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Yea but it doesnt have the same effect than real winters do.
This is how raods look after the soil has frozen in the winter:
Such cracks are produced by the density difference in the road platform. Ice may widen, but not cause it. When the road platform was built which is performed by pressing the sand, was pressed over one of its parts. When rain and circulate cars less dense part was compacted doing their level come down a couple of inches, causing the crack.
This is because there are two types of roads: Porous and non-porous. Porous have better grip and more secure but are extremely sensitive to ice. These roads also have a high maintenance cost because they are damaged faster with use. You can find these roads on the south coast of Spain and Italy. The nonporous are built in areas prone to frost and do not let water penetrate through them and thus cracking caused by ice is avoided.
As I said the ice worsens the cracks caused by faults pressure. Also said that the more probable precipitation in a zone more probable pressure cracks appear because the adjoining land "moves".
I streetviewed the most rural, desolate parts of Spain just now, and it's the same story as in the very rural UK. They have gravel roads in Spain, but so does every single country in the world where the population density is extremely low. Spain's rural single lane highways are most likely in far better condition than ours.
Most rural, desolate and unhabited areas in Spain have good roads. Expressways are very good and Spain has the most important cronstruction companies in the world (Panama Channel).
Nice, that's something I hadn't put much thought on and turns out it makes sense. Spain is indeed very big on multinational companies and foreign investment.
Would it be correct to say that Spain is a rich country with poor people? I mean, certainly the government does take a lot of advantage from the multinational companies in the form of taxes, which is probably invested in infrasctructure and making Spain look "very nice" and providing its citizens good public services.
Because one thing I know is that the average Spaniard doesn't benefit that much from working in those companies. I have friends that work in Zara and Mango and their salaries are very low, they would definitely qualify as "mileuristas".
Also and Industrial country, around the 12th industrial power in the world.
Most people are not milieuristas, milieuristas are just like the people in the US that work for the minimum.
Spain is not a wealthy country. It could be compared to South Korea or Israel. This does not mean that these countries are poor. They are first world nations but Spain is one of the poorest first world nations. The unemployment in Spain is mostly centralized among people born in the 1980s and 1990s and not to the general population. This is a huge issue in Europe right now – how to reduce the unemployment level among the young. There are a lot of unemployed college graduates in Spain. Many are moving to Germany, United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland, Austria but also Canada and Australia. I have friends from Spain which has left for Australia. It is people in their late twenties with university education. They say there is little future in Spain. Countries like Italy, Portugal and Greece or also a financial mess and have a very high unemployment rate among youth.
Spain has the thirteenth-largest economy by nominal GDP in the world, and sixteenth-largest by purchasing power parity. The Spanish economy is the fifth-largest in the European Union, and the fourth-largest in the Eurozone, based on nominal GDP statistics. In 2012, Spain was the eighteenth-largest exporter in the world and the sixteenth-largest importer.
Rank Country/Region GDP (Millions of US$)
World 72,689,734
1 United States 16,244,600
2 China 8,358,400
3 Japan 5,960,180
4 Germany 3,425,956
5 France 2,611,221
6 United Kingdom 2,471,600
7 Brazil 2,254,109
8 Russia 2,029,812
9 Italy 2,013,392
10 India 1,875,213
11 Canada 1,721,445
12 Australia 1,584,419
13 Spain 1,322,126
But just at the beginning of the brick bubble crisis, now definitively over, Spain overtook Italy and was about to overtake UK...so it will probably happens in a few years. A large country with good weather and lots of empty land located in western Europe, the main investor in LatAm with a reduced population, the country wll be the new California as people leave the rust belt (and freezing belt) behind.
[quote=Miserere;37461904]Rank Country/Region GDP (Millions of US$)
World 72,689,734
1 United States 16,244,600
2 China 8,358,400
3 Japan 5,960,180
4 Germany 3,425,956
5 France 2,611,221
6 United Kingdom 2,471,600
7 Brazil 2,254,109
8 Russia 2,029,812
9 Italy 2,013,392
10 India 1,875,213
11 Canada 1,721,445
12 Australia 1,584,419
13 Spain 1,322,126
But just at the beginning of the brick bubble crisis, now definitively over, Spain overtook Italy and was about to overtake UK...so it will probably happens in a few years. A large country with good weather and lots of empty land located in western Europe, the main investor in LatAm with a reduced population, the country wll be the new California as people leave the rust belt (and freezing belt) behind.
A similar phenomena happened in the US, as all the rust belt was abandoned for places with better weather, unions and better conditions...Plus Spain in Energy Independent from Russians, leader in alternate energy and with the language with more speakers in the world.
This is something I've been wondering for a while... Spain has all the characteristics that of wealthy country but at the same time it deals with a staggering 25% unemployment rate which equals to those of third world countries.
Also, it has a lot of factors that usually make economies less productive like MANY people in short-term jobs, a large black market and low salaries (From my impressions it seems that the salary of most people in Spain is just around 1000 euros a month, feel free to correct me if i'm wrong)
So my question is, how can Spain still manage to keep a functioning society and all the appearances of a first world country with so many people out of work and so many people dependent on unstable short-term jobs?
Where does Spain's wealth come from?
Exploiting cheap labour in order to export. Neomercantilism.
Exploiting cheap labour in order to export. Neomercantilism.
Compared to Romania and Bulgaria, Spain isn't cheap labor by any means, especially since Spain has more worker regulations than both Romania and Bulgaria, which just follow the EU minimums I would guess.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Miserere
Rank Country/Region GDP (Millions of US$)
World 72,689,734
1 United States 16,244,600
2 China 8,358,400
3 Japan 5,960,180
4 Germany 3,425,956
5 France 2,611,221
6 United Kingdom 2,471,600
7 Brazil 2,254,109
8 Russia 2,029,812
9 Italy 2,013,392
10 India 1,875,213
11 Canada 1,721,445
12 Australia 1,584,419
13 Spain 1,322,126
But just at the beginning of the brick bubble crisis, now definitively over, Spain overtook Italy and was about to overtake UK...so it will probably happens in a few years. A large country with good weather and lots of empty land located in western Europe, the main investor in LatAm with a reduced population, the country wll be the new California as people leave the rust belt (and freezing belt) behind.
Now if Spain doesn't rely on construction again to fuel it's growth, it cna stay ahead. Spain needs to do what Florida did 30 years ago, and stop relying on tourism and tourism related industries (including residential construction) to have a viable economy. Spain has a lot of smart people out of work. Government needs to tap into that underused resource instead of helping to produce a brain drain
My post was not very clear. I meant:
- Spain is not wealthy
- GDP growth is based on exports, while domestic demand is very depressed
- real unit labour costs have decreased dramatically
this kind of economic model (typical of all the eurozone) can be defined as Neomercantilistic.
see charts: trade balance, current account balance, real unit labour costs.
I agree that a viable economy must be based on higher domestic demand, rather than relying on current accounts.
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