The core of Portugal's problems — a 'poverty mindset'

Here is a short story that illustrates Portugal’s problems.

We (again) need new bathroom taps.

We had new taps fitted a year ago because our last taps failed.

Our tradesperson said, ‘I will look out for second-hand taps to save you money’.

NO. Please don’t. I want GOOD taps — I don’t care how much they cost.

But he turned up with cheap, 20-euro taps.

And now they’ve failed.

I have to find another tradesperson to fix them.

I run a business — it costs me hundreds of euros to waste time talking to tradespeople when I could be working.

I’d happily buy 100 euros taps if they are reliable.

But that’s not possible — because everything in Portugal is optimised to be cheap.

Ironically, this is why everyone in Portugal is poor.

Because everything is broken and nothing works.

No one can get ahead or build anything impressive.

People stay poor, forever, because of their poverty mindset.

Successful people and cultures build things properly the first time.