miguelxt

There seems to be no way of changing the WPM setting after startup.

To say they were "privately owned" doesn't sound right. Cajas de ahorros had no shareholders so profits were not distributed to any "private owner". Leaders and executives of the Cajas were appointed by a mix of local councils, unions, autonomous regions, and other non-private organizations. Juridically, they were "private organizations", but factually, they were just a form of state-owned company, as it was the municipalities and regions that made the important governing decisions.

Why not compare it to the DR? Neighbor right next door with similar demographics to Cuba but closer economic and political system to that of the US.

Not doubt the embargo has done some damage to the wellbeing of the island, but the self imposed economic system makes things far worse.

We do agree. The desired objective of the regulations I mentioned is good. It's a good thing to have some stability as a renter, to not be kicked out and on the streets if you have children and cannot pay the rent, or that yearly rent increases are small enough that renters don't feel asfixiated.

However, we should not only consider the stated objective of the law but the real consequences of them. My point is, housing and rents are quite regulated in Spain. More regulation is being added every year as it serves the political and electoral objectives of our leaders, yet the situation is getting worse. Regulation detached from practical realities will fail to reach the desired objectives.

Cities that have almost completely banned Airbnb (e.g.: NYC) have not seen any improvement on affordability. What's next?

Housing and rent are already heavily regulated in Spain. Some regulations and side effects of those regulations:

  * Minimum contract length of 5 years. 
  * Maximum increase of rental per year regulated to 2/3% (even during high inflation years).
  * It can take years to evict a non-paying tenant. If there are children in the apartment, it's even harder. 
  * Even if the tenant is not paying, you, the landlord, have to keep paying the utilities, because if you stop paying, you'll be charged with "coacciones".
  * If the landlord is not a person but a company, regulation is even harder. 
  * In some cities like Barcelona, regulation goes beyond. Maximum prices set by the local government, seasonal contracts banned, and even room rentals regulated.
  * And all that is not going into detail of the "Okupa" problem.

In Costa Rica, they don't even use street names. For instance, "50 meters down the old store, with a green door" is a valid address.

Gift link: https://www.wsj.com/economy/federal-budget-fiscal-2025-e8d21...

https://archive.is/8UOIg

While I do agree with your opinion, I think the opposite is also true. It feels good to believe you didn't get there because "The game is rigged", "You have to be born lucky", "The house always wins", etc, etc. This defeatist/powerless way of thinking may in fact make it worse for you. When hope is lost, what's left?

I think you and the parent comment are confusing the term "liberal". He refers to "liberal" in the classical sense: free markets, limited government, rule of law, etc. You mean "liberal" in the North American sense: lefty, social justice, etc.

You are disregarding supply and demand because it's not a 100% bullet-proof model that can predict all price movements in all markets, times, places, or any combination of factors, and at the same time are introducing your own imperfect models and formulations:

For example: more supply can generate more demand. Demand can be inflexible with respect to supply. Supply and demand are unstable and can change unpredictably. In a monopoly situation price can be manipulated. Short term large supply can hamper long term.

Any model that tries to predict human behaviour will be imperfect, we all know that.

There is hardly a monopoly of housing in Spain, if we keep the current disconnection between supply and demand, prices will for sure keep increasing. There is evidence that building more reduces prices. It's not the only condition needed to reduce prices, but it's an important one:

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/housing/study-says-boosting-h... https://www.upjohn.org/research-highlights/new-construction-...

Hard banning Airbnbs will for sure push long-term rent prices down, but not by an amount enough to make them affordable. We already have evidence from cities with active bans. Prices in NYC or Lisbon have not come down significantly.

We still have to wait a few years to see the real effect that bans have on prices. Lowering prices at most 3-5% by banning Airbnb won't make anybody happy and will come with some negative effects like reduced tourism (and other economic activity), which is a very important part of Spain's GDP.

The fundamental issue cannot be ignored: supply and demand. Spain population has increased by 2 million in just 2 years, far outpacing residential construction. Right now, the system excludes those who cannot afford the ever-increasing rents. Rent control, although well-intentioned and a very popular policy, has numerous negative effects supported by a variety of studies both in Spain and abroad. Rent control or any other alternate system to allocate the scarce units will leave many without access to housing.

The solution, IMHO, building more, could be theoretically be championed by the State, but with ever-increasing construction costs, regulation, taxes on everything, scarcity of land in big cities, and pensions entitlements, where will the money come from? It's not cheap to build with the quality standards that we all desire everyone to have.

Building co-ops like those that exist in Vienna do exist in Spain, but they are not a panacea, the same problems that a State-run initiative has will apply.

What do you mean at taxpayer expense? Spanish's National Lottery is one of the few State-run enterprises that returns real money to the taxpayer.

Another hit from Neal. I wonder (and envy, in a good way) where does he gets the time to work and all this wonderful little games.

Not exactly easy to fire someone (even with reason) in some EU countries due to (in some cases very needed) regulation.

It may be overblown by media, sure, let's say we agree on that, but I know of at least 3 cases of very close people that have suffered the issue in the last 3 years alone. It may be my social bubble, but I don't think it's a completely fabricated matter.

No, it's not.

It does not mean you have the right to live in a flat en La Castellana for whatever you want pay. It means the State has to implement policies to help people access housing.

Also, article 33 give citizens the right to private property. You cannot come squat in my house because article 33 should prevent it, even when article 47 exists.

Homicide is also NOT an issue in the daily life Spanish citizens, that doesn't prevent it from being a big problem for anyone who suffers the problem.

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You should be allowed to stay inside Apple's walled garden while the rest of users should be allowed to leave it whenever they want (at the very minimum at their own risk).

Spotify does not get that money. The general EU budget does.

Fines imposed on undertakings found in breach of EU antitrust rules are paid into the general EU budget. This money is not earmarked for particular expenses, but Member States' contributions to the EU budget for the following year are reduced accordingly. The fines therefore help to finance the EU and reduce the burden for taxpayers.

https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/index/fines_en

Not mandatory to use the Shadow DOM. And you can easily add public methods to the component for external interaction.

Amazing idea. It would be nice to have a filter by language.

Those are very nice shots, but... did you considered the local laws before flying them in city centers? From where I am (Spain) it's a big no no to fly one over any even sparsely populated area. It's forbidden (AKA requiring lots of permits) even if you are not flying over people (like in the Thames) or the drone is less than 250g.

What austerity? In Spain’s case, both debt to GDP and tax revenue to GDP ratios has been increasing since a decade ago. That’s the contrary of austerity.

I guess you can implement them however works for you and your team. I have personally implemented them in various way: depending on the date, on the client IP address, on an env var, on a logged user id, etc etc.

The €3 million one is a new "temporary" tax since this year from the central goverment. "Impuesto al patrimonio" has existed for long and it depends on where in Spain you live. It's not applied in the region of Madrid, and the it kicks from a net worth of €400k in Aragón. In all regions your main residence is exempted.

For a net worth of €4m, you'll pay €60k in Aragón to €22k in Vizcaya to €0 in Madrid.

As a counterpoint, please consider Spain is the only EU country to not have recovered the pre pandemic GDP in real terms. Growth in 2022 has been great, but mostly in the first semester, it was almost null in the second. It's the EU country with most unemployment. There is a lot of things to be happy about from Spain, but the economy is nothing to brag about.