Over the last couple years, the term “mileurista” came into the dictionary here in Spain, representing a large part of the population (mostly young people) who make do with a salary of 1000 euros a month.
In the new world of “structural reform” and “internal devaluation” (how about neo-feudalism or debt slavery?), a new word has been springing up “nimileurista” (not even a thousand euros), which represents the jobs that are actually available for people in Spain.
Here is a depressing survey of the current crop of nimileuristas, including a computer engineer who makes 800 euros a month, a physicist surviving on a grant of 400 a month, teachers, doctors, even a mathematician who makes 670 a month at the National Statistics Institute.
I’m starting to wonder whether it makes sense for our kids to grow up here. Even if they do well in school and end up in a good profession, their future consists of a choice between a life of poverty or sponging of their parents forever (or at least until our money runs out).
If you are thinking of starting a business here in Spain, where the hell are your customers coming from if everyone is barely able to make it on the bare necessities?
3 comments:
Completely in agreement, especially with the penultimate paragraph. This is something we're contemplating with our daughter, too...on the one hand, there are aspects of growing up in Spain that seem "healthier" than in North America. On the other hand, if her prospects for the future here are looking increasingly bleak, are we really doing her any favors by staying?
Which leads to interesting effects in other European countries. This is a rather amusing article about a German town being flooded with resumes from Portugal: http://www.spiegel.de/karriere/ausland/0,1518,820912,00.html
Would the last person out of Portugal please pay off the national debt?
Thank you.
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