"Domino" is becoming more relevant by the minute, and some good news, too

As the economic crisis in Spain worsens, Domino is becoming more and more relevant.  I see specials on TV about how some of the unemployed are moving back to the land, and raising vegetables or livestock.  In some cases, they are squatting on the land.  In others, it´s land that has been part of their family for decades, or that they were able to purchase for a song because so many people moved to the cities in the last several decades.

In some cases, it looks like these people (apparently, most of them former construction workers with their families) will do fine...until the winter comes and there are no crops to be had.

The countryside near Medina-Sidonia, in Andalucía (southern Spain).

There are also plenty of stories in the newspapers about people losing their homes, government workers being laid off, banks loosing millions and in some bases, billions of Euros (where do they lose this money?  did it blow away in the wind, or did someone carelessly throw it out in the garbage?) and getting the government of Spain to bail them out.

This used to be a branch of a savings and loan,.  No more.  It closed months ago.

In a related development, a couple of weeks ago, the city government got a big paycheck from the provincial government to be used to pay a specific set of workers who had gone months without pay.  Before the city could get the checks out, however, another government institution grabbed the money from the bank where it was--briefly--sitting because the city owed this government institution lots of money and what they hey, there it was, all that money, and....

A few peculiarities concerning the Spanish economy:

As I may have mentioned some time back, if you lose your home--if you´re foreclosed on for failure to pay the mortgage--not only are you out of your home, but in addition, you still owe the back mortgage.  This means the bank gets your home AND your money.  If you ever get another job (assuming you lost your home because you lost your job), your wages will get garnished until the cows come home.

Another peculiarity:  some statistics say that 95% of the Spanish economy is based on small businesses.  That´s an exaggeration, since other statistics will tell you that 10% of the country´s GNP comes from automobile production, but at any rate, a LOT of the Spanish economy is based on small businesses.

"Se vende" means for sale.  There are actually 3 in a row here, all former small businesses.

It´s not hard, or expensive, to START a small business, but my is it expensive to maintain it.  The sales tax, for example, runs at 18% for most goods being sold.  You must also pay sales tax on whatever money you give to professionals.  In addition, a self-employed person or a small business is required to retain 15% of the salary not only of employees, but also of professionals who do work for the small business.  Actors, for example, count as professionals, so if you hire an actor, whether you are self-employed or a small business, 18% of what you pay that person actually goes to one government organ and another 15% to another.

In addition, when it´s a question of goods, not only the retailer but also the wholesaler is required to collect the sales tax (so essentially, the government is getting double the tax).  AND you are required to file with the government the number of employees you have.  If one of them is out sick for more than a few days and you don´t hire someone to replace that person, you get fined.

This is just to cheer you up--some old-style farm implements in a museum.

 Under these circumstances, it´s easy to see why, once the bubble was over, the Spanish economy started running into trouble.  Add to this the willingness of the Spanish government to bail out its banks (which in some cases were/are being run by people with their hands in the till), etc,., etc.,  well--you get the picture.

Which reminds me of the American government´s tendency to bail out banks, some of which are just as corrupt or even more corrupt than their Spanish counterparts.

And now, Germany is requiring Spain to raise its taxes further, and to cut the number of government employees further.  The latter might make some sense because the cities are broke and the civil service is bloated.  but you also have to think ahead and provide some way the people who are laid off are going to make a living.  And the idea of raising  taxes..., it makes no sense to me, especially under the current circumstances.

So there.

And all of this, and more, you learn about in Domino, which puts a human face on the current economic crisis in Spain.  (We really have finished with the filming of Domino, by the way, which is now about 2 minutes over that magic number...meaning cut, cut, cut.)

OUR NEXT POST will be about music in film.