At the suggestion of one of the readers of my blog Toma de Decisiones (tomadedecisiones.iese.edu), we started in mid-January a discussion on what decisions needed to be taken in Spain to address the current status . The idea originated a month earlier, in the midst of the solvency crisis in Ireland and Portugal, when some doubts were being raised about the soundness of Spanish finances. The discussion gave rise to many ideas, which after summarizing and classifying them can give us some very good guidelines on the areas in which we should act. I intend in this article to talk about what was discussed in the blog.

As a general idea, it is necessary to elaborate a 10-year strategic plan for Spain, independent of ideologies and political parties. This strategic plan should indicate where we want to be in 10 years' time and develop the lines of action needed to get there. The discussion identifies five areas for improvement to be taken into account in drawing up this strategic plan: to demand more of ourselves staff and collectively and stop complaining, to improve the public sector and the political system, to improve Education, to facilitate innovation and business creation, and finally employment.

The first point calls for a change of attitude on the part of everyone, generating greater confidence in our possibilities, committing ourselves to our country, working harder, stopping complaining and taking responsibility for our own development. All this requires recovering the culture of effort, although Leopoldo Abadía does not even want to hear this expression. We must convince ourselves that in order to achieve something we need intense preparation and work , a self-demanding staff and collective. We are too used to living on social benefits. There are too many facilities to do things without effort. It is necessary to prohibit the granhermanismo and trash entertainment on television, to change the mentality by promoting savings and investment as opposed to consumption. And to live with more austerity, accepting that the party is over and now it is time to wash the dishes, as Alfred Pastor used to say.

The second field of action, the improvement of the public sector and the political system, requires -according to the discussion in the blog- modernizing the public administration and reducing state spending by eliminating the wastefulness of excessive public offices, unnecessary advisors and excessive life pensions. Integrity must be demanded in the public management , establishing sanctions for those who hold public office and do not fulfill their functions, as well as much harsher criminal consequences for those who take advantage of the position they occupy. Professionalism must also be demanded of managers, limiting access to public office to people who have previously held senior management positions, and requiring those in the most important positions to be fluent in English. They must also be made aware that their mission statement is to work for the benefit of other citizens and they must be remunerated with a sufficiently decent salary commensurate with the function they perform. And finally, it is necessary a greater commitment of the Government and of the political class with the country so that they live less pending of partisan interests.

The third point is the improvement of Education. It is necessary to provide a much higher level educational , dignify the role of scientists and teachers, provide bilingual teaching in schools, watch television in English, raise awareness that Education corresponds to the school, but above all to the family, and teach the basic rules of Education, respect and coexistence.

In the field of innovation and business creation, it is a matter of identifying the sectors in which we can be more competitive, promoting the creation of companies in these sectors and assuming the long-term commitment deadline to develop these sectors without changing policies every few years. Likewise, investments in research and development+I must be boosted with tax savings.

Finally, in the fifth point, the suggestions are along the lines of encouraging self-employment and moonlighting without taxation, so that those who work for others can also set up their own business. In discussion a curious idea came up that would be worth exploring: assigning social service jobs or jobs in an SME to those people who receive unemployment benefits and do not show much interest in working, thus discouraging free leisure. Obviously, this would not apply to the millions of people who have lost their work lately and are struggling to find a new occupation. These are not idle, but very busy doing something as important as finding a work.

If we get to work on the ideas provided by the blog participants, perhaps we will manage, with the necessary personal and collective efforts, to make the country dynamic again and put an end to the scourge of unemployment, which, in my opinion, should be the first priority, to which all the other initiatives set out in this article should be directed.