How many people does it take to paint a single fence?

JIMENA This photo was sent in by a friend with the following comment: "Passing the school, just thought this was quite funny. How many people does it take to paint a single fence? Apparently a lot... A very expensive fence if you ask me..." Indeed it is, but what is not evident is that all these employment scheme/training school people belong to a welding class. They made the fence - and quite a few more around the village - so now they are painting it. Naturally, the story doesn't end there. They are each earning around €1,000 per month>>>and they were taken on for a year in, we think January - before the local elections last May, anyway. For the first three months they did no welding at all because there were no tools; so they were told to paint a lot of public walls (in preparation for the elections, no doubt). They also planted plants and ... oh, we forgot: just before those local elections, there was a visit from some employment scheme boss. The 'students', who had been painting the walls by the football field, were rushed round to the gates, which were taken off their hinges. They were handed brushes and a small can of paint to, presumably, be seen to be doing something with ironwork - this being a welding class.

To cut a long story short, as far as we have been told, they only began to have anything to do with welding was about six months into the scheme.

An expensive team of painters, indeed - and one of the zillions of reasons Spain is in financial the s**t right now. Multiply this scheme by at least half the 8,000 municipalities in the country doing the same, and you can see what we mean.

Thanks for the photograph, YouKnowWhoYouAre.