Sunday, Jun 14, 2009
Who's next? Ireland? Spain? UK?
Telegraph: The crucifixion of Latvia
Latvia is firing a third of its teachers. The welfare state is being dismantled. Pensions for those in work will be cut 70pc. The salaries of doctors, nurses, and police (nota bene) will be cut 20pc. Unemployment has risen from 6pc to 17pc in a year, and is still rising. Jobless benefits for most will run out in the autumn, reducing support to £40 a month. "It is time to take to the streets," said union leader Valdis Keris.
Posted by devo @ 10:58 PM (1144 views) Add Comment
14 Comments
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1. hubbers said...
Maybe Valdis Keris will be aboe to force them to spend money they just don't have. Maybe weeks of strikes will cripple Latvia even more.
2. devo said...
What would make you take to the streets, hubbers?
3. little professor said...
Just shows that imposing rapid capitalism on a former socialist country leads only to a massive land grab, with the wealth of the nation being looted by a few private individuals, who make billions while the rest of the country falls into penury.
4. devo said...
3. little professor said... the wealth of the nation being looted by a few private individuals, who make billions while the rest of the country falls into penury.
Surely you can see that what applies to Latvia applies to the world.
5. jonb said...
Latvia's problems are due to the currency peg to the Euro, and the fact that a lot of people have taken out loans in Swedish Krone. We've devalued our currency, and very few people have foreign currency loans, so we shouldn't have the same problems.
It does show why we should keep the pound and not join the euro.
6. mr g said...
Might not be a bad thing if the salaries of doctors, nurses, the police and teachers were cut by 20% in the UK?
7. devo said...
6. mr g said... Might not be a bad thing if the salaries of doctors, nurses, the police and teachers were cut by 20% in the UK?
There goes discretionary spending. Think of what that would do to the wider economy.
8. shipbuilder said...
Good points well made, devo.
Perhaps pay cuts would be a good idea for everyone - except me, of course. Isn't everyone a lazy, useless, greedy, workshy moron - except me, of course. Better for everyone to accept less and less - except me, of course.
Individualism solves all problems, doesn't it?
9. devo said...
8. shipbuilder said... Individualism solves all problems, doesn't it?
This comment inspired me to find and read an article on individualism v collectivism.
Here are a few extracts which I hope will encourage further debate...
Individualism is "the opposite of collectivism; together they form on of the dimensions of national cultures. Individualism stands for a society in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family only."
Collectivism "stands for a society in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong cohesive ingroups, which throughout people's lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty."
Individualistic cultures like USA (highest score = 1st rank) and France (10th rank) are more self-centred and emphasize mostly on their individual goals. People from individualistic cultures tend to think only of themselves as individuals and as "I" distinctive from other people.
Asian - collectivist cultures like China (Hong Kong 37th rank), view other companies with less collectivistic philosophy as cold and not supportive. Collectivistic cultures have a great emphasize on groups and think more in terms of "we".Harmony and loyalty within a company is very important and should always be maintained and confrontation should be avoided. In China it is out of question to disagree with someone's opinion in public. You will do that in a more private and personal atmosphere to protect a person from the "loss of face". In collectivistic cultures a direct confrontation will be always avoided.
10. montesquieu said...
I liked this comment at the bottom:
Maybe it is about time to tell the public how many inhabitants there are in Latvia, which, according to AEP, poses such a deadly threat to the European Union. The overall number is 2.2 millions fom baby to pensioner. The European Union hosts 500 million inhabitants. Aside from propping up real estate valuations to dwindling heights while producing basically nothing of any value, the Latvians have been living during the last years under the false assumption of being a Scandinavian like country without coming up with real deeds to prove such a premature self-image. They got most of this irresponsible loans from Sweden which is not a member of the EMU. They will now be forced to learn how to become a productive economy the hard way. This will be no easy way out, but after a couple of years all the recent exaggerations will be worked out. There is no other way.
11. Tennouji said...
#9 "In China it is out of question to disagree with someone's opinion in public."
I would have to disagree with that based on what I saw there, especially in the more rural areas. In one place two women were screaming at each other in a small village whilst a huge crowd enjoyed the spectacle and stepped in when it looked like blows were about to be exchanged.
Japan follows that "rule" to a large extent yet, of course, there are plenty of "troublemakers" who don't follow the "wa". They are
often viewed as difficult to work with by others.
12. bystander said...
@mr.g @6 : Might not be a bad thing if the salaries of doctors, nurses, the police and teachers were cut by 20% in the UK?
What about train/tube drivers, social services and infact every civil servant for that matter. After all if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. Definitely the right way to lead this country of ours out of recession.
13. andrew said...
Sorry, but in my experience it looks like we aren't paying peanuts but still getting monkeys.
Things have gone too far, pay is too high in the public sector, they are mostly on non perfomance related salaries and the whole job for life / entitled to everything ethos is damaging to the wider economy.
Anybody who calls for lower salaries for Public sector workers, i.e. those paid for by our taxes is shouted down, taking your anti argument to the max then why not pay them all 20% more, 40% more than the private sector, you know, payback time for the Thatcher years, blah blah.
It's like a grumpy old man and Labour conspiracy fest on here at times.
14. stillthinking said...
montesquieu@10,
exactly that. small country living on the never never propped up by debt and irresponsible gov. obligations which are now defaulted on.
scary