To truly understand the disappearance of the middle class, the unequal distribution of wealth, and the precariously employed working class unable to access housing, one can read economists like Milanovic, Zucman, Nobel laureates Deaton and Stiglitz, or delve into the 970 pages of Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Piketty. They all envision a future, but if you want to see it with your own eyes, just hop on a plane and travel to Ibiza.
This summer, Karol G, Sofia Vergara, Will Smith, Lamine Yamal, Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Alcaraz, Kate Hudson, Sydney Sweeney, Dakota Johnson, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, Camila Cabello, Magic Johnson have visited. Pick a name at random, and you'll probably be right. The billionaire twins Winklevoss, Google co-founder Sergey Brin aboard his yacht 'Panthera', larger than a football field, were also spotted. And Jeff Bezos sent a helicopter to Leonardo DiCaprio to board the Koru, his $500 million sailboat, for a cruise around Cala Xarraca and Portinatx.
One person not expected this year is Marc Marquez: "I've been to Ibiza once in my life, and once you've been robbed, that's enough," he said on the end-of-month podcast. There was a time when Ibiza's news was about ¤5,000 nights in a Ushuaïa suite; the ¤300,000 cost to rent the islet of sa Ferradura for a week; the ¤1,650 menu at the Sublimotion restaurant; or the ¤150,000 charged for a 30-liter bottle of Armand Brignac, served with a flare stuck in the cork. But today, obscene extravagance is within reach of all pockets, like the nine euros charged at a downtown Ibiza terrace for a bowl of twelve olives, or the twelve euros to rent a hook to hang a purse, as experienced by a customer at the Wakame restaurant.
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Despite everything, according to the Balearic Institute of Statistics (Ibestat), in the first six months of the year, tourists have spent ¤1.412 billion on the island, 1.8% more than in the same period in 2024, at a cruising speed of ¤233 per visitor per day. This is far below what the crew members of megayachts spend when they disembark at Marina Ibiza or Marina Botafoch, leading them to the Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, and Bulgari stores. From the deck, overlooking the blue sea, one can now see an even bluer sea, but 300 meters from the shore, formed by the plastics of dozens of shanties and tents. These are the residences of construction workers, hotel maintenance staff, cleaners of luxury homes at ¤10 per hour, laundry workers, car wash attendants for rent-a-car services, security guards earning ¤1,400 per month, municipal subcontractors for garbage collection, mechanics, nursing assistants earning ¤1,300, and lifeguards at one of the 23 five-star hotels that shine on the island.
In the last five years, these settlements have become neighborhoods adjacent to the city. Some, like the one in Platja d'en Bossa, are growing next to a luxury housing development (where luxury means paying ¤500,000 for a one-bedroom apartment). There, Argentinians, Paraguayans, Colombians, people from Cadiz, Catalans, and Sahrawis live. Some are experiencing their first season, some have been there for five seasons, some carry water in 10-liter jugs from San Rafael, some shower at gyms, and some use the bathrooms at Mercadona. "This is not a viable or safe way of life, and their only possible fate is total dismantlement," says the president of the Island Council, Vicent Marí, from the Popular Party.
A year ago, the municipalities reported about a thousand people in their camps. They did this before the start of the season and have not counted since. "It is not only a risk for the people living there but for all the neighbors, due to the accumulation of waste, the use of butane gas canisters, coal, and bonfires that can cause a fire," warns the Social Welfare councilor of the Ibiza City Council, María Dolores Penín. There was a fire on June 25, another on the 26th, and another on July 31, just to name a few fires this season.
Despite the fact that the island government has a law prohibiting the entry of caravans without a previously reserved suitable site and the Ibiza City Council has an ordinance directly prohibiting camping, what happens then? "And then? Well, the City Council notifies the owner that those people cannot be there, and the owner takes it to court to be able to do so, similar to evicting someone from a home. Since it is private land, the City Council cannot act," Penín explains.
Following this process, on July 15, the Can Rova 2 settlement, where 200 workers lived, was dismantled, which actually emerged from the eviction of another settlement in 2024. And on July 7, the es Gorg settlement near an industrial estate, where there were caravans, campervans, camper vans, and tents, was evacuated, with many of them moving just a few meters across the road to the Sa Jovería settlement to finish the season.
There, between the Can Misses hospital, an elementary school, the fairground, and a dinner-show restaurant offering ¤150 per kilo steaks, avenues have emerged among the reeds. There are makeshift neighborhoods made of tarps, metal sheets, and wooden pallets, furnished with mattresses, rugs, mats, and pillows. Outside, abandoned furniture can be found in containers, small tables, sofas, folding chairs, and everything necessary for survival: clotheslines, pots, trays, candles, plates, camping gas stoves, plastic chairs, and solar panels for light and mobile phones. So habitable that some have even made it onto Airbnb for ¤45 per night.
"This is not just an issue for the administration but also for business owners, who need to look out for their workers. Those living in these conditions cannot perform well," suggests Penín. In Ibiza, the cheapest new apartment measures 48 square meters, has one bedroom, and costs ¤385,000, according to Idealista. Renting a bed averages around ¤800, and ¤1,000 for a room. Quoting a Argentine shantytown resident, "We are a laboratory for the Peninsula." And he warns, "We are not here to create a problem, we are here to solve a problem."
The problem lies in the lack of precarious and unstable labor, when stable labor is already a problem. Ibiza lacks mechanics, with a six-month waiting list. There is a shortage of healthcare workers, leading to the conversion of 23 rooms in an old hospital to accommodate doctors. There is a shortage of judges, the Social Court is scheduling trials for 2027. Last week, the Civil Guard apologized to the director of a luxury hotel on the island for not being able to send anyone after the theft of their safe, asking them to file a report at the police station. The reason? 288 immigrants had just arrived in Formentera in 34 hours, where there are only 26 Civil Guards.
"The island is on the verge of becoming a private preserve for foreign millionaires, where residents are a nuisance and are progressively being squeezed into their own homes. Slums are multiplying right in front of the megayachts and super-luxury villas," notes Joan Lluís Ferrer, author of the book Ibiza Masificada. Así nos exproprian la isla y nos expelan de ella (This is how they expropriate the island from us and expel us from it) (Balàfia Postals). The blame, he says, "lies with excess tourism, which has depleted water resources while the authorities continue to approve new developments. And as long as we continue celebrating this, we are celebrating our suicide. Until we accept that we must reduce tourist arrivals, things won't be fixed; they will just be patchwork." Therefore, he believes the primary responsibility doesn't come from outside, nor does it wear flip-flops with socks. "Every Ibizan has the power to decide what happens: if you own land and you're planning to develop it, you're also guilty of what happens; or if you own an apartment and you rent it illegally to tourists, you're also guilty."
In 2000, Ibiza had 89,611 inhabitants, and now it's over 160,000. In 2015, the island welcomed 2.5 million tourists, and ten years later, it's dangerously close to 4 million, which in turn is driving up the demand for workers to serve them. "It's not just overcrowding; it's being expropriated. There are places where we Ibizans can no longer go. It's not that we're on the verge of collapse, we're in that collapse," he concludes.
Last June, the island hosted a demonstration in which slogans were chanted and banners carried, such as: "We can't park, with so many rent-a-cars," "Luxury tourism, not even drunk on orujo," "Airbnb, get out of here," "We don't want an island of cement," "Renter, you scumbag, get a job," "Yacht tourism, what nonsense," and "We want to be able to pay our rent." In their manifesto, they targeted cruise ships and private jets, and said human pressure translates into "overcrowded and privatized beaches, invaded natural spaces, degraded posidonia meadows, clogged roads, and polluted seawater."
In recent years, activists from Futuro Vegetal have targeted Ibiza, where they vandalized a yacht, a private jet, a hotel, and Leo Messi's mansion with graffiti. "It's the people at the top of the social pyramid who put all life on the planet at their service, forcing us to work to sustain their system," they justified.
But in his speech on August 8th, on the occasion of the local festivities, the island's president also seemed to transform into an activist, giving his fellow citizens a scolding: "Unlimited and uncontrolled growth is not compatible with quality of life." And he took issue with the restriction on vehicle entry to the island, which came into effect this year: "Despite broad social support, it has not been well received by those who still see Ibiza as a corporate profit-and-loss account or an infinite cash box (...) Not everything is worth it anymore, and whoever comes to Ibiza to take advantage will end up singled out."
Seeing the sea of shanties flooding Ibiza to house those who implement it, it's impossible not to remember that Winston Churchill quote, which now resonates like a curse: "We shape our buildings, and then they shape us."