Spanish views from a small town

Yesterday was another blue day. Now that the days are getting shorter and cooler, they appear more often. The day goes by without anything catcing my attention, or simply too tired to think about anything, doing things automatically.  But today I was thinking about a news blurb from last week. Geneva now has the highest minimum salary in the world, voted in by a majority of citizens of its canton, roughly $25 an hour (around $4,000 a month). I wouldn't mind moving to Geneva now and working at a minimum wage job. The Spanish national minimum wage is about €950 ($1,100) a month. In some American cities, it's been raised to $15 an hour. One of the major differences is that Geneva is one of the most expensive cities in the world. Things cost a lot more there than they do in the majority of Spain. Americans might also think it's much more expensive to live in Switzerland, but not so fast. On the list of most expensive cities in the world, New York came out fourth, after the thre...

Ah, the beginning of a new year. And new rates. After a month of people spending mostly what they don't have, January appears with higher rates in everything from electricity to bus rides. Except this year. Since general elections were last month, and there still looms the danger of a second election round if a government is not formed, rates have actually gone down this January 1st. Of course, most of that downward movement is so slight as to be almost negligible. But it does make for happy headlines. The electricity bill is going down 0.7% and the butane distributed in rural areas 0.6%. The turnpikes are also mostly going down around 0.6%. Buses, subways, and trains are not changing. They're expensive enough already. One trip on the subway in Madrid already costs €1.50 for up to five stations, with a maximum of €2.00 for nine stations or more. Some more good news is for those who work in the public sector. Their salaries are going up 1%! Wow! And those who earn minimum wa...