Sánchez and the misery business: master plan or conspiracy theory?
An analysis of the theory accusing Spain's PM Sánchez of creating an army of dependents through immigration and benefits to secure votes. A real plan or a conspiracy theory?
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Sánchez's 'master plan' against unemployment that nobody believes
A strand of commentary argues that the Spanish government's strategy on unemployment and poverty is not what it seems. Behind the ironic title —"I'm not a pogre but admit the plan is masterful"— lies a thesis gaining traction in certain circles: the government is allegedly designing a model of mass dependency through irregular immigration and social benefits, with the ultimate goal of securing a captive electorate.
The four-step 'procedure'
Supporters of this theory describe a staged process. First, the arrival of undocumented immigrants spread across the whole country. Second, keeping them on benefits until age 35 —what they call "activating the time bomb"—. Third, withdrawing the aid to throw them into the labour market with no qualifications or work ethic. And fourth, waiting for them to turn to crime, with calculated consequences: from the deaths of "taxpayer-funding pogre" to the elimination of competitors.
The language is brutal, but the skeleton of the argument is not new. The idea that the state creates poverty in order to manage it and profit from it —the "misery business"— has decades of history in criticism of NGOs and foundations that live off subsidies. The problem is that here a racial and apocalyptic component is added that discredits any serious analysis.
Statistics: the art of not counting what is inconvenient
There is a less extreme point that does deserve attention: the manipulation of unemployment figures. "Stop counting unemployment and poverty in the statistics and there you go, problem solved," sums up a recurring thread. The suspicion that the unemployment rate is being dressed up by excluding those who have stopped looking for work or migrants in an irregular situation is not far-fetched. But from there to a deliberate plan of social engineering is a stretch that only empirical evidence can bridge.
Meanwhile, the official narrative keeps selling unemployment reductions as Sánchez's personal achievements. The question nobody answers with data is: how many of those new jobs are precarious, temporary or simply not counted? Until that is known, the conspiracy theory will have fertile ground.
Related discussions in the forum
A strand of commentary argues that the Spanish government's strategy on unemployment and poverty is not what it seems. Behind the ironic title —"I'm not a pogre but admit the plan is masterful"— lies a thesis gaining traction in certain circles: the government is allegedly designing a model of mass dependency through irregular immigration and social benefits, with the ultimate goal of securing a captive electorate.
The four-step 'procedure'
Supporters of this theory describe a staged process. First, the arrival of undocumented immigrants spread across the whole country. Second, keeping them on benefits until age 35 —what they call "activating the time bomb"—. Third, withdrawing the aid to throw them into the labour market with no qualifications or work ethic. And fourth, waiting for them to turn to crime, with calculated consequences: from the deaths of "taxpayer-funding pogre" to the elimination of competitors.
The language is brutal, but the skeleton of the argument is not new. The idea that the state creates poverty in order to manage it and profit from it —the "misery business"— has decades of history in criticism of NGOs and foundations that live off subsidies. The problem is that here a racial and apocalyptic component is added that discredits any serious analysis.
Statistics: the art of not counting what is inconvenient
There is a less extreme point that does deserve attention: the manipulation of unemployment figures. "Stop counting unemployment and poverty in the statistics and there you go, problem solved," sums up a recurring thread. The suspicion that the unemployment rate is being dressed up by excluding those who have stopped looking for work or migrants in an irregular situation is not far-fetched. But from there to a deliberate plan of social engineering is a stretch that only empirical evidence can bridge.
Meanwhile, the official narrative keeps selling unemployment reductions as Sánchez's personal achievements. The question nobody answers with data is: how many of those new jobs are precarious, temporary or simply not counted? Until that is known, the conspiracy theory will have fertile ground.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (21 replies).
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