You're positively unemployed

When I left work today I was too tired to stay at work or to go to the grocery store and buy food and then cook it, but it was too early for any self-respecting person who tries to fit in here to go for dinner. So I took a really long walk and checked in on my old neighborhood and tried not to dwell on what a wreck my class was today. (What the hell was I thinking yesterday? This isn't fun! It's hard and I blow at it.) My old apartment has an elevator now (I built a lot of character climbing up five very tall flights of stairs every day), and what used to be the vacant lot across the street is now modern mirror-y buildings that I'm pretty sure are entirely empty.

It doesn't feel like the third world here or anything, but the restaurants aren't very full. The few non-university-affiliated locals that I know are either unemployed or underemployed or stand a good chance of being laid off tomorrow. I know of at least three construction-boom airports that are entirely non-operational, and everyone is mad about this big new expensive 112 building (112 is Spanish for 911) that is mostly empty. It's not like I've moved to some kind of wasteland, but if you pay any attention you see the crisis everywhere.

The new government that was supposed to fix things promptly raised taxes (income tax here is over 50% for the richest people -- higher than in some Scandinavian countries) and froze (freezed?) salaries and hiring. I don't know people rich enough to hear much complaining about the tax increase, but people are super mad about the metro fare's increase. (A single ride costs 2 euros, which does seem like a lot, but if you buy ten at a time (which everyone does, except for tourists) it's less than a euro per trip.) The unemployment rate for young people (under 25) is almost 50%. It's not like moving to Egypt in 2010, but I'm very interested to see how this plays out.