Comment by ricardobayes
13 hours ago
I think Spain needs a complete mindset change, to fully come to the 21st century. While there are truly many people who "take their job" seriously, the overall "world of work", and professional standards are very, very low in Spain. Yes, it's a generalization, but anyone living in Spain will tell and complain about bad company practices, no or slow responses, and a general lack of professionalism, in all sectors.
Further than that, almost all problems and tension in Spain would disappear if earnings caught up to at least the European standard.
In short, Spain needs to re-invent its world of professionalism. I'm not saying that it should become like Swizerland overnight but the current mindset is incompatible with the 21st century's complexities. Portugal is currently further along that road.
Meanwhile people in the US have been framing Spain as some kind of post-work utopia. The "we quit our jobs and moved our family to Spain" is all over social media.
A lot of that is due to relatively low rents by EU standards (even if locals might complain, because their salaries are low compared to some other EU countries).
Not just rent but food and wine are also inexpensive (and amazing). Plus many Americans are already familiar with the language.
If you can work remotely (or not at all), Spain has a lot going for it.
Those are not incompatible though? I'm from Spain and it's a great place to retire.
The railway system in the US is not very impressive, though.
>but anyone living in Spain will tell and complain about bad company practices, no or slow responses, and a general lack of professionalism, in all sectors.
Sounds just like Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and any many other EU countries, including the EU itself, where there's "employment for life" guaranteed by the state or by strong unions, which makes them ripe for cronyism, complacency and incompetence to thrive unchecked until people inevitably die, and only then can audits and system reforms actually be done. The way it works, is that things need to get worse, before they are allowed to get better. I think this has been the case in politics since time immemorial.
>Further than that, almost all problems and tension in Spain would disappear if earnings caught up to at least the European standard. [...] Portugal is currently further along that road
From what I saw interviewing, Portugal has much lower earnings, and earnings aren't something the government can control. What the government CAN DO to stimulate high earnings to happen, is provide incentives and an environment for attracting businesses and investment, but that typically correlates with low taxes and low government welfare spending, policies that Spaniards and other Europeans aren't known for supporting, so there you go. You get what you vote for.
Sounds líke your opinions are well ahead of your judgement.
Do you have any (counter)arguments to bring to the discussion, or do you enjoy firing vague snarky one-liners from the hip before moving on to the next thread?