public servant must be held to higher moral standards than other citizens.  Corruption is much more serious than stealing from say a bank.  On the other hand, public servants must be given special powers and protections to fulfill their functions.

A public servant should always treat a citizen with the out most respect and helpfulness while fulfilling his requirements.

I believe it would be to the advantage of all citizens and the country alike, that public servants no longer paid income tax.  First of all it makes no sense the state puts money in one pocket just to remove it from the other.  Secondly, it would enhance and demonstrate the statute of public servant.  Finally, it would also demonstrate the difference between taxpayers (*) paying for the public service and people working for the public service.

I suggest a revision of the statutes of a public servant in Portugal.   Here is rather nice one from Lebanon of all places to use for inspiration.

A couple of incidents from real life in Portugal:
Once at the ATM in the local shopping center the line was very long indeed.  With patience, everybody awaiting their turn - demonstrating the impeccable Portuguese politeness when in a line - people were surprised to see a male individual (not a gentleman for sure) enter the front of the line and start using the ATM.  The people in the line were aghast.  One gentleman complained in particular.  The cheating individual turned around, claimed he was a judge and informed he as a judge was not supposed to wait in lines.  Any more trouble and he would call the police and have people arrested for interfering with a judge.

Ministers in Portugal always travel with police protection, limousine in the middle and police front and back. The police will hold all other traffic back, so the minister can pass.  It is quite a nuisance in heavy traffic and the noise of the police sirens is astounding.

The public servant, both the minister and the judge, should have no privileges beyond insuring their safety.  If anything they should be the ones to hold back for the taxpayers while the taxpayer earns money to pay their salaries.   No wonder Portuguese ministers speak so favorably of public transports and the quality of the road network.  They are never stuck in traffic.  Maybe a little taste of the real world would give them some understanding?

(*) Even when not paying income tax, public servants would still pay a number of taxes. It is simply and unfortunately much too complicated to avoid that, due to very large number of additional taxes in existence.

It has gotten to the point where taxpayers are unable to calculate how much they actually pay in tax.

Don't believe me? Take a taxi ride. Then let me know how much of the fare was tax... You should of course include part of the taxi drivers income tax (we presume he owns the taxi), vehicle tax, vehicle inspection fee, the VAT, the taxi license, the tax on the insurance, the road tax, the toll tax, the tax on fuel and ad nauseum. Because if it were not for all these taxes and fees - your fare would in all probability be that much lower.

How did Portugal get so much off the track

To find an explanation is not easy.   Many Portuguese and others have been giving warnings for years:  "It cannot continue like this".  In all modesty, my thoughts, and the thoughts of many other foreigners I have talked with, have long been one of wonderment.  "How can this function?".  The answer is now apparent:  It cannot.

Some explanations (and I only take negative aspects into consideration) that come to me are:

• Politicians
• Dishonesty, greed, nepotism and corruption
• Stupidity
• Lack of ideals
• Pettiness
• Keynes is considered a God
• Two party system
• Two much power
• Local "government"
• To many entities
• Governos Civis
• Municipalities
• Two much local power for individuals
• Too many incentives to make income that is contrary to the interests of the local citizens
• Don't give a damn about life quality and the citizens
• Powerful bureaucracy
• Bureaucrats with extreme power and gleeful use of such power (sadists?)
• Retirement in the fifties
• Lifetime pensions equal to end salary
• Lifetime health insurance beyond any possible for non public sector
• Higher salaries than in private enterprise
• No possibility to fire
• No requirements for performance
• No measurements of performance
• Greed, nepotism and corruption
• Too many top bureaucrats are politicians and are dismissed/admitted after elections depending on the ruling party
• Absenteeism
• No delegation
• Strong left wing tendency in Portugal
• Spending with no control
• Blaming private enterprises painting them as the devil
• Making life difficult for private enterprises
• Creation of dead end welfare society run by the public sector
• Taxation up to nearly 80% (of the money the companies have available to pay each employee)
• Absurd protection of workers due to non liberal labor laws(difficult/impossible to fire or to demand people actually work)
• Absurd protection of renters (no rent increases, nearly impossible to evict)
• Appearance is the most important
• No long term solutions
• Dreadful priorities.  Children not important.  Schools not important.  Health system not important.
• Always mending by using patch work short term solutions
• No long term planning
• No long term solution
• More expensive in the long run
• History
• Only a democracy for a short time
• No ability to compromise
• Disregard for the minority
• No understanding that certain areas need very long term solutions
• Lack of social responsibility (every man for himself)
• No understanding of democratic duties
• Catholic Church
• Don't question what you are told
• No delegation of decisions.  Extreme hierarchic top heavy management structure
• Extreme conservatism
• Dictatorship would have been more difficult without the church
• Values have permeated the Portuguese society for centuries
• Dictatorship (includes the time of monarchy)
• Independent thought forbidden
• Political discussions forbidden
• Public assembly forbidden
• People do not protest much
• People do not demand much
• People believe/fear authorities
• Portugal was frozen in time for a long time
• Small groups owning the land (12 powerful families before the revolution)
• Revolution
• Confusion (for a few years after the revolution in 1974)
• People taking university courses in one year
• Abolishment of important social structures
• Abolishment of nearly all education (after 12 year basic schooling) except superior. I.e. no more apprentices.
• After the revolution the rich families came back.  They were no longer owner of all the land but in short period of time they plus a few new friends became owners of the capital.
• Communist co-operatives (farming)
• Many farms have become too small to be profitable due to splitting up for generations
• Portugal does not even produce 50% of its needs for food
• Farming is ineffective even though the land is fertile, there is lots of water (as opposed to contrary claims) and the climate is exceptional.
• Farmers are uneducated
• Social mobility
• Class society
• Little or no mobility
• Effort and capability not rewarded
• Education
• Children as a group are given comparatively little importance
• Still a large group of analfabets (they are dying off though)
• Still a large group with only 4 years of school
• According to PISA the Portuguese lower education (up to 12th grade) were among the worst in the OECD (only Greece worse!).  It is a little better now
• A lack of alternatives to higher education
• Quality of higher education too low (too many students and too many private dubious universities)
• No regulation of output for certain professions.  E.g. too many architects...
• To some accounts the worst teachers in the OECD with the least number of teaching hours and best paid.
• Private sector
• Old fashioned methods of management
• Nepotism - lack of qualified managers/leaders
• Managers with no social responsibilities or awareness
• Greed
• Always looking for the quick buck in the short term
• Absurd property speculation
• Absurd (and now gone) propensity to keep old fashioned industries (e.g. textile and mechanical)
• Public sector
• Too big
• Too expensive
• Too ineffective
• Too much debt
• Out of control
• Out of control public companies
• Public/private sector interconnections and common interests
• To many private companies living off the public sector
• To much movement of managers between private/public sectors (after each election!)
• No regulation of capitalism
• Destruction of the historic patrimony
• Destruction of the landscape and life quality by out of control unplanned building
• The people
• Lack of common sense
• Pollution
• Lack of social responsibility
• Littering
• Vandalism
• Destruction of environment
• Materialism
• There are more important things than the purely material - the knowledge of that used to be a Portuguese characteristic.  Now it is but forgotten
• It is not all about having the nice clothes, the great car, the latest cell phone etc
• Justice system
• Broken down, two slow
• Rich/well connected are impune
• Too complicated 
• Too many instances for appeals

I could also mention many more, but I am running out of my daily word allowance.  Let me just mention one symptomatic occurrence.   There is no way to ignore globalization.  The room for manoeuvres for a state is much smaller than in the past.  The last 15 years has been a continuous financial crisis in Portugal.  In the same period there have been large global market fluctuations including two very large upturns.  They but moderated the problems felt in Portugal and were a true indicator of the serious problems, not really hidden, but in the open.  Portugal did not take advantage of the favorable times.  E.g. by lowering the debt and preparing for the next cycle.

Now, one of the good aspects of capitalism is that the private sector will regulate itself under normal terms where the state creates the right conditions and insures capitalism does not become savage.  Bad companies will go broke - to avoid that,  unproductive workers tend to be eliminated and bad managers tend to be fired.  Companies that cannot compete, will not sell its products.  This is not so for the public sector and the major playground of politicians and bureaucrats.

The well educated bureaucrats and politicians are to blame.  They ought be punished.  They knew, they know, they acted in the wrong. I suggest every single politician and every single bureaucrat manager having exercised functions the last 20 years be dismissed and replaced. Cut their pensions to one third.  It will cause some innocent victims - call them collateral damage - and they will be the minority.  For Portugal is at war for its survival.

The public sector managers (bureaucrats) could be replaced by maybe 2000 German bureaucrats.  They are largely incorruptible, not entirely pleasant, but effective depending on their political mandate.   Give them the power to clean house.