What happened to Spain? They didn’t get hit by WW2 and yet…are a distant sixth in economic size behind even Russia.
That is completely false.
By what metric? Because Spain is sixth also by population, and I have the feeling you are using total GDP as scale. Using that, China is the richest economy, and India is the third richest country in the world. Meanwhile Switzerland and Singapore (really rich in reallity) are below 30th, and below Nigeria or Pakistan.
By per capita GDP we Spain are not even 6th, because Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Monaco, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland... are above us and also above Germany, UK or France.
I think things start to go wrong for the Spain somewhere after the 16th century
I don't know how Spain was affected by WW2, but they had a very nasty civil war just before WW2. I'm not sure if that's relevant to GDP per capita, though, because a war can sometimes improve the economy by leading to the overflow of a system in which progress is blocked by a relatively rich ruling class.
The "magical" event that happened mid/late 1950's was that autarchy was still not working and the other main faction of the government (called technocrats, mainly the Opus Dei) said "the national catholicism is cool and all, but we need to get profits and this autarchy shit isn't working". So the autarchy ended to the Falange dismay, and the country slowly opened economically and started catching up with Europe.
Sadly Falange is on the rise again (falangist Buxadé from Vox cleaned the party from capitalists in the last couple of years), and you can hear young people calling for closing and going "Spain first" again.
>Shortly before the end of World War II and the later beginning of the Marshall Plan, President Roosevelt ordered the American ambassador in Madrid to inform Franco that any "political or economic aid" from the United States would be "impossible" as long as the dictator remained in power.
>The decision was ratified in August 1945 by a joint declaration of Stalin, Truman and Attlee. In February of the following year, France closed its border with Spain, leaving the country completely isolated. The UN asked all its members in December 1946 to retire their ambassadors from Spanish territory, and did not revoke its condemnatory declaration until 1950. Spain joined the UN in 1955
[...]
>The government protested against the isolation, stating that Spain had "the right to buy on international markets", and criticized the international community for sabotaging the country's "right to live according to its spiritual values"
>The Spanish international reputation would begin to improve gradually in the late 1940s and early 1950s, after the consolidation of the Cold War, due to the explicit interest of the United States in promoting anti-communist governments in Western Europe. The diplomatic displays of approval by the American government helped to strengthen the regime and stabilize its economy, which would eventually lead to the liberalization policies that marked the 1960s
Which is exactly what I said in my previous reply. Isolation FORCED by the international community (Franco fought against the USSR and Cold War wasn't established yet), they embraced it sure because they had no other choice. They could trade with Argentina (Franco-Peron protocol, signed in 1946)
The Civil War and subsequent dictatorship help explain how the country ended up in this situation but I think people often focus on them too much rather than how to improve for the future.
Luis Carrero Blanco, was the fascist dictator Francisco Franco's right hand man, his car war blown several stories into the air by ETA freedom fighters, hence the joke.
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Asesinatos_cometidos_por...
For instance the IRA was very mild and moderate by ETA standards.
But then again, discussing politics hardly ever gets less divisive here or elsewhere.
Otherwise, there would be no divisiveness in fairly assessing measures in Economics.
Politicians? It is messages for the voters, and they are leftist politics (so their voters doesn't understand German)
Germany is one of the more native-language-enforcing countries in Europe. I've been to Slovenia and half of everything is actually written in English, unlike Germany or France where everything's written in the local language.
Countries grow in secondary matters and the primary ones (civilization) remain unattended.
And by the way, when something "grows fast", do not misunderstand the indicator... Ethiopia had a 13% annual growth recently; Guyana has a 16% annual growth at this time: you are not thinking that "life is good there" and "Miami videoclip vibes everywhere", right?
However this has not been the case for Spain. Spain is deemed a full democracy by all objective and independent metrics. I am debating whether to even post this reply since your point to compare it to Ethiopia is so absurd you're likely not going to agree with facts. And yes, "life is good there", by also topping some, albeit, not objective quality of life metrics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index#...
https://freedomhouse.org/explore-the-map?type=fiw&year=2026
https://www.internations.org/expat-insider/2026/quality-of-l...
We have just mentioned in the page that its federal administration tried to end cash and online anonimity. For example.
> a full democracy
And?! That very certainly does not equate with civilization.
> compare it to Ethiopia
You failed in understanding the post.
> [expats]
And since when an unvetted group could be taken as having judgement?
In context, the amount of awareness, and related cultivation, distributed in the population.
Among the signs I would check the perceived and tolerated pollution: light pollution, sound pollution etc. For example, the awareness of the importance of rest is basic (the awareness of the importance of health even more), so the perception and condemnation of background noise, especially in the night, is telling. A civilized country is one in which librarians speak with a proportionate, quiet voice, not one in which they chat loudly or speak loudly on loud ringing phones.
Around these parts in Europe (that the magazine The Atlantic revealed extend to the Americas) people are increasingly driving using blinding headlights: that is not just infra-human, but infra-animal: dogs are supposed to recognize a foul smell, birds are supposed to recognize disturbing noises, and if vision-based primates cannot recognize a bothersome light, they are spoilt and wasted.
Then of course you have the higher levels of awareness (good luck). For example, the awareness of what is licence vs what is freedom, the awareness that judgement requires extra steps in thought. People who act as liabilities because "they directly adopt the behaviour that requires less effort", etc. - that is "uncivilized".
Awareness comes before the cultivation that is supposed to create it - before Borges' enraged "¡No saben lo que es un centauro!".
More complete theoretical and operational definitions could be given - but not here and now.
> Nordic countries got rid of cash payments for the most part, do you view those as uncivilized, then
Yes, certainly, absolutely. Things that evaluate as normal and acceptable to have their daily transactions recorded are clearly alien to developmental basics. It is unawareness of the sense of Dignity first, then of prudence (etc.) - and above them of the absurd.
> weird
"Weird" is "what happens", and what happens is that people live expressing larger and larger lacks of awareness about what is proper and what is not.
I certainly would rather live places like Mallorca or Donostia than in many places that are ahead of Spain in the silly GDP game.
Speaking of low IQ, it's pretty amusing to read that someone thinks that Spain came out unscathed from the events of 1930s and 1940s.
If I was making as much money as I would in those countries that are ahead I wouldn’t mind living in Spain either. Otherwise good luck getting a place to live on a tiny salary if you don’t have your relatives to support you.