Spaniards views on the crisis here

[olive]

Does anyone on here talk to Spanish friends and neighbours about the crisis.

All of the people we talk to say it will pass, it isn't too bad, no worse than the crisis in Britain( we saw the riots on TV in Britain against the cuts..............) and so on.

I even had the temerity to suggest that when the elections come and we have a new government or a coalition, heaven forbid, that we will then all have more taxes to pay. The reply to that was it will be better following November. I do hope so !

Is it Spanish pride not to admit that the country is in a very bad way?

What is your experience?

[Jool]

In my experience andaluces are always looking to duck and dive to survive and they will do that more or less depending on taxes, they are very insular and localized in their concerns.....and have little concern internationally unless they are a builder selling houses. Otherwise the consensus is to get rid of the socialists as they are not realistic and Zapatero is useless - every bar you go into they are anti Zapatero

THey do not believe THEIR Town Hall will impose urbanization costs on them as the Mayor says not and have no concept of laws filtering down, you jsut need to be "in" with the Town Hall and you will be fine

I think Spain needs to grow up and face economic reality - I read that the PP now see urbanising as the way out of the crisis...have they not learned anything. WE need real enterprise and real jobs not jsut construction and tourism

[Julie]

My friends don't think in it will just pass, they also think it is worse here in Spain than in the uk, I think it depends who you know, my friends are late 30's and university educated. I imagine if I asked my village neighbor it would be different as they live a different type of life.

[BENIDORM]

I was talking to an elderly Spanish man about this very subject just last week..

He said ''OK times are bad now, but not as bad as I have experienced years ago''.
He went on to tell me that somedays his family were lucky to get one meal a day, and now he said nobody starves...then shrugged his shoulders and said '' Well..things will get better...eventually..''

Lets hope so !!

Regards,
Gordon.

[quebin]

The Spanish work to live not live to work.They don't seem to have the same materialistic values as us,they seem to still value the family above everything else.

[Martin Page]

What Crisis - The Spaniards are like Ed Balls, In denial.

The Black economy is alive and well in Spain

[anis]

I was talking to a bank deputy manager in his office last week, generalising about world economy and investments. He reckoned that UK was in worse shape than Spain.

One thing I have noticed recently is the increase in the amount of begging outside supermarkets - but this time, unusually, local men at two separate times, reasonably well dressed and seemingly well spoken and one poor chap had lost both legs. Each one had a placard saying they were in difficult financial circumstances and had families to support, written in Spanish. I have never seen this before. They were in their early forties and clean shaven.
I don't normally donate but felt compelled to on both occassions for some reason. I am afraid I could not help but feel extremely sorry for them, knowing how very proud they are. Other locals were chatting to them and some were also chipping in. I doubt it was a scam.

[quebin]

Re.the Spanish begging outside supermarkets,one of them is a neighbour who goes down on his bike with a folding seat, as soon as he has got enough for a can of beer,goes and buys one in the supermarket and then resumes his post.Sometimes his wife is seen to be begging at the other doors,all exits covered.What amazes me is that it is normally the elderly Spanish folk funding these persons drinking habits.

[frank]

I was talking to a bank deputy manager in his office last week, generalising about world economy and investments. He reckoned that UK was in worse shape than Spain.

I woudn't say his view was typical, although several do share that view. We are in a mess, no doubt about that, but we still have unemployment less than half of Spain and I don't hear any talk of bail outs for UK yet. Youngsters especially, with unemployment running at over 40% for under 25's, are leaving Spain at a fair old rate trying to get jobs in UK, France, Germany etc, the situation for them at home is dire. Bad as the UK is, I was reading of the number of French now living and working in London, there are so many, London is now the sixth biggest French "city". There are more French in London than Brits in the whole of France, something must be attracting them. Plus most of the French are young professionals, earning good wages, paying tax and spending their money here, whilst a large percentage of Brits in France will be of retirement age paying little or no tax into the French coffers. But your managers view doesn't surprise me, Spain was in denial for ages, still is for some. ¿Crisis? ¡Qué crisis?

[kexon]

I wouldnt say that the spanish are not materialistic,many i know couldnt wait to get their kids a Wii or nintendo and themselves a new car .plasma tv etc and many work more than one job in order to acquire these things.i do think many know that Spain is in a bit of a pickle financially but they dont want to admit to it due to pride.

[frank]

I wouldnt say that the spanish are not materialistic,many i know couldnt wait to get their kids a Wii or nintendo and themselves a new car .plasma tv etc and many work more than one job in order to acquire these things.i do think many know that Spain is in a bit of a pickle financially but they dont want to admit to it due to pride.

Agree, I don't think they are different, maybe a few years behind in some respects, but they still lust after all the latest gizmos like any other European country. Certainly in the cities, both couples in a marriage work to afford all these must have things, the days when the wives stayed at home to look after all the family have all but disappeared. Might be still a bit different in the country, but Spain is embracing "Asilos de ancianos" old folks homes, like everyone else, Besides, I don't know of any friends or family in UK that don't value the family first and foremost.

[katy]

Most countries are in a mess but I know which one I prefer to have my money in. Stock market falls have been an average of 3% in the eurozone, Spain one of the highest whereas the UK falls have averaged 1.5%.

If you read spanish forums and newspaper comments then most agree that the country is up the swanee. One thing that Spain is good at is talking itself up, frequently see headlines in spanish media such as "Ibex down 4% because of the European Central bank and USA" Never blame themselves. Spain's media is still more censored than the British press!

[anis]

Quebin, I should have pointed out that the local men whom I have seen begging recently were at a supermarket down on the coast - not near where I live. The chap without legs could not have ridden a bike but the other one certainly could have, but I didn't spot another female accomplice - will keep an eye out next time.

[peteroldracer]

Most of the young men I see round here are so spaced out on 'wacky baccy' that they don't care about the economy - unless they need to rob something to buy more grass!
If there was a clampdown on so-called 'soft' drugs, things could get a lot nastier - same policy as in UK prisons seems to be 'keep 'em high, keep 'em peaceful'.

[Mariacristina]

Since this question was posted I have made a point of asking some neighbours and friends about their view of the economical situation.

Four older people in the village shrugged their shoulders and said they didn't watch the news. It is all the governments fault and the biggest problem that they could see was that there were no jobs for young people - and when work was available it was not work that young people wanted to do anyway - too hard and not enough money. I suspect that if you went to any village in the UK and asked four pensioners the same question re the British economy you would get the same answer.

I also asked a couple of younger friends (mere youngsters of 40 or so) who are both teachers. One commented that when he started teaching about 20 years ago the boys in his class laughed at the idea of going on to further education. They all wanted to get out of school and get jobs on building sites where they would be earning a lot more money that my friend was earning teaching!

The other commented that a lot of young people now have grown up in homes enjoying the exponential consumerism that has happened and are quite happy to carry on allowing their parents to keep them.

Both friends admitted they could see no way out of the problem and felt that we were going to be in long term recession. If you asked a similar couple of people in the UK the same question I think you would get a similar answer.

[markwilding]

Most of the young men I see round here are so spaced out on 'wacky baccy' that they don't care about the economy - unless they need to rob something to buy more grass!
If there was a clampdown on so-called 'soft' drugs, things could get a lot nastier - same policy as in UK prisons seems to be 'keep 'em high, keep 'em peaceful'.

Where do you live? Brixton?

[Julie]

Where ever it is, I am glad I don't live there

[frank]

If you read spanish forums and newspaper comments then most agree that the country is up the swanee. One thing that Spain is good at is talking itself up, frequently see headlines in spanish media such as "Ibex down 4% because of the European Central bank and USA" Never blame themselves. Spain's media is still more censored than the British press!

Just read your post and went to catch up on the Spanish news. Headlines blame the German economist Stark for his comments and retiring for Black Friday as the Ibex35 crashes today! You couldn´t make it up!

«Viernes negro» en la Bolsa
El Ibex 35 acusa la dimisión de Stark y desciende hasta los 7.910,20 puntos, un nivel que no alcanzaba desde finales de marzo de 2009
http://www.abc.es/20110909/economia/abc ... 91822.html

[Lavanda]

Most locals here say Spain is a disaster area mainly due to the hopeless government BUT it could be worse. We could be in Greece!

[Mowser]

Most of the young men I see round here are so spaced out on 'wacky baccy' that they don't care about the economy - unless they need to rob something to buy more grass!

Glad I don't live near you. Cocaine is the drug of choice around here.