Although I have been considering to write something about the current struggle in my home country for weeks I didn't dare until now. I might be spanish, but I grew up in Germany, which makes it rather difficult to have a true insight on the problems, nonetheless I have decided to write this essay, as I love my home country and its problems upset me deeply.
While considering to write this another issue, was the question in which language to write it, Spanish or English. English is the business language, but according to Eurostat data collected in 2007 46,6 % of the spanish adult population does not speak a foreign language. Taking into consideration, that economies are growing closer more and more, this creates a certain type of isolation. Companies operating on an international level often end up hiring people from abroad to make sure business communication works. For country with an youth unemployment rate of 46 % (Source: http://www.focus.de/), this is in my option rather problematic. Of course it is a great oportunity we have these days to work abroad in Europe without too much trouble, but for a country with such high unemployement the question has to be asked, if education is missing out on something, when it comes to preparing young people for their working life.
Although unemployement is a huge issue in Spain it is by far not the only problem. Because when taking a look at the employed population we have to notice for instance, that in 2010 the relation between the highest paid and the lowest paid people was the second largest in Europe (source: eurostat; always using the 20% of the population at both extremes). This makes it obvious, that when talking about the average salary the number states is outside of reality. This "average" salary was in 2010 approx. 1.800 eur pre-tax per month (almost half the amount of the UK and Germany). Down the line this means, that a significant part of the population has to live with less than that. The so called "mileuristas" often have only about 1.000 eur per month to live on. If we keep in mind that the living expenses are barely 15 % cheaper than in Germany (according to http://www.ba-auslandsvermittlung.de/), we have to ask ourselves: How can spanish people manage the day by day? What money are they actually suppose to "invest" in the economy when we see these figures?
The so called informal sector is often considered a significant reason for Spain's economic problems. Although tax evasion is always a crime, the question in this case is:
Is there another option for the "mileuristas" to manage their live?
I could go on talking about various problems in spanish economy from the number of senators (more then in the US) to corruption and temporal contracts. What has to be clear to all of us is that the problems Spain is facing won't be solved in months but rather in years and each of us has to look at what we can do, as WE are Spain, the spanish people, not the government.
Although unemployement is a huge issue in Spain it is by far not the only problem. Because when taking a look at the employed population we have to notice for instance, that in 2010 the relation between the highest paid and the lowest paid people was the second largest in Europe (source: eurostat; always using the 20% of the population at both extremes). This makes it obvious, that when talking about the average salary the number states is outside of reality. This "average" salary was in 2010 approx. 1.800 eur pre-tax per month (almost half the amount of the UK and Germany). Down the line this means, that a significant part of the population has to live with less than that. The so called "mileuristas" often have only about 1.000 eur per month to live on. If we keep in mind that the living expenses are barely 15 % cheaper than in Germany (according to http://www.ba-auslandsvermittlung.de/), we have to ask ourselves: How can spanish people manage the day by day? What money are they actually suppose to "invest" in the economy when we see these figures?
The so called informal sector is often considered a significant reason for Spain's economic problems. Although tax evasion is always a crime, the question in this case is:
Is there another option for the "mileuristas" to manage their live?
I could go on talking about various problems in spanish economy from the number of senators (more then in the US) to corruption and temporal contracts. What has to be clear to all of us is that the problems Spain is facing won't be solved in months but rather in years and each of us has to look at what we can do, as WE are Spain, the spanish people, not the government.
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