Free-D

In the last few months nearly every conversation I’ve had with strangers has sooner or later come round to the “crisis” in housing. (There’s nothing quite as enjoyable as cornering a Salmantino and quizzing them mercilessly).

And of course the week before last saw those interminable queues for housing aid which the government has romised young folks who can’t afford the full price of renting a fl at. It seems everything is pointing to recession: rising prices, huge debts and unrealistic mortgages. It’s getting harder to “get by” – even if you’re relatively onservative in your budgeting. The question is “what can we do about it?” Well, in this case the problem isn’t so much fi nding an answer but rather that the answer isn’t much fun. Because it’s only in spending more realistically that Salmantinos and Europeans in general will fi nd long term security. I’m not saying that the present economic situation can be solved if you decide not to buy that third plasma television this year. Economics after all is a notoriously complex “science”.

The mainspring of capitalism has always been the creation of insatiability. But it’s a fundamentally self destructive desire – given the limited nature of the world and its resources. In England for example there has been a mania for property development; a seemingly endless source of wealth. Like many other miraculous equations for getting rich quick it worked for a limited time. But as a species we’re far more susceptible to greed than common sense and the boom in house prices has led to many at the shakier end of the property ladder taking a dive into economic free fall.

Houses shouldn’t be a luxury or a status symbol but a necessity. They are, however, necessities which are becoming increasingly hard to come by. None of us have much power over the economic state of things, except that of spending sensibly; but what about the government? Well it seems that Zapatero is at least considering the problem (although I’m not sure that handing out subsidies is a sensible, let alone sustainable idea). With the population of Spain booming (don’t blame the guiris; we only account for 4.7 % of Salamanca’s inhabitants) it’s obvious that what we need are councils who think creatively. What is essential in order to foster this are politicians whose goals aren’t always inextricably linked with the desire for growth at the expense of stability and sustainability. What we need, in other words, are politicians with common sense. Heaven help us.