"Jan.1 will mark the end of an era in Spain — the abolition of rent controls that helped small businesses and preserved the historical identity of city centers"
"About 200,000 mostly family-owned stores, bars and restaurants are affected by the law change that allows their landlords to raise rents to whatever they want. An estimated 55,000 businesses are expected to close down over the coming weeks and months, wiping out around 120,000 jobs in a country which already has a 24 percent unemployment rate"
"More deep-pocketed businesses — such as international chain franchises — are sure to take the place of the prime real estate that the current tenants occupy. But supporters of the current lease holders say Spain will lose part of its cultural identity."
They are going to lose more than their cultural identity, they will lose domestic GDP since the outsized profits from the franchises will be hoovered back to the corporate mothership, and then into offshore bank accounts. The multinational model doesn't work, but no one has the balls to say it, so we just wait for collapse which will get everyone on the same page, finally.
I just got back from a cruise in the Caribbean - I could have just stayed on the ship or in Miami. Every single port of call was wall to wall with the exact same corporate luxury retailers i.e. the same ones I can get three miles from where I live. International travel is turning into a colossal waste of time and money for anyone who doesn't parachute into the jungle or otherwise travel with Anthony Bourdain. Cultural diversity is being systematically decimated by corporate colonization.
Small, local businesses are the only answer to this ongoing economic/environmental/energy crisis. Godless Mega Corporations seeking infinite growth, had their day at the mall and in the casino.
We'll get these stunned dunces on the same page. The wake up call will be fucking epic, to say the least.
