Time is money
Today I realized one more way in which bureaucracy, especially like the one we live with here in Portugal, makes our lives more expensive in a less direct way (compared with taxes and such). You might not have noticed, but the official approval to build or rebuild a building around these parts takes forever. Which means, between the time someone or some company buys a piece of land to build on, or an old building to rebuild, and the time they can use or sell it, the initial capital spent on the acquisition, projects, and running costs has been tied down.
Who pays this increase in immobilization costs? The final customer, meaning housing and offices are much more expensive than they should be if the necessary official legal steps took a reasonable time. And who profits from it? The lenders – and the bureaucracy, who reaps even more taxes on the interest charged over the loans.
Hmm… Official legal steps can be easily sped up (more money placed in the “right” hands) to reduce the waiting time… but its the final consumer who pays in the end.
Insightful! I’m sure things like this happen in more than just Portugal AND in much greater frequency than we dare imagine. What needs to happen is someone (yourself?) needs to find as much documented evidence to this and create an easy to swallow documentary video. Perfect for the layman who ends up paying for this crap. If someone isn’t spoon feeding this info to the common man, then it will continue to go unnoticed… like a tick or leech, silently living fat and bloated on your blood until you FINALLY notice it (documentary) and pluck it from your body. See? Doesn’t that feel better?
Cheers!
steve