"Costa is frightening off investors"
A repressive state is Evil,
which violates the property rights of its citizens ~
and will manifest itself with extremist parties in power.
They are wolves in sheep's clothing.
Being integrated in the European Union,
Portugal has to comply with the European treaties.
One of its determinations, is that the public debt
should be below 60% of the GDP
(currently it stands at about 130%).
You can only achieve this goal
with surpluses of the State during many years,
which requires a great restraint in the State's spending.
Increasing fees and taxes is not feasible,
but the measures proposed by PS, BE and PCP
in their electoral programs
will lead the state to borrow even more,
prolonging the dependence on international lenders.
Seeing that increasing the public debt greatly, is not viable,
for the simple reason,
that the confidence of creditors is not unlimited.
When some of these radical parties come to power
and do not have any adequate solutions to meet the European treaties,
the temptation will be enormous
to resort another form of the state to raise revenue,
which is neither appropriate nor usual: to steal!
Stealing? How come?
By nationalizing and expropriating.
This is no invention,
because it is written in the electoral programs
of both the radical BE and the communist Party PCP.
With nationalization,
the state takes ownership of corporate capital
and the income they generate.
Such "income" can then be distributed by the population,
temporarily increasing its economic capacity.
A few years later, when the memory of the investors has faded,
the state can re-privatize the companies,
by selling capital to obtain new revenue.
It is a "virtuous" circle:
steal-spend-sell;
steal-spend-sell;
steal-spend-sell ...
etc, etc.
With expropriations,
the state appropriates the heritage of citizens and businesses.
The State can then sell these assets.
It is a second "virtuous" circle:
steal-sell-spend; steal-sell- spend; steal-sell-spend ...
In some cases it wouldn´t even be necessary to sell.
The ownership of "exorbitant" bank deposits (e.g. above €10,000 );
an "outrageously high" income (e.g. more than €3,000 per month);
from "excessive" profits of companies (e.g. more than €30,000 per year),
the state could spend the money right away.
It is a third "virtuous" circle:
steal- spend; steal-spend; steal-spend ...
As you can imagine, through this fourth way to get revenue,
there would be no need to reform the state!
Nationalizations and expropriations have been applied again and again
in our almost nine centuries of existence as a country.
The latest wave happened 40 years ago.
This is what the extremist parties are now advocating in Portugal.
And it's very likely that they will force the PS to move forward
with these expedients, in exchange for their support for a socialist government.
Would the Portuguese be willing to fall into the same pit again,
that, once again will destroy the reputation of Portugal as a credible partner?
Is it possible that the portuguese do not realize
that this brings great difficulty to the development of business abroad?
Is it possible that they do not realize
that this impoverishes the citizens
and businesses of the country?
As for me, I say NO to nationalization and expropriation.
I say this for the rights and freedoms expressed in the Constitution.
I would like to highlight here only the right to property,
expressed in Article 62 of the Constitution,
which is fundamental in a society,
where you want to live in peace,
where people want to prosper through their work,
where they can freely exercise their own personal options.
In defense of the right to property, I say NO to the tax on inheritances,
as advocated by the socialists PS.
It is simple confiscation of family values and ignores the core of our society,
which is the family.
In defense of the right to property, I say NO to the nationalization
of the banking sector, the SCUT motorways and the energy sector,
as advocated by the BE in its election manifesto.
In defense of the right to property, I say NO to nationalization "...
of strategic companies such as Cimpor, EDP, REN, GALP,
PT, ANA, CTT, EGF, Caixa Seguros, Fidelity
and others already in process or indicted as such, like TAP,
the new Bank/former BES, SILOPOR, CP Carga, EMF, Metro,
Carris, Transtejo, Soflusa and STCP, Oceanarium, Youth Hostels ",
as advocated by the Communists in its electoral program.
As Edmund Burke said in the eighteenth century,
"For evil to triumph, it will only be possible if the good don´t do anything."
Evil is a repressive state, which violates the property rights of its citizens
and which manifests itself when the extremist parties comes to power.
They are wolves in sheep's clothing.
Without claiming to be good,
I will NOT sit around doing nothing.
by
Filipe Simões de Almeida is a businessman
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