Print this PostI woke up this morning at the usual time and, just like every other day, set out for the Plaza España to catch the bus that would transport me across the city and to the school where I work. After a few minutes at the bus stop, I began to realize that I was having to wait for the bus for a lot more time than usual. At first I thought my “number six” bus line was just running a little late… but then it dawned on me: the civil servant strike.
You see, city bus drivers are civil servants in Spain. As civil servants, they are included in the 5% average pay cut that Zapatero recently announced to help reduce Spain’s deficit and thus “save” the country from the financial crisis. Of course, this announced pay cut didn’t exactly go over very well with the civil servants (surprising, right?) and today they all went on a one-day strike to speak out against the change.
Spain seems to have become the “hot topic” in Europe right now with respect to the financial crisis and everyone is wondering if it will become the “next Greece.” Personally, I don’t think that things in Spain will reach the level they did in Greece; but, I’m no economic expert. In any case, if you’d like to read more about Spain and the financial crisis, you can check out this very good New York Times Blog article that explains the situation much better than I can.
I don’t really know how “worried” I should be about the crisis. In fact, I sometimes think that people here are blowing the whole thing a bit out of proportion and hoarding money unnecessarily. I suppose it’s understandable to an extent: nobody wants to be without a job or loose money that they have spent a lifetime saving. Still, I can’t help but feel as if Spaniards are overreacting. Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong.
In the end, thanks to the civil servant strike, I had to take a taxi to get to school today. Let’s hope they don’t strike again anytime soon… taxis are much less convenient (and more expensive) than city buses.
Please, leave your thoughts about the crisis in Spain in the comments below. I’d like to know what others think about all this — expats and Spaniards alike.
Hasta luego,
–Chris
http://abroadinspain.com
Hi Chris! I just stumbled upon your blog and really like it (hope you’ve having a great time in Madrid, a city I adore). I came back to Spain two years ago after having lived abroad for a decade and I am shocked at the level of poverty and unemployment my home country is going through.
Believe me, Spaniards are not overreacting.
Official figures state that 500 families (yes, you read right…five hundred) are losing their homes everyday because they can not afford to keep up with the mortgage repayments. In 10 years’time things have changed so much… those were the people who back then could easily afford weekend shopping trips to London and buy two homes, one of them close to the beach.
I am leaving the country next month. With 3 degrees, 4 MAs and speaking English, French and Polish I have not been able to find a single job and my job adviser says my CV ‘scares’ employers off as I am much better qualified than them. This is how bad things in Spain are…
Saludos
And just one thing… bullfighting does not really represent our country at all (I see you have a picture of it at the header). 73% of us Spaniards are totally against it and we think it is a national disgrace only fit for savages who feel no empathy whatsoever towards other living creatures.
It is only banned in the Canary Islands (since the 80s) and hopefully, fingers crossed, Catalonia will ban it too soon.
@Saray – Thanks for your comments. Where did the 500 family a day figure come from? For curiosity’s sake….
To set the record straight: I’m not necessarily “pro-bullfighting” either, but I have the picture in my header because it’s something that still culturally happens in Spain, so I find it somewhat representative even though I understand that a lot of Spaniards are against it.
Hi Chris!
From both the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipóteca and the government report published on the subject last March. I should have the link to it on my laptop so I will paste it here once I find it
In the meantime it is also mentioned on this report the newspaper El País published on 3 June 2010.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Nos/han/arruinado/vida/vemos/salida/elpepusoc/20100603elpepusoc_6/Tes
@Saray – Thanks for the link, I didn’t realize the number of people loosing their houses was that high. Perhaps things are a little worse-off here in Spain than I originally estimated.
The article itself is also interesting and brings up another point. Sometimes, looking at the way Spaniards spend (not all Spaniards, but many), I feel as if they over-extend themselves. To me, people here are really worried about their image: driving the best car, having a house in the city and another one at the beach, wearing the best clothing…. and I think a lot of people are in trouble now because they were trying to live way beyond their means in the past. That’s just my take on it though. In the USA, not everybody has two houses and the nicest cars: and people there generally earn more than in Spain. Granted, I know that there are people who are really struggling in Spain right now, but there are also people who are in problems because they tried to buy a lot more than they could afford.
I should probably add to my last comment that people who tried to buy more than they could afford could have been misinformed like the family in the article: the real-estate agency painted a much “prettier picture” than reality and, in a way, “fooled” the family into making a purchase that perhaps they couldn’t afford.
Oh yes, Chris I totally agree with your take on it, in fact it was the first thing (of many) that shocked me when I came back to Spain on 2008. Just a little example… I stayed in a residence for female workers (civil servants, lawyers, quite a few nurses and girls who like me were visiting briefly Madrid in order to attend job interviews) last year and many of the girls skipped meals just to be able to afford the most expensive dresses in El Corte Inglés. One of them told me she earned 937 euros (imagine that! working just in Paseo de la Castellana, quite an expensive area) , paid 575 euros for her room in the residence plus metro pass, Internet connection etc, etc and avoided to eat during weekends so that she could buy cute dresses and ‘well-known brands’ shoes.
When I asked her why she was doing such a stupid thing she replied image was everything to her and it was really important for her that her colleagues thought she was doing well financially, especially the girls who worked as lawyers at her workplace (she was the secretary).
And all this said by a thirty-scomething… worrying.
I have met dozens of people like that since I came back. You have probably heard already the saying ‘La envidia es el deporte nacional’ (Envy is the national sport) about our country, right? Many Spaniards if they see their neighbours have a 4×4 car they will buy one bigger and shinier (and park it somewhere very visible for everybody to notice) even if they have to spend then six months eating just out of packets of rehidrated soup and cheap unhealthy stuff.
This frivolity is madness and even those getting jobseeker’s allowance are doing this type of thing
Rehydrated, not rehidrated. Sorry.
@Saray – Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I live with two Spanish flatmates; one of them just bought a HUGE, EXPENSIVE car. He works as a clerk in a store, so his salary doesn’t quite “match up” to his car choice. I seriously think he goes to bed with a calculator at night trying to figure out how much he can spend in the month and still be able to afford the payments… to me, that kind of spending is nuts. It’s also really important to him to have name-brand clothing, etc.
By the way, where did you live before coming back to Spain?
Hi Chris, I work on the Costa Blanca and things are very bad here in terms of unemployment and people losing their homes. More charities have been setup within the area to help those that can not even afford to eat, the dole queue is longer than anyone has ever seen before in this neck of the woods and that is everyday … not everyone gets seen either which must enrage people further. Although the majority of the properties that have been repossessed here are by second home owners, it is quite incredible how many local people have been forced to hand the keys to their houses back to the bank.
Hopefully things will improve because in my opinion they can not get any worse.