Spanish Forum Debates: Should Wages Be Doubled to Fix Purchasing Power?
A viral thread on Burbuja.info questions if doubling salaries is viable or inflationary, analyzing purchasing power decline since 1990 and Spain's economic model.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Duplicating Wages? The Debate Dividing Burbuja.info
In 1990, 5,000 pesetas filled your shopping cart. Today, you need 500 euros, nearly 90,000 pesetas. This is the fuel igniting one of the most viral threads in Burbuja.info's Economics forum: "Why do you refuse to acknowledge that we must DOUBLE THE SALARIES?"
User CUATERBAC peine fire with a devastating argument: the average Spaniard's purchasing power has plummeted, and the solution is to multiply all salaries by two. However, the forum, as expected, has not made it easy.
The diagnosis no one disputes: purchasing power is on the floor
The thread's starting point is almost unanimous: the Spanish worker is paid worse than thirty years ago in real terms. CUATERBAC illustrates this with common-sense data: "Before, your father bought a new-build apartment in a provincial capital and paid for it with a year and a half of his salary, and now they charge you for that same aluminum-clad, shoddy apartment amounts that before only hit you in the lottery."
Several forum members support this diagnosis, although they nuance the causes. Chitta, one of the sharpest users in the thread, summarizes it thus: "Salary is not a magic number: it comes from what an economy produces, how it is distributed, and how much labor competition you allow." No one denies that purchasing power has evaporated, but the remedies diverge.
The productivity wall: why doubling is not so simple
The forum's majority response is a splash of economic realism. "Because we live off tourism and exporting VERY cheaply. Exactly what kills raising salaries," writes Certificador. The argument repeats like hammering: Spain does not have Germany or Belgium's productive structure, and doubling salaries by decree without doubling added value would only generate inflation, business closures, and more underground economy.
"The best solution would be to cut current pensions and make social security contributions fully to the salary without paying IRPF," adds El centinela, who proposes a scalpel to the public sector as a lever to raise private salaries. Others, like esforzado, ridicule the idea: "If you find capital so unfair and unnecessary, don't be a hypocrite and live with what you have."
The debate reaches its peak when CUATERBAC retorts: "Why is the shopping basket cheaper in countries that pay triple what you do? I brought chocolate pills from Vienna cheaper than those from Mercarbonmer." Raul83's response is blunt: "That's a lie. You just made it up."
The thread, with 221 responses over 23 days, has not reached a consensus. The uncomfortable question remains in the air: is it possible to double salaries without blowing up the economy, or is the problem that Spain's productive model cannot deliver more? Meanwhile, CUATERBAC continues to drop truths like punches and harvest insults. And the forum, as always, leaves no one indifferent.
Related debates in the forum
In 1990, 5,000 pesetas filled your shopping cart. Today, you need 500 euros, nearly 90,000 pesetas. This is the fuel igniting one of the most viral threads in Burbuja.info's Economics forum: "Why do you refuse to acknowledge that we must DOUBLE THE SALARIES?"
User CUATERBAC peine fire with a devastating argument: the average Spaniard's purchasing power has plummeted, and the solution is to multiply all salaries by two. However, the forum, as expected, has not made it easy.
The diagnosis no one disputes: purchasing power is on the floor
The thread's starting point is almost unanimous: the Spanish worker is paid worse than thirty years ago in real terms. CUATERBAC illustrates this with common-sense data: "Before, your father bought a new-build apartment in a provincial capital and paid for it with a year and a half of his salary, and now they charge you for that same aluminum-clad, shoddy apartment amounts that before only hit you in the lottery."
Several forum members support this diagnosis, although they nuance the causes. Chitta, one of the sharpest users in the thread, summarizes it thus: "Salary is not a magic number: it comes from what an economy produces, how it is distributed, and how much labor competition you allow." No one denies that purchasing power has evaporated, but the remedies diverge.
The productivity wall: why doubling is not so simple
The forum's majority response is a splash of economic realism. "Because we live off tourism and exporting VERY cheaply. Exactly what kills raising salaries," writes Certificador. The argument repeats like hammering: Spain does not have Germany or Belgium's productive structure, and doubling salaries by decree without doubling added value would only generate inflation, business closures, and more underground economy.
"The best solution would be to cut current pensions and make social security contributions fully to the salary without paying IRPF," adds El centinela, who proposes a scalpel to the public sector as a lever to raise private salaries. Others, like esforzado, ridicule the idea: "If you find capital so unfair and unnecessary, don't be a hypocrite and live with what you have."
The debate reaches its peak when CUATERBAC retorts: "Why is the shopping basket cheaper in countries that pay triple what you do? I brought chocolate pills from Vienna cheaper than those from Mercarbonmer." Raul83's response is blunt: "That's a lie. You just made it up."
The thread, with 221 responses over 23 days, has not reached a consensus. The uncomfortable question remains in the air: is it possible to double salaries without blowing up the economy, or is the problem that Spain's productive model cannot deliver more? Meanwhile, CUATERBAC continues to drop truths like punches and harvest insults. And the forum, as always, leaves no one indifferent.
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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 (237 replies).
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