15 Billion Reasons Not to Live in Spain

Despite everything, Spain remains one of the most popular choices with Britons dreaming about or even actively planning a new life abroad.  It’s accessible from the UK with cheap flights aplenty, it’s a country you don’t need a visa to live in, and what’s even better is that in Southern Spain the sun shines almost all year round.

These are all fine reasons for choosing Spain as a relocation destination, but in this report we’re going to counter that positive argument with 15 billion reasons not to live in Spain.  You see, if you thought the UK was in a bad way economically speaking, you ain’t seen nothing until you read about the mess Spain has found itself in.

The Spanish government have seemingly acted as ridiculously as our own dear politicians in the UK in terms of digging an enormous budget deficit shaped hole, and now they’re looking to the lowly taxpayer to fill it.  And if you moved to Spain, you would become one of those lowly taxpayers…

In the UK we are currently witnessing the worst levels of unemployment for about 15 years.  Experts predict that this situation will continue to worsen until rates reach 3 million in 2010.  Well, whilst that is appalling, in Spain it’s much worse.  Currently unemployment is running at about 20%.  Yes, you read that right – 20 whole per cent of the working age population is without work.  1 in 5 adults are without a job.  So if you’re of working age and were thinking of moving to Spain, don’t you think that maybe just maybe any employer, (are there any?), is probably going to pick a Spaniard over you?  A Spanish worker who speaks the lingo, whose working history is searchable and check-able and who is of course wholly sure of his or her commitment to Spain.  Me thinks they will pick said Spaniard over you.

In the UK we’re finding it awfully hard to find out just how big the gaping budget deficit hole is – in Spain it’s widely reported that it has reached 9.5% of GDP in just 2 years when actually, the nation reported a positive surplus of 2.2% of GDP.  So basically the nation is on a fast track to bankruptcy – any company that was running at such a great loss with no known way of recouping it in the near-term would be wound up quicker than you can say P45.  But, this is an entire country, they don’t go bankrupt, (well, with the exception of Iceland…), so what is Spain going to do about it?

Well, at the moment it is spending its way out of recession.  Yes, you read that right too – it is spending even more money that it doesn’t have in a bid to get itself out of recession.  No, that makes no sense at all does it.  The ‘logic’ behind the theory – if you can call it logic, my God where do these politicians buy their education from – is that by spending out 8 billion euro so far on infrastructure improvements and the like they will create employment and somehow stem the rising rate of unemployment.  The only trouble with this idealistic theory is that they don’t have the money to pay for it…and so…and so…here come the tax hikes.

The government thinks that it can raise some 15 billion euro through immediate tax hikes – and in our humblest of opinions, that’s got to be the biggest and best reason not to live in Spain at the moment!  On the one hand you have the lefty Prime Minster saying that the tax increases are vital “to guarantee sufficient capacity to meet the needs of providing social protection and investing in infrastructure.”  And on the other hand you have the right warning against the hikes by saying “It will worsen the economic crisis and create more unemployment.”

We have no political leaning – and particularly not in Spain, but do find the comments from the opposition leader quite amusing: “There is no tax hike capable of covering the hole you have created.”  Would you want to live in such an economically crippled nation?  Well, the answer is probably ‘no’ which is perhaps why you were thinking of leaving the UK behind in the first place!  Ha ha!  Well, there are probably better countries to move to than Spain right at the moment – but at the same time, we can appreciate why you would want to leave the UK…after all Mr. Brown: “There is no tax hike capable of covering the hole you have created [either].”