Live News From Spain As It Happens

Scottie said:
Saturday, February 16, 2013 @ 7:05 PM

Isn't it just so amusing, ha, ha, ha, how big money can make a country's laws stand on their head!

Some American Big Bucks guy wants to grease his way into a deprived region of recession-hit Spain so he can make even more money for himself (is there EVER any other reason?), whilst promising huge benefits for the local community.

The price for all these wonderful benefits to Spain? The inexcusable and unbelievable demands for actual changes to THE LAW to be made (!) so that overseas workers are allowed to be brought in - at lower costs than paying statutory wages plus associated costs for local Spanish employees; working hours rules thrown away; Health & Safety rules abandoned (or, more quaintly, “relaxed” – what a nice, reassuringly different word to use!) so that visiting non-smokers and children will have to inhale smokers' fumes (as will the staff, whose resulting health problems will have to be paid for by Spain, not by Mr. Big Bucks); an agreement that NO TAXES (Property, Income and Gambling) are EVER to be paid into the Spanish economy; demands to allow under-18s to “pass through” the gambling areas (how on earth do OTHER casinos around the world manage to find a way around this problem? Simple – amend the design!), and very considerately, officially allowing gambling addicts to spend a few Centimos there, when a law currently exists banning such action – presumably for very good, well-documented, socially beneficial reasons.

CHANGE THE LAW? What kind of idiots do these people think are running the country? Would the good old U.S. of A. start chucking away its much-celebrated laws - including extremely “relaxed” (that word again) gun controls - in exchange for European businesses setting-up there, tax-free? Somehow I doubt it!

A certain Mr. Trump of the U.S.A. found out recently that despite the high volume of noise his money (and his mouth) were making in Scotland when he wanted to install a golf course there, (“Give that man a job” was his way of buying-off any (non-job-seeking) opponents), the locals and the politicians WEREN’T for turning just to accommodate his further self-enrichment. This despite some inevitable disadvantages to the community but, very commendably, for the right reasons overall.

If ever an example was wanted of just how selfishly the business model of Corporate America works in reality, then here it is for everyone to see! And once you let one Mr. Big Bucks come in and change the rules to suit himself, you might as well put up signs saying, (in English) “Spain For Sale – Cheap! All Offers Accepted”.