I don't know how the impact of austerity is in Mallorca but for many in the UK it is devastating whilst at the same time some continue to profit out of the crisis. Everyone of course chooses their side of of the problem and you made yours clear from the backwaters of sunny Mallorca.
Unemployment in Spain is, if I remember the news properly, around 50% and amongst the island (Mallorcan) population, in winter it hits 60% because of the lack of winter tourism. Most young people are unemployed and few can even afford to leave home, marry and set up on their own.
The backwaters of 'sunny Mallorca' are pretty full of people with their houses/apartments up for distress sale, locals as well as foreigers. I watch the news (Sky) and see the reports of 80% or whatever Brits in Britain wanting to leave the European Community. That would kill many of us off. As you get old, you usually also get sick. I pop a few pills a day and have ongoing heart and, now, vision problems. If the UK leaves the EC then I have to fund all this stuff on my own, which I can't do. I gave up private medicine because it was costing me around 3,500 quid a year that I can ill afford, but which I would have continued to spend had my wife not died.
Life here is no cheaper than in Britain. It used to be, and money offshore allowed interest to pay for a lot of the costs of living abroad.That's now a fond memory and the taxman sucks everybody dry, in all the European nations, wherever you keep your main account. But then, to get that account in the first place, you had to work your friggin' socks off, and with photography, as most probably know, you can work 7/7 and still find it bloody hard going. I know that I did. My good years and my bad years were almost biblical in their regularity, only it didn't work in seven-year cycles, it was quicker, and paying separate, private pension plans was a dream (for many who could and did pay, it turned into a very poor investment). In fact, for a few years I paid the self-employed national insurance stamps in both the UK and here. And all for a single state pension at the end of it. I'm afraid that sunshine doesn't pay the bills when you have no work.
Rob C