4 ms·

As a spanish I tell you that we are drowning in regulations. Not only european, but Spain itself also. The level of taxing is also too high for the salary rang

As a spanish I tell you that we are drowning in regulations. Not only european, but Spain itself also. The level of taxing is also too high for the salary ranges and cost of life. It is a pitty, because I really think my country has more potential but it is terribly managed from the POV of economics. It could be way better :(

huytersd 3y ago
Having visited your country, your lifestyle and quality of living is so much better than a “middle class and below” standard of living in the US. I don’t think you want to give up what you have for what we have unless you’re pretty rich.
- germandiago 3y ago
  But we have a big debt. Health care system is not what it used to be. I think we are living a fiction and this will end up in less than a decade. We will still be spanish for our spanish things as much as we can but... I am alert of what could be coming.
  - huytersd 3y ago
    I got that feeling in Europe in general. I had no idea how these countries were paying for all the nice things they have. I just assumed it was some long tail consequence of colonialism that keeps bringing in revenue somehow or “money makes money” from the massive wealth transfer during the colonial period. On the flip side, healthcare can bankrupt you with one semi serious illness in the US and there is no work life balance.
    - germandiago 3y ago
      Colonialism does not make countries rich. That is amyth with data in hand. It makes a few people very rich but not a country as a whole. In fact they historically brought deficit in many cases. Even if looting happens. I tell you this as a spanish that checked the topic. I do not know about USA lifestyle enough and I know americans work hard. There is no trick here though. Without enough productivity and generated wealth, it is impossible to maintain a system forever. After living for 12 years almost in Vietnam, which is a country more similar to how most countries are wealth-wise and conditions in those countries are harder. I reached the conclusion that spanish demand too good conditions compared to productivity for a lot of jobs. This will eventually make us collapse. Same for some parts of Europe. I agree we all want to live better... but careful with balancing it towards our own personal wishes. Because we could eventually regret it :)
krageon 3y ago
With respect, Spain is one of the cheaper places to live in the EU. Perhaps your salary is even lower, but the nice thing about the EU is that you are free to get something better in a place where you get a salary that's appropriate for you. If that's not an option, you must live in a cheaper location. That really has very little bearing on your country's governance.
- germandiago 3y ago
  No, my salary was was above average. But the taxing starting at 62000 EUR, which is not that much if you want to buy a house and have a family is at 47%. The higher you try to go the more they smash you. The PIT at 300,000 (which is a lot, but anyways, you already pay more at that rate) reached 54%. After that you have to add things such as IBI (tax for owning a house), indirect taxes such as VAT (mostly 21%), gas (50%), electricity (50/60%), garbage collection, if you have a car you pay 7 taxes more... freelance workers pay around 300 euros just for working, every month, before having any incomings. After that they pay VAT and social security. If you see the average salaries in Spain you will understand that what they are doing now to the freelance workers (autónomos) is an abuse: a person that does not know how the coming months are going to be gets taxed increasingly more over the years and they did a reform that will raise the costs for this group (depending on earnings) by a lot. It can even quadruplicate the costs per month for people that get around 5,000/6,000 gross. If you start to count and they can smash you like 60% or more. Things are going to go higher on top of that. It is abusive. With that amount of taxes the debt should be lower and the services better. Where are we spending the money? Mostly in pensions (9.5 million people in Spain). In Spain you have young engineers working for less than 1,500 eur/month, some working for around 2,000 (I mean Master's degree both), but you have local police, which is two years studying, which get 1,800 eur/month. Some people have pensions of over 2,000 euros at the same time, because the pensions are a Ponzi scheme. We have as much as 3.5 million public workers. To get an idea, in Germany, with 83 million people (vs. 47 million in Spain), they have around 800,000. There is a lot to fix... and the unions... do not get me started on the unions and politicians. In the meantime, the private sector is going weaker and weaker and paying higher and higher bills to maintain all this.

huytersd 3y ago

Having visited your country, your lifestyle and quality of living is so much better than a “middle class and below” standard of living in the US. I don’t think you want to give up what you have for what we have unless you’re pretty rich.

germandiago 3y ago
But we have a big debt. Health care system is not what it used to be. I think we are living a fiction and this will end up in less than a decade. We will still be spanish for our spanish things as much as we can but... I am alert of what could be coming.
- huytersd 3y ago
  I got that feeling in Europe in general. I had no idea how these countries were paying for all the nice things they have. I just assumed it was some long tail consequence of colonialism that keeps bringing in revenue somehow or “money makes money” from the massive wealth transfer during the colonial period. On the flip side, healthcare can bankrupt you with one semi serious illness in the US and there is no work life balance.
  - germandiago 3y ago
    Colonialism does not make countries rich. That is amyth with data in hand. It makes a few people very rich but not a country as a whole. In fact they historically brought deficit in many cases. Even if looting happens. I tell you this as a spanish that checked the topic. I do not know about USA lifestyle enough and I know americans work hard. There is no trick here though. Without enough productivity and generated wealth, it is impossible to maintain a system forever. After living for 12 years almost in Vietnam, which is a country more similar to how most countries are wealth-wise and conditions in those countries are harder. I reached the conclusion that spanish demand too good conditions compared to productivity for a lot of jobs. This will eventually make us collapse. Same for some parts of Europe. I agree we all want to live better... but careful with balancing it towards our own personal wishes. Because we could eventually regret it :)

krageon 3y ago

With respect, Spain is one of the cheaper places to live in the EU. Perhaps your salary is even lower, but the nice thing about the EU is that you are free to get something better in a place where you get a salary that's appropriate for you. If that's not an option, you must live in a cheaper location. That really has very little bearing on your country's governance.

germandiago 3y ago
No, my salary was was above average. But the taxing starting at 62000 EUR, which is not that much if you want to buy a house and have a family is at 47%. The higher you try to go the more they smash you. The PIT at 300,000 (which is a lot, but anyways, you already pay more at that rate) reached 54%. After that you have to add things such as IBI (tax for owning a house), indirect taxes such as VAT (mostly 21%), gas (50%), electricity (50/60%), garbage collection, if you have a car you pay 7 taxes more... freelance workers pay around 300 euros just for working, every month, before having any incomings. After that they pay VAT and social security. If you see the average salaries in Spain you will understand that what they are doing now to the freelance workers (autónomos) is an abuse: a person that does not know how the coming months are going to be gets taxed increasingly more over the years and they did a reform that will raise the costs for this group (depending on earnings) by a lot. It can even quadruplicate the costs per month for people that get around 5,000/6,000 gross. If you start to count and they can smash you like 60% or more. Things are going to go higher on top of that. It is abusive. With that amount of taxes the debt should be lower and the services better. Where are we spending the money? Mostly in pensions (9.5 million people in Spain). In Spain you have young engineers working for less than 1,500 eur/month, some working for around 2,000 (I mean Master's degree both), but you have local police, which is two years studying, which get 1,800 eur/month. Some people have pensions of over 2,000 euros at the same time, because the pensions are a Ponzi scheme. We have as much as 3.5 million public workers. To get an idea, in Germany, with 83 million people (vs. 47 million in Spain), they have around 800,000. There is a lot to fix... and the unions... do not get me started on the unions and politicians. In the meantime, the private sector is going weaker and weaker and paying higher and higher bills to maintain all this.