Jun
14
The American Dream vs Spanish Reality
A lot of stuff has been swirling around in my head of late, most of it job-related, that I’ve had a hard time getting a handle on it.
Earlier this week the European Union announced that it had reached an agreement to raise the work week to 65 hours, to the consternation of Spain’s employment officials. Despite the fact that the average Spanish work week is longer than some other European countries, like France, Spain is almost at the bottom of the list for worker productivity in the European Union. Obviously more hours spent at work doesn’t lead to greater productivity. No surprise there.
Later I read a blog entry in a Spanish newspaper bemoaning the fact that an Ecuadorian immigrant had to work two jobs to make ends meet, as though that was something to be pitied and not applauded. Don’t the Spanish want immigrants to be gainfully employed?
Then I heard about an opinion piece in El Mundo where the author compared two visions of the job market from American and Spanish perspectives. He compared two movies — The Pursuit of Happyness, starring Will Smith, and Los lunes al sol, starring Javier Bardem.
In the “Pursuit of Happyness,” Smith is a homeless single dad who, against all odds, pulls himself out of poverty and eventually becomes a millionaire.
“Los lunes al sol” features Bardem as part of a group of out-of-work shipyard workers who sit around a bar all day bemoaning their station in life.
In the Pursuit of Happyness, Smith’s character tells his son to never allow anybody, not even him, to tell him he can’t achieve greatness.
Meanwhile, in “Los lunes al sol,” Bardem’s character tells his son that the hardworking ant is a “hijo de puta.”
I haven’t seen either movie but based on the brief descriptions, I know which one I’d rather see, and it has nothing to do with my nationality. (Although I will admit that the scene with Bardem is rather funny.)
The El Mundo op-ed piece has been mentioned on some Spanish-language blogs and web sites and, as always, it’s been fascinating and amusing to read (or hear) the opinions of Spaniards whenever these kinds of comparisons between American and Spanish societies are made. The typical knee-jerk reaction (that the Will Smith movie is pure Hollywood fantasy, despite the fact that it is based on a true story, and that the American reality is that black Americans don’t have a chance to succeed) combined with this belief that the Spanish “reality” is more satisfying than the American “dream” is pretty clueless. Carl over at the LA-Madrid Files blogged about this a few months back and made some good points.
The truth is is that “reality” is subjective since “reality” is what one chooses to see and chooses to believe in. So the “reality” presented in the Bardem movie is just another way of viewing the world. It’s no more real nor more valid than the perspective of Will Smith’s character, but it is way more depressing.
The grand difference between American and Spanish societies is that in Spain it’s socially acceptable to be pessimistic and negative. In fact, people proudly wear their skepticism and disdain like a badge of honor. Meanwhile in the U.S. we’re indoctrinated with mantras and platitudes like “look for the silver lining,” “when life serves you lemons, make lemonade”, “a loser never wins and a winner never quits,” etc. One of the best all-time marketing slogans ever created sums up the American work ethic in three little words: “Just Do It.”
There are many Spaniards who find this type of thinking infantil and naive. But for me, when given a choice between optimism (believing that anything is possible) or pessimism (nothing is ever going to change, so why bother?), I’ll take a huge helping of optimism with a side of faith, thank you very much.
What a fantastic post!
I had a wonderful Portuguese Literature professor who talked about how myths were actually rather important for a society to have. He said that many Brazilians believe in the myth that Brazil is not a racist country when it is. The reason this was good was because it helped many Brazilians to be much less racist than they would have been otherwise, or even racially colorblind.
Similarly, he said that many Americans believe that if they work hard they will succeed in life. This is also a myth but my professor found it to be positive because many Americans are much more successful than they would be otherwise because they work hard and succeed, sometimes achieving true greatness.
Most human beings barely scratch the surface of their true potential. Nelson Mandela, Helen Keller, Andrew Carnegie, Martin Luther, Soichiro Honda, Mahatma Ghandi and many other people are living proof of this. The pessimist may respond by saying that we can’t all be as influential as Ghandi or rich as Honda but what if we could achieve half of what they did, or a quarter of what they did, or even a tenth of what they did? Would that not also be success?
Sorry, your post hit a nerve. I didn’t mean to ramble on as much as I did. Thanks again for posting.
Wow! Got passion? I’m afraid we all know that the EU can no longer afford to provide the benefits that they have been giving so they have to start taking them away.
Of course, it is hard to blame the Spanish for not being too crazy about this. They got comfortable knowing that if you just did your simple (fijo) job, you would be taken care of. You would get a piso, be able to feed the family, and get retirement. Unfortunately, this will no longer be the case. Americans have been prepared for a long time to take care of themselves. For example, nobody seriously thinks Social Security will actually provide for us in our old age. You have to save for yourself.
And I think that it is absolutely true that Americans believe they can succeed big if they work hard – and work smart. This has been proven over and over. It seems to me Spain historically has been more “class like”. If you were not already rich, you never were going to be. I think this has changed in Spain too. I see a lot of Chinese guys in Lavapies driving around in their BMW’s.
Side note: They actually said Black Americans don’t have a chance to succeed? Did anyone notice Barack?
@Ryan, you can “ramble” anytime! Your comments always have depth.
@Carl, yes, you hit the nail on the head, dependence vs. independence and how that plays out in U.S. and Spanish societies.
Regarding the comments about black Americans, many Spaniards have an image of the U.S. that is stuck in the Jim Crow-era. Sad but true.
And regarding those Chinese guys you’ve seen tooling around in their BMWs, even if they have Spanish nationality, they probably haven’t been fully indoctrinated. Chinese people in Spain are still viewed as “other” and not really as “fully Spanish,” even if they were born and raised in Spain. I’m sure that will change but right now, based on what I’ve seen, Spain is like the U.S. in the 1950s, enjoying a moment of prosperity and not fully understanding the seismic changes that are happening right under its feet. It’s time for a civil rights movement. “The revolution will not be televised.” –Gil Scott-Heron
Woa! *blinks* Are you guys really saying that you think a 65 hour working week is a good thing? Don’t you have families or friends you want to spend time with? I’ve nothing against hard work but this seems crazy to me, as does having to do two (I assume full-time) jobs to make ends meet, not to get rich but just to survive!
I was so shocked that our government (Irish) accepted this. Unemployment is rising fast here and measures like this are only going to make it worse. As far as I can see the only people to benefit will be employers who can economise on labour costs by employing one person where previously they would have needed two.
Sereda: I think that Eleena was merely using the 65 hour working week and Spain’s reaction to it as a segue to her main point which was the cultural comparison and contrasting the positive versus negative attitudes. Likewise, my comment was about how one is usually more happy in life if one looks to the future hopefully and makes plans and strives to be successful. As for the merits or problems with this law, I really can’t argue one way or the other because I haven’t read hardly anything about it.
It’s productivity that needs to increase for sure, not the amount of hours.
And please, the amazing American life style? From day 1 it is believed unless you “make something for yourself”, earn good money, you’re nothing. This is the main goal in life. Enjoying life comes second.
The Spanish may not be so ‘driven’ to make amazing money (’arrive’), but from what I know, they damn well enjoy life. They aren’t afraid to take a holiday and actually enjoy it! I doubt they take their blackberrys with them.
>”I’m afraid we all know that the EU can no longer afford to provide the >benefits that they have been giving so they have to start taking them >away.”
Whereas America has all the money in the world to provide benefits to every single citizen (I don’t mean “support”), but they don’t. How many people don’t have health care? I remember it being a substantial and incredible amount - around 40million? Or is health care considered something you should have to take care of yourself?
Achievements are certainly subjective too. For example:
Being able to enjoy life, maintain a HEALTHY work/life balance, having kids that get to see you more than once a week, being able to go on vacation and not feel guilty vs stressed out at work, working too much, barely seeing your kids, taking 2 weeks vacation with your laptop and business email account, saving like hell so your kids can go to college.
Hi Sereda,
Thanks for your comment. To be honest, I haven’t boned up on the new EU agreement so it’s likely that I’ve totally misunderstood what it is all about, but my initial impression was that this was a way to make sure that employers can cover their schedules AND enable workers to get paid for the extra hours that they’re working anyway. Besides, I read that workers can opt-out of this new proposed system, right?
I don’t know about Ireland but there is a lot of wasted time in my Spanish work schedule and there’s nothing I can do about it because it is the system that sets the schedule, not the individual. For example, the school where I work, there is a mid-morning break of 30 minutes and then a two-hour break for lunch. Over the course of a week, that is 12.5 hours of downtime, and over the course of a month that is 50 hours(!!) of downtime where you’re not working but you’re still tied to work. To me, it would be way more efficient to start the school’s schedule a little earlier, have one smaller break and go straight through and end the school day earlier.
Also, while working two jobs isn’t ideal, if someone needs to do that to get ahead, they should be allowed to and encouraged to do that. Is it the way I would want to live for years and years? No, but I believe that people should be allowed to work as many hours as they want and, of course, get paid for those hours.
This is a little off topic but tangentially related….A couple years ago when young people were demonstrating in France over the proposed changes to the labor laws, I could not identify with them at all. Marching and demonstrating in the streets for the right to not be fired from their first jobs. Where I come from, the first job one gets after university is almost always considered a stepping stone, not a job one would ever consider keeping or wanting to have for life, but yet in France young people were protesting over the right to hold onto crappy jobs. If the European labor market didn’t have such rigid rules about firing people, there would be more flexibility in hiring and eventually more mobility in the job market, leading to more opportunities for all qualified prospects. But too many people are fixated on the idea that if employers have an easier time firing people, nobody will get hired. That’s looking at things from a scarcity, fear-based mentality.
It’s too bad that a more entrepreneurial spirit doesn’t exist in Europe because being one’s own boss is a better path to professional fulfillment. You could’ve knocked me down with a feather a few months ago when I read that among young Spaniards, the top career goal is to become a funcionario (work for the government) or work for Telefonica, the national phone company. Wow. Talk about not setting one’s sights very high.
Anyway, the point of this rambling response is that as an American, I find it very hard at times to understand the European labor market. What worked in post-WWII needs to be updated and adapted for modern times.
Thanks again for your comment. You got me to write a response that I think was longer than the original blog entry!
@NonMateralistic,
While making money is stressed in American society, I disagree that the definition of success is only based on the number of $$$$ in one’s bank account. There is a whole cottage industry in the U.S. encouraging people to follow their bliss and achieving work-life balance is a hot topic and currently very much in the public consciousness. Many big and small companies have instituted new programs and plans to recruit prospective employees based on how much they can help their workers achieve work-life balance.
Regarding health care, yes, that is truly a blight and a huge problem that needs to be resolved once and for all. Unfortunately, the drug and insurance lobby is so huge and powerful that it will take a tremendous amount of will and creativity on the part of politicians to restructure this system and as long as politicians are dependent on PAC donations, we’re not going to see any major change on this front anytime soon. True change in that sector won’t happen until it starts to dramatically affect the bottom line of the corporate interests who currently have too much gain from the way things are currently set up. It’s a very complicated issue that unfortunately we’ve allowed as a society to grew into a huge, unwieldy problem.
“The biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small.” - Lao Tzu
Eleena: Kudos for writing a post that gets people so worked up!
NonMaterialistic: I think that a balance between the Hispanic and American attitudes towards success would be ideal. Take a real vacation where you actually have fun and don’t bring your work with you but when you go back to work, make it count and shoot for the stars!
While it’s true that nobody one their deathbed ever wished they had spent more time at the office, I have met MANY middle aged men who wished they had achieved more in life (and I’m not talking just about money). Besides, I don’t think that Eleena was suggesting that we all become workaholics but rather that when it comes to our professional lives we should be optimistic and efficient and not wait for the government, or anyone else, to determine what we can and can’t do.
Working for Telefónica is a goal? Trust me, it shouldn’t be. First-hand experience talking. jaja I know somebody working really hard to become a funcionario though.
“What worked in post-WWII needs to be updated and adapted for modern times.”
Would you care to expand on what you meant by that Eleena?
Yes, you can trace a lot of problems in America, Europe and the whole world to “corporate interests”.. This is the world we live in, this is what was made by our fathers. That’s no excuse though. The absolute bottom line is that America can fund free health care for everyone absolutely fine. If anyone advice is needed, you can always contact a country in Europe.
@Ryan: You’re hired! You’re doing a much better job than I am at explaining this.
@NonMaterialistic: What worked in post WWII was a landing a “good” job that was enough to support a family, buy a house and have a little left over for savings. Work 30+ years in the same job for a state-owned or state-subsidized company/entity and at the end of the rainbow receive a nice full pension as your reward for your years of hard labor.
Fast forward 50 years, and that formula doesn’t yield the same results thanks to globalization which has rendered that former (idyllic) system obsolete.
The sense of entitlement runs very deep in Europe (and in the U.S.). But in Europe, there remains this sense that government is a Sugar Daddy that is going to take care of everything. Today we’ve got a generation of Arrested Development in Spain, people who are 35 years old, still living at home with their parents, not earning enough to start families of their own or buy their own property. We’re in an environment where the current generation of young people are on the path to actually having a lower standard of living then their parents, despite the fact that they are more educated and generally have more opportunities to receive professional training/advancement, etc. Something is wrong with that picture.
@Eleena & Ryan: I look forward to reading more from you both.
I am so glad I came across your blogs. Note from Spain helped.
I can’t agree more with you both.
A while back I tried to find a translation for ‘rugged individualism’ into Spanish. I still haven’t found a satisfactory translation, and I have heard the typical Spaniard laugh at the idea of even wanting it.
It sounds like a cartoon to him. Like a spaghetti western; An entertaining notion, but not real, and not a worthy goal, unless you are going to inherit it - which is impossible. No one can inherit it, it evaporates. It is not genetic.
I meant to add:
I believe that traditionally, Spain has ‘rugged individualism’ - but has spent the last decades being too embarrassed about being caricatured as “Iñigo Montoya” and too ashamed of its Pizarro’s and Cortés (”the Killer”) - that they have ignored the positive and beneficial aspects of these types of myths.
“people who are 35 years old, still living at home with their parents, not earning enough to start families of their own or buy their own property.”
You think that’s entirely because they aren’t ambitious enough!? Have you checked house prices and wages recently? Is it any wonder they can’t move out?
“The sense of entitlement runs very deep in Europe (and in the U.S.). But in Europe, there remains this sense that government is a Sugar Daddy that is going to take care of everything.”
You are seriously mistaken. Yes, in Europe we do except the government to take care of us - we damn well should, we collectively pay sufficient taxes. Yes, this should include a pension. I think the US and Europe have very different mindsets about basic entitlements for humans.
But speaking for the UK, you can not rely on the state pension - it is something, but you can barely live on it the way the cost of utility bills and council tax are going. Furthermore, I do recognise the problem we have with the benefits system in the UK, but the government created that problem and they should make it more worth while to get a job (the difference between what they pay you in benefits, and what you receive after tax with an initial low paid job could even be negative).
I get the impression you think Europe is generally ‘lazier’ compared to the people in the US. I’m starting to wonder on what basis you found statements such as “The grand difference between American and Spanish societies…”, other than the Spanish press. If you haven’t already, you should try actually living in Europe for a while.
@Ray, thanks! Hope you’ll become a regular.
@Andrew, let’s just agree to disagree. I don’t think Europe is “lazier” (your word, not mine) but definitely more inflexible when it comes to the labor market. I’ve been living/working in Spain for three years so my observations aren’t those of a person on holiday.
Thanks to all who shared their opinions on this thread!