INCREDIBLE – JUST LOOK AT THIS: SE JERGA' JKUN IL-PARTIT LABURISTA LI JERGA' JKABBAR IL-MIDDLE CLASS
Toni and Anglu think they're middle class and Joseph Muscat, feeling superior to them both, thinks he is 'high class'.
PARTIT LABURISTA
Media Release
26 ta’ Settembru 2010
Se jerga’ jkun il-Partit Laburista li jerga’ jkabbar il-middle-class
– Joseph Muscat
Il-Partit Laburista huwa l-Partit tal-middle-class.
Kien il-Gvern Laburista taht Duminku Mintoff li zera’ z-zerriegha tal-middle-class u kompliet tikber taht il-Gvern Nazzjonalista ta’ Eddie Fenech Adami.
Dik il-middle-class illum qed titmermer u se jerga’ jkun il-Partit Laburista li jerga’ jkabbar il-middle-class f’Malta.
Bl-istess mod il-Partit Laburista dejjem kien u jibqa’ l-partit tal-mobilità socjali u se jerga’ jkun il-partit li jtella’ ‘l fuq dawk li qed jaqghu lura, ghax dan il-moviment jemmen li jekk ta’ taht jitilghu ‘l fuq, dawk fis-saffi ta’ fuq jisahhu wkoll.
Waqt laqgha politika fic-Centru Laburista tan-Naxxar, fejn dawk prezenti nghataw ic-cans li jsaqsu misqtosijiet fuq diversi temi li bhalissa qed jolqtu lilhom u lill-pajjizna, ssemmew fost l-ohrajn il-kuncett tal-living wage li ppropona il-Mexxej Laburista u il-kontijiet tad-dawl u tal-ilma li qed ikissru l-familji.
Living Wage
Jospeh Muscat ikkummenta b ‘mod pozittiv ghad-diskussjoni li qamet wara li ghamel il-proposta dwar il-living wage. Proposta li diga giet milqugha b’interess minn naha tal-Unions.
Huwa sostna li dan il-kuncett imur lil hinn mill-minimum wage u jfisser li jsir kalkolu ta’ kemm familja jkollha bzonn flus fuq prodotti u servizzi essenzjali u fuq dan il-kalkolu l-paga taghti lill-familja c-cans li jibqala biex tghix hajja dicenti. Minn naha l-ohra, l-istat ikun qed jincentiva lil dawk li jhaddmu u li jaghzlu li jhallsu salarji bbazati fuq il-Living Wage.
“ Min qed jiehu l-minimum wage illum huwa fqir, jekk ahna naqilghu n-nies mill-faqar, qed noholqu l-gid ghaliex naghmlu n-nies aktar produttivi, naqilghuom minn fuq il-beneficcji socjali. Dawn huwa il-kuncetti progressivi. Il-konservattivi jipprovaw jaqtawlna qalbna minnhom. Imma l-kuncett tal-living wage huwa l-kuncett ta’ din il-generazzjoni,” qal Joseph Muscat.
——-
What are these people and what planet do they come from?
Middle class indeed! What Muscat is talking about here is money, not ‘class’. There are poor people, rich people, and people of varying degrees of income in between.
Middle class does not mean middle income – and what would a middle income be, anyway? If he is trying to sell the notion that forcing employers to pay a ‘living wage’ to people who are currently on the minimum wage will make those people ‘middle class’, he is living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.
So much for his doctorate in management policy or whatever crap degree he has. Il-vera tal-biza. Affluence – for that is what Muscat is talking about with all his silly chat about class – has grown enormously since 1987 BECAUSE THE ECONOMY GREW AS A RESULT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY AND AN INCREASE IN PRODUCTIVITY.
People did not become affluent because, like those games of shops we played when we were children, we passed the same amount of money back and forth to each other in the shape of living wages.
I am beginning to understand that this is how Labour plans to ‘revisit its history’ – by rewriting it and coming up with a Jeffrey Archer novel.
Traditionally, the so-called middle class have been the very people who Labour fought most fiercely and viciously against on every level.
That’s why people like me can’t stand Labour’s guts – because Labour couldn’t stand ours and tried to destroy us. It’s still doing the same today. We’ve either got to bow down and kiss their arse or they come after us with knives, slander and abuse.
It was Labour’s vicious and relentless fight against the middle classes which transformed the Nationalist Party from a moribund political force in the 1970s to what it eventually became, the champion of the middle-classes. And it was Labour’s pure hatred and contempt for the middle classes that drove almost all the supporters of the former Strickland Party – middle class and tal-pepe almost to the last man and woman – into the arms of its traditional sworn enemy and ideological polar opposite, the Nationalist Party.
It was in the last 20 years that the middle class finally got what it deserved, 25 years later than the rest of Europe.
To quote a famous T-shirt slogan from the last general election: Vote Labour? Inz**bab.
And it was the youth vote that came up with that slogan – the youth vote which won the election for the Nationalist Party, the youth vote born after 1987, the youth vote that understands how the Labour Party is the natural enemy of the middle class and the young, which is why it tried to squash their aspirations for a European future and keep them imprisoned on a couple of rocks as a captive lab experiment for Labour and its crazy non-policies.
Perhaps before I pop off to the other side I’ll get to see a Labour Party that isn’t total crap from start to finish, but I’m not holding my breath.
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This is SO depressing, damn it. Joseph Muscat is beginning to look worse than Alfred Sant even. Does it really take that much to find someone who manages at least not to annoy people with their constant silly talk?
If ever possible, Joseph Muscat is worse than Alfred Sant. At least the latter is a learned individual who would probably not make such silly mistakes as labelling the Living Wage a novel concept or talk of the middle class as one determined by income.
Why is middle class hyphenated on maltastar.com?
[Daphne – Because they can’t distinguish between the use of nouns and adjectives.]
And the sorry sods continue believe all they hear.
The misfortune is that, while the triumvirate are able to sell wild ideas and big dreams to their acolytes now, they’ll be unable to deliver anything other than disappointment when the proverbial pudding is eaten. It is the truly weak and vulnerable who are likely to suffer most, and they are the very people one would expect a Labour Party to keep in focus.
Buy now, pay later? The Labour Party should realise that it cannot operate like some cheap tele-shopping channel. There is no consumer protection against the purchase of vacuous slogans and non-existent policy.
There should be a 15-day cooling off period after each general election.
Analysis “First Class” – not middle-class or lower class – just first class. Labour should change its brand colour from red to green, and not environmental green, either.
Labour did try to get people on an equal footing, yes: by lowering standards to the lowest common denominator in all spheres including hatred and violence.
The standard of living was at its lowest ebb and the Mintoffjani were just happy because we were better than third world countries.
I remember the late Mrs. Boffa – wife of Pawlu Boffa – at a meeting in Qormi urging us to vote Nationalist because Mintoff had lost all sense of social justice.
The list is endless. Somebody please write the history of those days while there are people who lived through that horrendous time still alive – before the present Labour lot manage to rewrite it to suit their own ends.
I am an 84-year old and I lived through all the filth – but and it is a big BUT – will the new generation believe the truth?
I think the PL is not adopting the ‘buy now pay later’ deal but the ‘cash before delivery without guarantee’ deal. Good luck to those PN supporters who are grumbling all the time and want to punish the PN and Dr. Gonzi in 2013.
The record of the Labour Party in government is of mass unemployment.
Now, with this living wage crap, they are set to break their own record in three years’ time.
The majority of private sector employers can ill afford this living wage nonsense. The resulting unemployment will have to be dealt with by the state.
Any ideas what the ‘PL in government’ solution will be ?
Il -Korp Onfoq u Berbaq followed by Il-Korp Paga Hajja.
Once again it will be the real middle classes who are nicely screwed to make up for the folly of these crass incompetents.
That is why Labour is now setting its eyes on the middle class, and that is why they call it the middle class. You squeeze it to take as much juice from it.
Sorry but on economics I prefer reading Krugman than your commentaries…
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/20/magazine/for-richer.html
When the middle class is robbed of a living wage and is forced to invest in a mortgage that robs them of a decent lifestyle, then yes the middle class is threatened. Thank goodness even Gonzi understands that.
[Daphne – The middle classes do not earn wages. They earn salaries. Wages are paid every week and go to the working classes. The middle classes are paid salaries every month. The word WAGE in itself tells you that this ‘novel concept’ is aimed at the working classes and not the middle classes, but Joseph Muscat, not knowing much English, thinks that wage = pay.]
Your maths doesn’t add up. How can you protect the middle class and at the same time rob them of a decent wage? If a business person wants to employ people below the living wage they can go to China, Vietnam or Algeria.
We don’t need jobs that don’t pay properly. Employers are in a position of strength and that needs to be balanced by strong unions and a decent government.
The time for robber barons is long gone. Daphne you’re starting to sound shrill like Ann Coulter. Get a grip. I doubt Labour’s going to destroy your business. On the contrary, I suspect you’re going to do very well with labour in government.
Dear my namesake, we already have a problem with an over abundance of our name, but for heaven’s sake when you want to contest an argument can you avoid such silly mistakes in your early salvos.
And by the way, as for determination of middle class, going to China, Vietman and Alegeria is not solely determined by level of wages.
Mr Micallef, I’m not afraid of making silly mistakes. That’s how I usually learn.
Now do you have anything to say about Krugman’s argument that the top 1% are back to amassing wealth unheard of since the 1920s?
Look were we find ourselves now! Nobody’s talking of value added but of big speculators’ and corporate investors’ right to insane dividends whilst they offset their risks on everybody else.
When the opposing debater starts waffling on semantics, I get the distinct impression s/he has nothing of value to add.
Did not use silly in demeaning sense. As yourself my knowledge is based on the continuous eradication of silly mistakes.
Obviously I have not yet corrected enough of these be able to contradict Krugman whose work, particularly about economic geography and economies of scale, I follow as part of my interest in evaluating the relevance of adapting Marketing, Creativity and Innovation theories to SMEs and small states.
Apart form this negligibly financed personal quest, one aspect which with all due respect bothers me about Krugman is his political bias that at times shadows his otherwise insightful work.
As for the 1% claim, I tend to share the view of one of Krugman’s critic, who writing on the New York Times stated that, if that claim is true than the distribution of world wealth has improved over the last century because until the early 20th century the owners of global wealth were far less than that. Was the improvement enough, well not really.
If it was, I would probably have more resources to fund my research!
interesting post Mr Micallef, would you care to name your source please?
I assume you mean the critic. Apologies but I am not sure if it was someone with the surname Klien (Prof) writing on the New York Times some months back.
Thanks for the correction. You have a very good command of English. Certainly much better than mine.
I’m not worried about whether Muscat knows everything needed to govern. I’m worried about whether PL has the machinery needed to govern and in a way your articles are showing precisely that.
As Kennedy said to McNamara: “I don’t think there’s any school for Presidents either.”
@Joseph A Borg
So is Paul Krugman, in his 2002 piece, suggesting a living wage for America?
On the net, there was this reference to Krugman’s level of remuneration, which he revealed in his explanation of his consultancy role with Enron in 1998-1999 – in 2001, Enron collapsed in one of America’s largest bankruptcies.
“In 1998-1999 my normal fee for a one-hour business speech in Boston or New York was $20,000 …”
From his article, he is very critical of the rich, and he has fond memories of middle class America. So I suppose he considers himself middle class.
Do you believe he would suggest a living wage for the middle class?
So you’re attacking the messenger instead of countering the message?
Joseph, I suppose you are referring to Krugman, not to yourself, as the messenger.
I do not think I have attacked the messenger.
I just supplied facts, asked questions and made one supposition.
The point is, how is the article to which you refer related to the living wage?
I really do not believe that Krugman – who I understand presents himself as a middle class American – would ever give us a message to introduce a living wage for the middle class. So I am not sure what message you refer to.
ciccio I was referring to the “threat to the middle class”. In the US they don’t seem to be burdened with Old Europe’s class distinctions that daphne seems to relish.
[Daphne – That’s because it’s a new society, Joseph. It’s the same in Canada and Australia. But they have class distinctions all the same, ones based entirely on money and personal achievement. I can’t see how that’s any better to you. After all, the old class distinctions of Europe are based on just those origins: money and personal achievement, entrenched over centuries. It’s human nature to form hierarchies and groups; you can’t stop it with idealism or communism. The Soviets and the Red Chinese had their own hierarchies of privilege.]
It seems to be acceptable in the US to use the term middle class also for blue collar workers that have a decent wage (a rarer species by the day it seems).
[Daphne – You can’t compare the US to Europe because it’s an alien culture. It only seems familiar because the language is comprehensible, but really, it is no more similar to Europe than Russia or China are. Americans don’t understand Europeans and Europeans don’t understand Americans. I’m not saying that’s a good thing or a bad thing; it’s just an observation.]
if you have time to read Krugman’s article and have counter arguments I’d be glad to hear them…
daphne I’m an anarchist at heart to your liberal/libertarian. If you read about the Spanish Civil war, the anarchists and unionists were at loggerheads with the communists. The latter were continually trying to hijack the republican effort to impose their totalitarian views and control from Moscow. Thus weakening the war effort and giving Mr Blair fuel for his anti-communist/totalitarian literature… I abhor totalitarianism in all its forms as it rarely (as in never?) represents the people and is easily corrupted.
Regarding the difference in culture with our neighbour across the pond, I say it depends. Popular culture is heavily influenced by the prodigious publication effort in the US both in print, cinema and TV. I read a lot of US publications. Britain has lost the oomph a long time ago and is just stuttering along on the people financed BBC and the commonwealth. The latter will die an anonymous death with this recession. Even the economist has become a sort of wolf in sheep’s clothing…
Please accept that my family background includes my father living in a shared bedroom in a shared house. Sleeping on hay mattresses that needed to be emptied once a year to control bed lice and freshen them up a bit. I barely remember one grandparent and my peeps actively ignored their roots as they seemed to be ashamed of where they came from… so much so that I never learned the hamallu local dialect. But times have changed. I am who I am and expect to be a full participant in society like every other citizen so I’m not ashamed of my roots.
I am not so tied to british culture and the past of maltese aristocracy or the middle-class in colonial Malta. Your social experience, as you already admitted somewhere else in your excellent blog is not the same as the majority of Maltese and does not represent all maltese.
We are living in 2010 and we have to judge on current zeitgeist… a german word right? Those pesky german and austrian philosophers… why didn’t they coin english (or better still maltese) words instead?
sorry for the long rant… now back to work
Brilliant Elton John concert last night!
As my wife and I sat in the €200 seats (worth every penny) just under the stage I couldn’t help but think how when we were younger in the dark Mintoff days none of this would have been even remotely possible.
Mintoff hated anything to do with the lighter side of life or having fun. He systematically shut down, or made it very difficult to run, a nightclub or place of entertainment.
I vividly remember Mintoff on TV wearing a horrendous cowboy shirt and Texas-style belt-buckle telling the nation that people were supposed to work, eat and sleep early so that they could do exactly the same thing the following day.
And there was no place for nightclubs in a Socialist Republic …Viva Mintoff!
By the way, Mr. & Mrs. Tony Zarb were sitting two rows in front of us in those expensive seats. The missus looked totally lost and Tony sat there with his arms folded with that ‘Issa daqshekk!’ expression he is now famous for.
He must have been working out how many pizzas he could have bought for €400.
‘PL is party of middle classes’ – Joseph Muscat (from Maltastar.com)
So how many ‘middle classes’ are there now?
I would say at least three in Malta.
Here is Joseph’s middle class in action http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhaxEdzropo
It is a European Socialist thing. Look at what Zapatero has to put up with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SXPu-FMnVk&feature=related
“Dr Muscat also stated that the PL will be holding an activity called “Labour Connect”, during which the Party will be calling on volunteers to offer their time and skills to party-sponsored projects aimed at improving the life of Maltese citizens.”
I hope the feedback email is up and running now. When you dream up something you have to put in in place before blabbing about it. As Labour are not good on feedback they never had the means to get it and they sure do not want to spoil the play and get feedback in public.
Let us hope that the “connection” will not develop a short circuit.
“…se jerga’ jkun il-partit li jtella’ ‘l fuq dawk li qed jaqghu lura, ghax dan il-moviment jemmen li jekk ta’ taht jitilghu ‘l fuq, dawk fis-saffi ta’ fuq jisahhu wkoll.” = total crap.
Who is giving him advice? Manwel Mallia and Marlene Mizzi tal-Business Forum? I would love to know Edward Scicluna’s views on all this.
The youth born after 1987 will vote Nationalist again come next election and that’s why the Nationalists will win again. However I must say that Lawrence Gonzi is losing his lustre and probably it’s time for him to step down and make way for somebody new.
Lawrence Gonzi’s lustre is being tainted by a few ministers who should know better.
No fucking way. The first-time voters in 2013 (i.e. the current 16-21 age cohort) are Labourites to a man. They were as young as seven or eight when we went through that the whole EU referendum Yes-No upheaval. Eight years old. And given that each Maltese baby is stupider than the one before, they’ll be the voters with the lowest IQ ever.
KARIGA DIFFICLI
Fl-2003, Joseph Muscat gie nnominat bhala parti minn grupp ta’ hidma, immexxi minn Dr George Vella u Evarist Bartolo, li fassal il-politika gdida Laburista dwar l-Unjoni Ewropea.
Izda l-aktar kariga difficli u ta’ sfida kienet dik ta’ President tal-Konferenza Generali Annwali tal-Partit Laburista f’ Novembru 2003. Id-delegati nnominawh biex imexxi wahda mill-aktar konferenzi generali sensittivi ghal bosta snin u li kellha tiehu decizjoni dwar il-politika tal-partit dwar l-UE. Fl-eta’ ta’ 29 sena, Joseph kien l-izghar persuna li nghata din il-kariga. Il-konferenza kienet immarkata b’ mumenti emozzjonali izda hafna delegati rrimarkaw li l-kalma u s-sens ta’ bilanc ta’ Joseph kienu elementi mill-aktar importanti ghas-success tal-konferenza.
You see – he tamed the lower classes and brought them up to the middle. The only way is up! Open your eyes, you have to first Google everything Joseph Nuscat said, because it is there, online. If it is online then it must be true, and we have our first virtual leader.
Could you kindly make the text visible?
Bob G’s invisible quote:
Fl-2003, Joseph Muscat gie nnominat bhala parti minn grupp ta’ hidma, immexxi minn Dr George Vella u Evarist Bartolo, li fassal il-politika gdida Laburista dwar l-Unjoni Ewropea.
The MLP/PL has always peppered its electoral campaigns, without exception, with insinuations of corruption, and void promises.
Every time it was believed and given the chance to govern, the electorate had to suffer and pay dearly for its own mistake.
We are currently revisiting the same situation with the pantomime of the living wage.
I needn’t add more to what has already been written to prove that this is an ancient idea, which never took off and which will never take off except in Malta should Joseph Muscat will become prime minister in 2013.
He will implement it at the expense of the tax payer not because it is a workable concept, but because it he will put so much importance on it up to the election that he will be left with no other alternative but to implement it irrespective of the consequences, similar to the VAT/CET promise by Alfred Sant.
For those who might have a short memory here are a few major void promises by the MLP/PL since independence.
‘Xoghol ghal kulhadd fi zmien tlett xhur’, and all they could offer was membership in the labour corps under military law and the short week for the workers in industry.
Prior to the 1971 election they broke down the Malta Drydocks, which at the time was being run by Swan Hunter with a full order book and promised to run it by a council made up of workers. They did fulfill their promise but the end result was the build up of enormous debts and under production.
‘Mara tad-dar jekk trid li torhoz il-hajja vvota labour’, and they banned the importation of all commodities and started bulk buying inferior and cheap items from China, North Korea and other communist regimes, besides imposing import licenses and extremely high rate of duty on items classified as luxurious to make their importation impossible.
Removal of VAT and ambiguous messages about the cash registers for the gullible shopkeepers who destroyed theirs as soon as the election results of 1996 were known. Obviously they had to purchase new ones as replacement.
The introduction of CET, which was drafted by Alfred Sant and Leo Brincat as they went along with their so called consultation process as they had no idea what sort of taxation system they wanted to introduce instead of VAT. The result, as the saying goes, was that ‘mil-muntanja weldu gurdien’ and in the process Alfred Sant lost the services of Lino Spiteri.
The promise by Alfred Sant that with the MLP in government the salaries and wages were going to improve to such an extent that woman needn’t work and become full time housewives. Instead we saw the unemployment figures on the rise every month.
The list is endless and I invite somebody else to keep adding to it.
The 1971 poster with Mintoff smashing Malta with a mallet was appropriate then, was appropriate for Sant in 1996, and it can easily be used again now in the face of the current campaign by Joseph and his merry men.
That poster was a masterpiece and its designer read the history and the future of Malta under MLP/PL governments in detail.
The 1971 poster with Mintoff smashing Malta with a mallet was appropriate then, was appropriate for Sant in 1996, and it can easily be used again now in the face of the current campaign by Joseph and his merry men.
“ Min qed jiehu l-minimum wage illum huwa fqir, jekk ahna naqilghu n-nies mill-faqar, qed noholqu l-gid ghaliex naghmlu n-nies aktar produttivi, naqilghuom minn fuq il-beneficcji socjali. Dawn huwa il-kuncetti progressivi. Il-konservattivi jipprovaw jaqtawlna qalbna minnhom. Imma l-kuncett tal-living wage huwa l-kuncett ta’ din il-generazzjoni,”
Some observations:
1. Can someone explain how we will improve productivity by introducing a living wage?
2. Is Joseph’s concept of a living wage just that of establishing what a ‘target’ living wage would amount to (I cannot see how he can compute one living wage for everyone), but it will remain just an optional measure. Something like a desirable or a dream wage? A wage set in fiction, but not in reality?
3. Why should the State give incentives to the private sector employers who adopt the living wage instead of paying the equivalent in social benefits to those in real need?
More than a Rerum Novarum, I see a Rebus Novarum.
Giving €10 to a poor family means that the money immediately goes into circulation. Giving €10 to a well-off family means that the money goes into savings or investments.
Which policy will bootstrap the economy?
Joseph, let us go through this slowly. You are right to state that if you give Euro 10 to a poor family, it is more probable that the Euro 10 will go immediately into circulation, because poor families generally spend on immediate essential needs.
But that is not equivalent to saying that there will be an increase of Euro 10 in productivity.
[Daphne – Joseph, like his namesake who is leading the Labour Party, appears not to understand the difference between having the same amount of money circulating and an increase in productivity.]
In fact, if you do not improve productivity through other means, that Euro 10 in circulation may only increase inflation, and will result in losses or deficits to whoever pays it. And that will damage the economy.
In fact, my argument is that Euro 10 can still reach the poor family – through social services as and when required. It is more direct and more efficient than the state offering incentives to business (which often entail a lot of bureaucracy) if they pay a living wage.
Is Joseph hiding the fact that the living wage will be tied to an obligatory and commensurate increase in productivity?
If so, he had better tell his followers all the terms and conditions, as this is getting similar to the vote for the party emblem.
Even if it may sound nice to say that the living wage will be tied to an increase in productivity, this may still have serious consequences, such as lay-offs.
This could happen in those industries where the demand for the final product is fixed or declining. In this case, if less employees can achieve the same output, why not lay off the redundant ones?
The increase in productivity is already an economic objective of the current PN government, and has been a long standing objective of Maltese businesses.
I must say, the unions have responded well to this need, although the process has been slow, and there is more that can be done. Only increases in productivity can guarantee increases in wages and salaries without creating new economic problems elsewhere.
oh I understand productivity. let me list you many ways the lower wage earners; productivity can increase:
1: proper and efficient public transport. the number of cars on the road is a testament to the PN’s failure in this regard. That’s an invisible tax right there paid to car importers.
2: proper and efficient kinder care for working mothers
3: better education support for children at risk. You’d be reducing the number of morons in the very near future. Children whose parents have no education are wasting time at school because most of them cannot understand the magic in maths, the beauty of proper language etc…
4: these can be financed with a poll tax on property that gives discounts to extreme social cases and families with children.
Shall I continue? the €10 example has immediate effect and shows that when the economy is under stress the last thing the govt should do is pressure the weaker section of society, the section that has no leverage and few tools to counter the pressure put on it by the wealthy. You guys sometimes come through as idolising greed. That is dangerous. We are reaping the fruit of that with the current recession.
In all the reasons I gave I didn’t connect it directly productivity: reducing stress on the lower middle-class and poor will indirectly increase productivity.
Assuming that all the lower middle-class and poor are somehow deserving of their plight and that they’re all skivers is little different than the racist bigotry spouted by US southerners until a few years ago.
What’s this about Mintoff and the middle class? Is the man losing his marbles?
So according to Joseph Muscat it was the Aristocracy of the Middle Class that attacked Eddie Fenech Adami’s house and family, that burnt the Times building and that attacked the Curia. Yeah right. So among the rednecks waving iron bars and chains were a few doctors, a couple of lawyers, a few university students and perhaps we should throw in a few civil servants. Now that’s a nice truckload of middle class arsonists on the rampage.
If Joseph Muscat thinks he is about to rewrite the Labour Party history, he can rest assured that we will remind him of the worst excesses of the marmalja until our last breath. He is a fool to raise the subject.
Perhaps someone has already asked this question. What is the difference between the national minimum wage and a living wage?
The minimum wage was intended to afford wage-earners a guaranteed minimum standard of living.
In other words, those earning the minimum wage with a family arbitrarily construed as consisting of the parents and two offspring, would have enough income, with one wage plus social benefits such as children’s allowance, to pay for food, clothing, utilities and housing.
In order to ensure that this guaranteed standard is maintained, COLA was introduced on the same lines, broadly, of the Italian scala mobile: the minimum wage is increased each year on the basis of the level of inflation.
What would a living wage guarantee in addition to the minimum wage?
I thought the MLP’s politics was all about the working class. My oh my, are we confused!
Can someone try to calculate a living wage for the middle class?
Is Joseph trying to come up with a figure of Euro 40,000 p.a. to justify his folly?
I do hope you are all aware of the destruction of the middle class in the West (jigifieri,for those who live in the Zeta Nebula, we’re talking about l-Emerikeni and l-Arjupej).
The more obtuse think it is ‘simply happening’ – the result of ‘capitalism’, which in today’s world is not capitalism at all, but managed ‘free market’, or ‘corporatism’. Otherwise, no conspiracy exists, naaaa – the ‘New World Order’ they love to mention without telling us what it is has nothing to do with conspiracy. It just happens.
Too much vodka this evening?
But the middle class on the Brussels gravy train is doing nicely, thank you.
La Redoute, you seem bored. Here, read the latest juicy news on something that in Malta is non-existent, except in hidden taxes: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100055500/global-cooling-and-the-new-world-order/
The *latest* juicy news? I thought you were living at the centre of the universe. Is this the first time you heard of global cooling? It’s never too late to learn, you know. You may yet discover there was an ice age once.
Daphne I think that you’re not living in Malta hanini. I use to be a middle class man but now I feel that i am more under the poverty line.
[Daphne – How odd, here’s the thing: when the children were little and we were struggling, we had no money at all, but guess what, we were still middle class.]
Ftakar Daphne li fis-sittinijiet kien hawn it-tallaba jiggerrew fit-toroq u l-partit laburista ra’ zmien Mintoff nehhiehom. when you had no money you’re not a middle class citizen.
[Daphne – Well, you would think that, wouldn’t you. Shows how much you know about these things.]
U ejja Daphne mhux kullhadd jaf li fis-snin sittin kien il-partit laburista ta Dom Mintoff li hareg lil Malta mill-faqar li kien hawn?? Din hija parti mill-istorja ta pajjizna. U spjegali kif ma jkollikx flus u tghid li tkun middle class?
[Daphne – Ghaliex dawk l-affarijiet ma jigux mil-flus. ‘Middle class’ u ‘working class’ muhmiex deskrizzjoni ta’ income imma ta’ valuri, attitudini, mgieba, etc.]
Ma nistax nifhem ghax jekk ma jkollikx flus nahseb li fqir tkun.
[Daphne – U fil-fatt, Chris, naf hafna u hafna nies li m’ghandhom flus xejn u huma mhux biss middle class imma aristokratici (il-mara ta’ Sur Mintoff kient wahda minnhom) u bl-oppost, hafna u hafna nies li ghandhom il-miljuni imma huma working-class, bhal per ezempju Sandro Chetcuti.]
Meta tkun tahdem mal-gvern bhali u jkollox paga ta €1079 kull 4 weeks jien mara u tifel ta’ sentejn ghidli kif tista issejjah lilek innifsed middle class u meta tircievi kont tad-dawl ta €450 ta’ sitt xhur u trid thallsu fiz-zmien xahar ghidli inti x’jifdallek mill-paga u ghidli inti kif nista nsejjah lili nnifsi middle class u dan semmejtlek il-kont tad-dawl biss ta.
[Daphne – Dak missek rajtu qabel ma zzewwigt mara li ma tahdimx u gibt il-tfal fid-dinja. Mhu tort ta’ hadd hlief it-tort tieghek. It’s your problem and no one else’s, and it’s up to you to solve it. And that’s the middle class attitude; the working class attitude is: somebody should solve my problems for me.]
“So among the rednecks waving iron bars and chains were a few doctors, a couple of lawyers,…”
Well, Rover, there was at least ONE lawyer in the carcade leading up to, though he did not actively participate in, those shameful events, and that was the lawyer then symbolised by an upturned broom at anti-government rallies: Prime Minister Karmenu MIfsud Bonnici.
Well said. How anyone aged 40+ can ever forget such incidents, I will never understand. Even seeing six or so policemen outside my daughter’s school this morning gave me flashbacks to 1984, when they barred us from entering our schools.
As for the “iron bars and chains” business, the terrifying sound and sight are still as fresh as 26 years ago – to the very day.