About the populist act: the presidential palace itself was not used as a homeless shelter, just the barbecue (has a roof) (that is kind of "luxurious" for the poor standards of living down here)
If you're planning to move, please note that we have a state that charges you 23% of taxes on ALL products and services, plus a 20% to 35% of taxes over your earnings. And what you get for free if you're middle class? nothing, you just pay for lower class benefits. Also real state is crazy, properties on the nicest neighborhoods (nice for the standards here obviously) cost more than an apartment in Manhattan.
Everything has a ton of taxes because upper class must support lower class. The problem with that wonderful idea is that lower class gets now a lot of benefits for free, and they don't want to work more to get out of lower class and start paying to help other lower class citizens obviously.
Since Mujica is the president more and more stuff is getting taxes to help his social help strategies, making worker class people flee the country.
I won't be worried about working and paying taxes if some of that is reflected around in the country, but all the money goes to pay state employees or health care to unemployed people (health care system which is about to collapse) or the state retirement system (since there's lower and lower workforce this one will collapse in a few years too). If you want to buy anything imported, you got a huge tax over that too. For example cars have 100% of taxes, if you buy a car for 10k in other places here it costs 20.
Public spaces are dirty as hell, and the level of security is very low (you can get mugged because somebody wants your sneakers).
Mujica may have good ideas, but the execution is very poor and the outcome is terrible. He is the kind of guy who fixes the world chatting on a bar, not a president.
my 2 cents