On the "rigidity" of the Spanish pension system

Owner of The Huffington Post"The Netherlands teaches Spain a lesson on pensions and says goodbye to the guaranteed pension, paving the way for Europe." The subheading explains that benefits will be linked to financial markets—that is, workers will have to invest their contributions, to put it simply—and applauds this pragmatism as "a direct contrast to the rigidity of the Spanish pay-as-you-go system." I'm surprised (well, that's putting it mildly) that a media outlet belonging to Prisa would publish such a blatantly biased news story, so heavily slanted towards an ultraliberal position: if you want a good pension, you'll have to gamble it away. And you'd better be right, because you'll hardly convince the bank to be less rigid and charge you half your mortgage payment because the failure of a business you have no control over has wiped out your savings. I myself went to the Almendro bar to see if they'd let me get a couple of mangoes in exchange for my interpretation. a cappella ofThe condor passes And they have been strangely rigid in demanding that I pay the fixed price indicated on the sign.

The sustainability of the pension system is a concern, but before prescribing imported creative remedies, a very thorough analysis of the social reality of each place is necessary. Because the median gross monthly salary ranges between 3,875 and 4,000 euros, according to the Central Planning Bureau, while in Spain the figure is 2,001 euros, calculated by the INE (National Institute of Statistics). This flippant way of presenting it as "a lesson" may simply be part of the media outlet's sensationalist style, but it can also be interpreted as a campaign to make Spanish workers gradually accept, through narrative, that the guaranteed pension is not an acquired right (and basic social coverage), but rather a gracious concession from the markets.