This is the real problem. It isn’t ok to be rich. I’ve written about this before, at least in passing, but it’s worth mentioning again because it’s really relevant to all of what is happening. But I cringe every time I pulled out my residence card that said ARI on it, and am glad that at least now it got flipped to a D2 so it doesn’t look as bad.
I’d say this is a product of Portuguese history. Until fairly recently, there was a massive divide between the landed elites and the common person. Yes, that used to be true lots of places elsewhere in Europe, but Portugal was bad. The fall of the Holy Roman Empire meant nothing this far out on the Iberian peninsula because it was never part of it. The sole long term impact of the French Revolution was the lines of Torres Vedras getting built to defend against Napoleon. The British often treated Portugal like a colony. The “republican revolution” just turned the nobility into landed gentry without changing the system or its basic premises. Then the Estado Novo froze the entire country in a paternalistic bubble for most of the 20th century and so they missed the entire post-war boom and the Pax Americana. Let’s not forget that Salazar was the sort of person who thought that education beyond the 3 Rs was wasted on the common man, and news of the outside world was bad for you if not filtered appropriately.
In other words, the only rich people around were the folks oppressing the masses. Until recently - and 50 years counts as recent - hard work never got you anything but more hard work - you got rich through who you knew or who you buttered up or taking advantage of others or just outright corruption. And it’s still true to fair extent - look at the continual corruption scandals, both in and out of government.
They never had a Rockefeller or Carnegie or Gates who, while being rich bastards, still at least built libraries and universities and at least tried to do something towards the common good.
The capitalism they’re experiencing and learning from is the modern version of it which to many I imagine is starting to look like crony capitalism; there isn’t the history running around in their heads like we have of what it could or should be, and the basic mindset of the country runs socialist - except for Chega, which may as well be channeling aspects of Salazar.
It’s only been 50 years. Cultures and memories do not change overnight.
There’s a lot more I can say here, but I can’t go on forever. The point is, they’re just not coming at it from the same backdrop we are, and it’s a real problem to which it’s unclear that there is any great solution.
(I don’t claim to be an expert here. I have a lot of history books to read yet. This is just what I’ve gotten from the couple I’ve read. And I know I’m grossly oversimplifying since this isn’t exactly a topic I’ve done heavy research into, I just agree it’s there.)
