Let's say you want to do some freelance work for someone. In Portugal you have to register your service ("abrir actividade") and use an oficial invoice booklet provided by the government ("recibos verdes") to invoice your customers. You need to pay a substantial amount of social security and income tax ( a designer friend was making around €1000 a month and paying almost €500 per month in taxes ), and if you stop trading and forget to tell the government, even if you have zero income you need to pay the minimum social security ( around €60 per month ) just to be registered as a service provider.
Basically, you are taxed pre-emptively wether you make any money or not. This stops a lot people from even trying to sell their services as freelancers, let alone start a company ( can't imagine the tax labyrinth that must be ). Sometimes I want to hire a friend for a small gig and they refuse because they can't afford the social security bill incurred in being a registered service provider.
This is killing the formal economy, stifling entrepreneurship, and it's also driving more and more people to informal contracts with cash transactions that deprive the state of needed income. I won't even talk about the crazy income tax band system we have...
"This is because in Portugal owning your own house or apartment has always been such a matter of pride that it is the first choice of most people, even young adults."
That's if "always" means "as far as I can remember", written by a fairly young writer. Fifty years ago renting was the most common mechanism in Portuguese cities, until rent-control (first instituted before 1970's inflation) nearly killed it, and state-subsidized bank mortgages became the norm. Unsurprisingly, forty years of that contributed to the economy crash.
Regardless, it bears noting that there are more, standalone, bona fide startups out here trying to make it, and fortunately not all of them are relying on the app bubble keeping up.
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=y&prev...
I visit Lisboa 2-3 times a year and every time I go back, it seems more vibrant, more buzzing with energy.
It just comes up a lot whenever I visit.
Can you explain why it feels rude to you?
Also, part of your salary goes into paying social welfare, and the employer pays some of it as well (about 11% from the employee and 22% from the employer). No idea how that compares to the US.