Monday, September 10, 2007

Stagflation??? Tsunami???



I happened to look up a Puerto Rico Herald and got goose bumps. Turns out there is a terrible stagflation (rapidly rising cost of living with low pay and high unemployment) in Puerto Rico and scientists warn against a very dangerous tsunami likely to hit Puerto Rico as well.

Why, o why am I going there???????????????

On top of everything the PR government wants to introduce vacation and other benefits for part-timers!!!!
Horror of horrors ......for a crude American style anti-employee-rights demagogue. But I am an enlightened European ;-) and despise heaping benefits on the rich and super-rich and stealing even the crumbs of prosperity - or semi prosperity - from the population at large.

And in the same breath that Herald grosses over benefits for part-timers it also suggest Finland - with its economy at the top of worldwide competitiveness - as a model for Puerto Rico's salvation.

Herald apparently did not study Finlands economic model too comprehensively, since it pointed out Finland's high outlays on R&D (3% of BNP versus Puerto Rico's less than 1%), but forgot to mention about Finland's extensive benefits for workers of all kind: blue and pink collar to professional and managerial, fulltimers and all kinds of parttimers. There is no mention either that in Finland (like generally in Europe) the pay scale is much, much flatter than in the USA. So may be paying attention to all kind of employees instead of grossly overpaying CEO's, hedge-fund managers and a few other privileged categories could be a model to follow for PR... in addition to increasing investment in R&D?

Oh, well, the news happened to be two years old, and I can't wait until I can see the dangers of stagflation, tsunami and the benefits for part-timers with my own very eyes in only about a month! :-)

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