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OPINEWS

Pensioners, "Professor of Economics" and 3 tips for the latter!

Politiko 2024-11-01 16:31:14

By Irena Beqiraj
Yesterday in Opinion, the Prime Minister took it upon himself to explain to some retired women why their pensions had not been increased even after he and his governments have grown the Albanian economy more than the region.
As I listened to him, I asked myself 1) is he convinced that he knows how to explain economics since Ogerta Manastriliu put him in charge of the Scientific Council, or do pensioners seem so ignorant that with the passion he recites the "facts" he thinks he can convince them?
Socrates says: when you cannot improve the situation, become a "professor". But since this time the professor is also the Prime Minister, I have some advice for him.
The first tip for the "professor": In economics we compare real figures, not nominal ones!
So it is true that the average pension was 101 euros in 2013 and 183 euros in 2023, but in order to reach the real growth figure, we must take into account the effect of the exchange rate (35%) and the effect of inflation, around 34%. In February, the real increase in pensions was 0. That's why the woman who used to receive kemp does not live better today with a pension of 20,000 lek than what she lived with in 2013 with 12,000 lek.
The second tip for the "professor" not every issue is explained with the same propaganda tools. The graphs and arguments he had chosen did not address the issue that concerned the women in that room, who clearly articulated that the prices of their basket had increased several times more than inflation.
Pensioners consume a basket of inferior products, or otherwise the most basic products at the cheapest possible prices. In periods when prices generally tend to increase, the prices of these products increase more than the prices of normal products. That's why the poor woman insisted on knowing why the prices of the food she consumes every year increase more than the inflation index.
The Prime Minister "Professor" realized yesterday that the impossibility to live has made pensioners convinced that:
1) Indexing is not an increase in pensions,
2) they consume inferior products whose prices increase faster and more than other products:
3) the rating I lek has reduced the value of money sent to children, thus reducing the second source of income of pensioners.
4) the year-end bonus or the thirteenth pension will always depend on what will remain unspent in the government's coffers, even as such it does not offer stability, so it is not a solution.
As if the pensioners, the most important part of the socialist electorate, have realized that the "Professor" Prime Minister has no answer for them! The "bubble" economy that has built these 12 years does not allow the answers.
Pensions cannot be increased:
1) without addressing the demographic structural changes with the appropriate means
2) without diversifying the economic sectoral structure of the country an hour ago,
3) without changing the structure of the heels, which we used sometimes as morphine and sometimes as candy to reduce the pain of an economy that does not produce results for everyone..
The third and last tip "for the professor": in the economy, the size of the pie it has nothing to do with how much the pensioner consumes. The only improvement in their support in these 12 years is the establishment of the social pension. Just talk about it.