What would you do with €1 billion? Most would leave Spain
Faced with €1 billion, most people would choose to leave Spain. Luxury, passive income or exile: the dream of escaping reveals a structural discontent.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
What would you do with €1 billion: diagnosing a collective fantasy
A stroke of luck worth a billion euros, and the first reaction, almost unanimous, is to leave Spain. It's not about the luxury, the travel or the properties: what the snap answers of those imagining that sum reveal is a structural discontent with the country. There's no consensus on the destination —Japan, Benidorm, Eastern Europe— but there is on the direction: out.
Exile as the first instinct
Reading the answers to that €1 billion question reveals a repeated pattern: leaving Spain is step number one. Whether it's Japan for dark skies and martial arts, Benidorm as a hedonistic base of operations, or Eastern Europe by first-class train surrounded by luxury, the priority is changing countries. Even those who would stay add the caveat "as long as I buy a huge flat in Benidorm", as if simply being in Spain required some kind of property compensation.
Investing or splurging: two souls
Two camps clash. One bets on spending without limits: travel, restaurants, high-end company, assorted pleasures. The other, more cautious, prefers not to work and to buy flats to rent out, live off passive income and, while they're at it, help out a friend trapped in Ukraine. Both share a rejection of conventional working life. The figure of the rentier who never sets foot in an office emerges as the great aspiration — some point out that €2 or 3 million is enough to retire.
The shadow of the tax office
Some say it bluntly: "Anything but staying in Spain, so I don't give a single cent to Hacienda" (Spain's tax authority). Tax avoidance isn't hidden; it's part of the plan. And at the other extreme, sarcasm: buying a referee to favour Argentina at the World Cup, or renting instead of buying because "we rich people rent". The mix of fantasy, irony and cynicism portrays a society that, faced with hypothetical absolute wealth, would pack its bags first.
Perhaps the most revealing thing of all is that, deep down, the question isn't about money, but about what's missing here. And the most honest answer is a door slammed shut.
A stroke of luck worth a billion euros, and the first reaction, almost unanimous, is to leave Spain. It's not about the luxury, the travel or the properties: what the snap answers of those imagining that sum reveal is a structural discontent with the country. There's no consensus on the destination —Japan, Benidorm, Eastern Europe— but there is on the direction: out.
Exile as the first instinct
Reading the answers to that €1 billion question reveals a repeated pattern: leaving Spain is step number one. Whether it's Japan for dark skies and martial arts, Benidorm as a hedonistic base of operations, or Eastern Europe by first-class train surrounded by luxury, the priority is changing countries. Even those who would stay add the caveat "as long as I buy a huge flat in Benidorm", as if simply being in Spain required some kind of property compensation.
Investing or splurging: two souls
Two camps clash. One bets on spending without limits: travel, restaurants, high-end company, assorted pleasures. The other, more cautious, prefers not to work and to buy flats to rent out, live off passive income and, while they're at it, help out a friend trapped in Ukraine. Both share a rejection of conventional working life. The figure of the rentier who never sets foot in an office emerges as the great aspiration — some point out that €2 or 3 million is enough to retire.
The shadow of the tax office
Some say it bluntly: "Anything but staying in Spain, so I don't give a single cent to Hacienda" (Spain's tax authority). Tax avoidance isn't hidden; it's part of the plan. And at the other extreme, sarcasm: buying a referee to favour Argentina at the World Cup, or renting instead of buying because "we rich people rent". The mix of fantasy, irony and cynicism portrays a society that, faced with hypothetical absolute wealth, would pack its bags first.
Perhaps the most revealing thing of all is that, deep down, the question isn't about money, but about what's missing here. And the most honest answer is a door slammed shut.
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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 (51 replies).
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