[Leica] Pain in Spain

[photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)]

The unemployment rate here is indeed at depression-levels, and youth 
unemployment is especially high. Some mitigating factors are:

- families: people help each other, children move back to their parents etc. 
Not ideal, but prevents total destitution.
- emigration: young people with education are increasingly going to places 
like Germany where there are jobs for them. Language is a barrier, because 
the Spanish, like Americans, are not good at foreign languages, but that is 
changing. Also some go to South America, where there is no language barrier.
- welfare state: Spain does not have much of that compared to Northern 
Europe, but some basics, like universal health care, do make it less of a 
tragedy to lose one's job here compared to the US where your health 
insurance is, for most people under 65, tied to the job.
- the black economy: some of the unemployed construction workers, handymen 
etc. are in fact earning money, it just does not get reported. Houses get 
painted, gardens get landscaped, children get looked after, and so on, all 
based on cash payments. This has always been the case here, but has really 
exploded in recent years.