If the Euro is in good shape, Greece must be doing well.
Problems in Portugal Are Deeper Than Debt - Seeking Alpha
Economically, Portugal has little competitive advantages on a global scale. Primarily a service economy, Portugal's lack of educational aspiration reduces the amount of high income service opportunities. Portugal's major export is cork, which has limited demand outside of stopping wine bottles. A high unemployment rate of 11% and a lack of natural resources are also weaknesses of the Portuguese economy.
However a lack of education is the most severe problem for Portugal's economy. With a high school graduation at a paltry 28% and with only 11% of the population holding a college degree, the Portuguese simply lack the human capital to finance a Western European standard of living. As a result, the Portuguese government has tried to compensate for this with excessive deficit spending. Having a first world lifestyle is not cheap, and the Portuguese are either going to have to drastically improve their educational system or learn to accept a lower standard of living.
A 99% literacy rate, well, surely such a well educated workforce would mean a prosperous country even if they support drug addition! Right? Doesn't it make sense. What I have found is that the literacy rate in Portugal is 93%. The Functional Literacy rate is 17%. That's the best at what I have seen.
The Education Gap: Portugal's Other Problem - Seeking Alpha
And last week S&P downgraded the country to the lowest investment grade rating because the country will likely access the EUs rescue fund. Portugals debt is not junk
yet. But the countrys bond yields soared to their euro zone record (the two-year bond reached 8.78% last week, surpassing the ten-year yield, and higher than levels of Greek and Irish bonds when they were rescued). And according to CMA, Portugals credit default swaps rose to a record 585.
But if Portugal wants to get its deficit to a sustainable level (it has a stated goal of 4.6% of GDP this year, and 3% in 2012), it will have to look beyond fiscal policy. Portugal needs to generate growth to reduce its deficit, and that means fixing one of its long-term problems.
Portugal is the poorest of the original European Union countries
and the least educated. The country has long struggled with school repetition, education inequality and functional illiteracy.
Given that reality, its hardly a surprise that the quality of Portugals math and science education ranked 108 out of 139 in the World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness Report. And its not a surprise that the countrys labor market efficiency ranking stands at 117. And its definitely not a surprise that, based on overall competitiveness, Portugals rank has fallen from 22 in 2005, to 46 this year.
Perhpas Portugal is looking at drug tourism to help bail itself out of its serious financial problems.
The United States as a FAILING nation doesn't do very well. In international test scores, we made a drop from #12 in fourth grade to 19 in 12th grade. Portugal fell off the list.
Academic Failure - International Test Scores - Poor TIMSS Results
Is there some corelation between failure and increased drug use? I don't know. Countries that have serious laws against drug use and enforce them seem to do somewhat better. Is this a cause and effect? I don't know. Education and educated people in the US has fallen and will continue to fall further as we stop demanding excellence and graduate functionally illiterate people out of our own schools. But, they ARE socially aware! Adults in the United States can certainly tell you something, they just don't have many words in their vocabulary to do it.
Literacy Rate - How Many Are Illiterate
Does drug use help? Is drug use a net benefit? I don't care particularly who takes drugs, if we could just manage to keep them from causing damage to other people they could drug themselves into the grave (as quickly as possible).
