u/OfCourseNot — OfCourseNot

I'm also in Europe, and the other commenter said theirs 'shipped out of the states' so I'm guessing they're not American either. I got it reserved as soon as it went up, so more likely that one day of difference in getting into the queue is the cause for the massive difference.

Quite good, so far. To be honest I haven't got around to game that much so I'm still to try it to its full potential, but I can already say that it's super nice and comfortable. If I had to I'd certainly wait until December to get it and not get carried away and buy another (like I was tempted to do), unless you need a controller sooner or see another one that you like better, idk.

Oh mate! I reserved it on May 8th, ordered June 6th, and it arrived on June 15th.

An organized, disciplined military is more effective at defending against an organized, disciplined military.

That's true. The thing is: defending what? The country? The government? The king? Going to war is trading my (relative) safety for theirs, and I've never been too fond of them really.

Defending myself and going to war sound like complete opposites to me.

Be my fucking guest! You and your children can go enlisting, I just have to do this thing and will be right behind you...

Remember that unemployment rate here counts only people inscribed in the unemployment services. I don't think half of them are working illegally, at best that would be a rounding error.

Downsizing the bureaucracy would take many years, since public servants 'cannot be fired' (bit of an oversimplification, but the reality in practice), and would take some strong political will, which we lack in Spain.

And about the armed forces, I know some ex-military that are _kinda_ left-leaning, but the average is absolutely right leaning (from straight up nazis, to 'apoliticals' that if you talk with them for a short while will let go some racist, homophobic, or generally reactionary comments very casually). And that's the rank and file, if you go to the higher ups you'll find, well, as many fascist as you can expect from a military that wasn't purged or rehabilitated after a fascist regime.

Even then, when a coup was attempted, the majority of the armed forces shut it down

Do you mean the coup that the king himself organized so he could stop it afterwards to come out as the hero that saved the day while also putting some fear in the population?? That coup d'état 'attempt'??

I don't think that's right. This other link (from another commenter in this thread), also euronews, says 47%. Anecdoticaly I get €1800 in my bank account every month, but cost my employer €3200.

Kinda tricky to compare taxes from one country to another.

Spain's budget is ~21% of its gdp (with >10% unemployment you can imagine how bad they fucking bleed us with taxes, the poor I mean, for the rich is the same as anywhere else), but more than half of it goes to pensions, and we have a huge ,dense, and expensive bureaucracy that takes a good chunk of the rest (I don't have numbers sorry).

So, I think you are right, there's just no more money: touching the pensions is political suicide (and very unfair), scaling down bureaucracy is just impossible, rising taxes would suffocate us (even more), taxing the rich is as much of a fairy tale as it is in any other country...

On top of that, if you read a history book you will see that the Spanish military is a much bigger threat for Spain than the Russian. I don't think it's in the best interest of the Spanish people to give them more money.

I am from a 'developed' EU country. The first three days of sick leave you get nothing (this accounts for the vast majority of ordinary leaves) then 60% of the 'regulatory base' (which takes out 'pluses' or 'bonuses' that in some trades/jobs make for a substantial part of the wage) till the 20th day from there 75% (again without those extras).

In 22 years of working I've not been paid one single sick day.

Wait, you Frenchies have 100% pay for ordinary sick leave??? I guess we'll have to get some hi viz vests and a handful of lighters over here.

Edit: is it just for civil servants? Do workers for private companies get a 100%?

Why is the word Israel, consistently through the whole site, between quotes?

You're not far off. We don't call it 'federal government' but in practice it's exactly that, in the same line that we call the prime minister 'presidente'.

We had fava beans in Europe I think. But add to that list peppers, turkey, tobacco...

More than the south sure. As a tourist you wouldn't have any difficulty getting directions or ordering at restaurants or things like that. Places where you can work effectively without any knowledge of the local language are more difficult to find. And those are the hardest countries to get in as a migrant.

Well in Germany there's a greater percentage of English speakers than in other European countries, I don't think there are many teams in Spain, Italy or France speaking in English.

I'm not in IT so my knowledge is not first hand but I do know that while there are jobs the competition is crazy, job offers for a single position or two get thousands of applications. For a company to hire someone on the other side of the pond op would have to _really_ stand out from the other thousand applicants.

I don't want to demoralize you just to be realistic. Those languages aren't getting you very far (maybe try in Ireland or malta), English proficiency in the eu isn't great. Also those fields you listed are super saturated.

When you say remote do you mean working from the states? A European wage with American CoL? I think many Americans think we're paid the same as them. We are not. A waiter in the us prolly makes more than a (medical) doctor or an engineer over here, and I'm not talking about fresh out of college.

Hotels, bars, restaurants in some touristy areas in Spain (east coast, Mallorca, Ibiza..) do hire native English speakers. Also teaching English as a second language. But I'm not sure you'll get many offers without being already here.

I think it is unlikely. The us is extremely expensive compared to Russia or China, like a janitor in an American weapon factory is probably better paid (in absolute terms, not taking into account cost of living or anything) that a top engineer in a Russian or Chinese one. I don't think they could afford them.

Well—2024, 2025—it does seem that there've been fewer shootings. But I can only average the 2024 total against two months, it's possible that January and February are just slower months. Maybe some people don't have money for bullets or even had to sell their guns to buy eggs for breakfast. Also the news and media are completely overloaded with Trump's (and company) bullshit 24/7.