Spain's Economic Crisis and Us

I should clarify that the reason I have paid attention to all this political madness and economic downfall is because Pablo is a government worker and all of these cuts affect government workers.
One of the reasons for me moving here was because Pablo had a secure job, meaning that if you are a government worker in Spain you can't get fired. Your job is more or less secure, with a decent wage and many benefits. So in 2009, right as the crisis hit and I ended up losing my job, we both figured that because Pablo's job is secure, and we don't know how long this crisis will last, I'll move to Spain. Little did we know that his income and benefits would be cut yearly, taxes would increase, and we'd end up here today with another giant pay cut in our future. 
Before all this madness, getting a government job in Spain was great, you were secure and lived a pretty good life, probably most of the time working very little.
Spain has many more government workers than the United States and I'm thinking part of this might be the problem. Along with the typical; post officer workers, and all those other government branches, the list includes firefighters, teachers, medical professionals and police officers (I'm sure there are more but I don't know them all).
Now it is a daily occurrence for some sort of government worker protest in the streets of Madrid. Pablo has participated in two so far.
Today I got an email from the U.S. consulate here in Madrid warning me about another protest scheduled for today

Embassy of the United States of America

Madrid, Spain

 

Security Message for U.S. Citizens: Planned Demonstrations

July 19, 2012

This Security Message is to inform U.S citizens that Civil Servant protests are scheduled to take place on July 19 in Madrid and Barcelona.  If you encounter a large public gathering or demonstration, the U.S. Embassy suggests that you avoid the area.  Planned and spontaneous demonstrations in response to economic or other events occur regularly in Spain.  Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational.  U.S. citizens are therefore urged to avoid the areas of demonstrations if possible, and to exercise caution if within the vicinity of any demonstrations.

I've never got an email from the Consulate even though I'm registered and on the email list. At first I thought we were at war! HA HA!

I do have to agree with the President and his comments yesterday when he said Spain has to make cuts because if we don't Spain will never get out of this madness. True. He also said that he had to make cuts that were bad and really, really bad, there was nothing good about it. True. The past socialist government screwed us for way to long and now we all have to pay, some more than others and it sucks.You just wish that these political figures would feel the affects of these cuts a lot more than the lower/middle class. When you have to, maybe, cut out luxury vacations, high end shopping sprees and nightly dinner reservations, you aren't suffering that much. Politicians get paid a lot and even though their mismanagement caused this mess, they won't suffer too much.

Another way we are affected by this madness is the fact that the Spanish government is Pablo's boss and right now that is not a good thing and here is why:
A month ago Pablo's job was eliminated due to budget cuts. The way it was eliminated just illustrated, once again, the government as an unorganized, mismanaged, pile of people running around with their heads cut off.
The cuts seem to be the result of the minister in charge, who needed to cut his budget, having a few too many drinks one Friday night and decided to show his power. With a snap of his finger, he eliminated 600 police positions effective the following Tuesday.
Now, lets see Señor Minister of who knows what, "what do we do with these 600 police officers?"
Señor Minister; "no comment". (probably thinking, not my problem, but hey boss I cut my budget! Time to celebrate with another drink!)
Pablo and his co-workers and bosses were thrown into chaos. No one knew what was happening, where they were going, when they were going, nothing. They showed up to work Monday and were informed their jobs were eliminated.
Now, as I stated above being a government worker you can't be fired so Pablo wasn't fired, he is still getting paid, we think! But his world was turned upside down and it really made him mad. There was no organization and no respect for these officers who could do nothing but sit by the phone and wait for someone to figure out what to do with them. They all have families, schedules, routines and no one bothered to respect any of that. They weren't treated like people but expenses that had to be cut and that is what really bothered Pablo.
A month has now passed and we are still unsure of Pablo's future. It is just an added stress to the many others that have come to us in the last few weeks. Plus, with a baby on board you can only imagine, mommy has had a few emotional breakdowns!
But if you learn one thing living in Spain you have to go with the flow. And if you are a government worker you have no control over anything, the government controls you and when they are running around like locos, you wait even more.
So with all of this I think we deserve a much needed vacation. We are shipping off the kids to the grandparents and camp and are escaping to the great United States of America. A place where the political problems don't really bother me, they rarely cover anything on Spain so I don't have to see it daily and we can relax and forget our problems.
And Seattle is about 30 degrees cooler than here so we both can't wait!