Madrid
Updated:
Save
“A gap is not simply a tension that is resolved by an agreement or a transaction, but rather a deep-seated rupture, a chronic wound for which there seems to be no healing.” The Philosopher’s Definition Daniel Innerarity qualifies the nature of the six social gaps, which are eating away at social cohesion, threatening unity and encouraging populism and totalitarianism in Spain, and which jordi sevilla dissects in his latest book ‘The Wounded Spain’. They are the gaps between rich and poor, between women and men, between young and old, between the rural world and the urban world, between ‘turbocapitalism’ and ‘retrocapitalism’ and between analog and digital.
It’s curious. The gaps that he points out are opening at a time when there seems to be more progress in all these areas.
The bar for society’s demands has been raised and what was previously seen as a challenge to achieve is now presented as a necessity. In Spain we are still inflamed with the territorial gap, but it is surprising that we have been so lax with all the gaps that have been opened along the way and that affect our families, our friends, our neighbors and ourselves much more directly. These gaps are not from the right or from the left, they should not be seen as a space for confrontation but as a problem to be solved. It is there where I collide with the political apparatus of the moment because those solutions can only be sought by agreeing and negotiating and we are not doing it.
What prevents reaching these basic consensuses in Spain?
We have experienced a process of strong polarization, which has also gone from top to bottom. The last state pact was that of Maastricht, to enter the euro, and this has been 30 years. Since then, a polarization has been fueled, which has gotten worse in recent years. We have to change the chip and stop being valued the insult and the ‘and you more’.
Spain continues to drag endemic problems: high unemployment, job insecurity, low wages…
In the book I talk about the existence of a dual business fabric, made up of large companies that have become internationalized and are capable of competing at any level, what I call ‘turbocapitalism’; and by a high number of small-sized companies that are only profitable if they make the labor market more precarious, what I call ‘retro-capitalism’. We have to understand this duality. If we want to increase investment in R&D, reduce job insecurity or raise wages, we have to make these companies grow in size and improve their situation.
Will it be achieved with European funds and the Recovery and Transformation Plan?
The EU’s response with the Next Generation is the most important step that has been taken for European unity since the euro. Here they have been seen as funds to promote economic recovery when in reality they are funds for a green and digital reconversion of the economy. I do not agree with the criticism of the plan. It is a country plan. The problem is that when you go through the sieve of the Administration bureaucracy, the public sector contracts law, etc., there is a risk that they end up being converted into another structural fund.
Another of the debates on the table is the fiscal debate. Should taxes be raised or lowered?
Our tax pressure is lower than that of the EU. All the reports also seem to agree that we have more tax fraud. The data shows that much of the difference in income with Europe is due to VAT. Now, do we have to raise the tax rates or rethink all the tax deductions that are in the tax system? If we want to have a high level of public services and everything indicates that we Spaniards want to have a high level of public services, we must pay more taxes. We must recover the social dignity of paying taxes.
In your book, do you, in fact, propose mandatory personal income tax for the entire population of working age?
Taxes are the toll we pay for living in civilization. There are thousands of people who do not make the Income Tax Declaration because they do not reach the minimum income to have the obligation to declare in the IRPF and that means, for example, that they do not have access to the tax reductions that are applied through that tax. . A mandatory income tax is a formula to integrate all people who are of working age into the system and would have facilitated, for example, the implementation of the Minimum Vital Income.
How do you see the issue of pensions?
I know that I am going to be blamed for saying this, but we have a very generous pension system if you take into account the small difference between the last salary and the first pension. Is it necessary to update all pensions, the highest and the lowest, with the CPI at a time when there is talk of an income agreement and sharing the sacrifices? I have my doubts.
www.abc.es
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism