Worldview.
To step out of the comfort of your conditioned self, requires doing and acting in a way that your conditioned self wouldn’t normally. For example if someone asking you to go to a party, when you’d normally say no, you decide to go anyway. These experiences often lead to an outcome, and often an outcome which you can learn something from.
A big shift I went through is moving to Portugal when my conditioned self didn’t really want to. I said it’d be worth exploring; though my mind was already made up on moving somewhere else. What has unfolded since I’ve moved has caused a paradigm shift in my perspective. After living the surf bum lifestyle for a couple weeks, I figured it was time to start making money and feel a sense of purpose again. After applying to a couple jobs I landed at quite possibly the best job I could’ve asked for. It’s at the beach, has an amazing staff, and ticks all the boxes for a well run establishment (on paper).
Portugal is interesting, because from a macro lens it’s the place to be in Europe. There’s tons of growth, the weather is stable, and the culture is amazing. The closer I looked, the closer I started to realize a few things. Here’s a breakdown of how I think most developing countries operate, and why their economies aren’t as prevalent as they should be.
At the job I have now, the pay is great for what it is. It’s above the national minimum wage which is €1000 a month. That’s the base pay most people are earning every month in Portugal. Cigarettes, which more people smoke than I’d like, cost €9 (pretty easy to figure out what most people are living on after their expenses). The hypocrisy is that Portugal, basically being the California of Europe, brought over €29 billion in revenue from tourism alone leading up to 2025. So where does all of it go? I still genuinely don’t know…
Also at the job I have now, the pay is good for the area but not great (at all). Everyone that works there is hustling as hard as I’ve seen anyone work in any job I’ve had in America. The establishment, if it were in a place like the US, would easily send each server home with $500 a night in tips, similar to my last restaurant job I had while I was there. Tipping culture is getting better here but still not commonplace. I think most people think that the employees are living off fair wages, but after talking with a bunch of people, I don’t think that’s true. We are also on a contract, meaning the pay is salary, and the hours are 10:30am to 9pm every night (little to no overtime compensation). The rest of the crew is on the clock six days a week. This is common for most jobs, unless you own a business, a standard employee is making around that a month for regular jobs.
Portugal is a bit of a black sheep in Western Europe. It had an authoritarian dictatorship until 1974. Meaning the trends still trickle through the bedrock of the economy to this day. Why this is important is because I think many governments across the globe operate this way, and I think it’s absolutely human nature to do so. The best phrase to describe this phenomenon is “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. I’ll go as far to say that power corrupts at every facet of socioeconomic society here and many other nations.
Here’s a breakdown of how: Portugal's taxes are high, up to 40 percent high at a livable salary (€40,000+). Combined with the bureaucracy titles for everything you do, like buying cars, houses, business licenses; the bureaucracy is a killer for progress. Meaning my boss ultimately has to suffer because of them, meaning I ultimately have to suffer because of them. The position my boss is in is one of power and human nature at its fundamental level, you do what you can to survive and ultimately thrive at the cost of the individual’s next to you. He’s not even subconsciously thinking this way, I don’t think most people do, it’s the nature of what happens.
Why this is important is because you have extremely well educated, healthy, capable individuals move out of Portugal to free market economies (closer to), though tax rich, provide minimal government intervention for business growth. What’s nice about the US and other nations like Austria and Germany is that you also have rich labor laws. Meaning the economy is ultimately freer and money can circulate much easier and more efficiently. These nations are also rich in manufacturing, healthcare, communications, and more. Meaning if someone who has a great idea, moves to a place like Germany or the United States, they could potentially make much more money, much faster, and with much less pressure from government agencies. Resulting in the people with power (bosses, corporate boards, entrepreneurs) being much more inclined to use their hard earned money to circulate it back into the business resulting in higher wages and a better workforce.
The reason the power corrupts is because when you’re a business owner, and you know that you’re ultimately going to pay high taxes, deal with bureaucracy, pay rent in some cases, and still want to make enough to live a comfortable life, you’re ultimately going to put your employees on salary and work them as much as they are willing to before they decide it’s enough. Resulting in low wages and high turnover. This is true for most nations, especially those that don’t have checks and balances for government entities. If your government can’t provide an incentive for you to make a business that genuinely makes a difference in your economy, then why would you stay there?
Why this is all important and where the worldview shift came from is that people treat money differently here. The title or the socioeconomic status doesn’t define the individual. People genuinely like to connect with each other and create deep bonds, leading to more community oriented living and much purer more intentional interactions. It seems the less people have as a collective, the warmer and more open they are to others.
It’s important to remember, there are always situations way worse than the one you’re in now, and people that are much happier being there. It’s all about your perspective.
Thanks for reading.
With love,
Kai
Weekly Poem:
The kid felt old when he wore the glasses of the people that had less liberty than him.
The kid felt guilty when he wore the glasses of others in much worse situations than his.
The kid felt gratitude to even be able to wear the glasses at all.
