One billion euros – a quarter of the country’s entire budget – goes in social benefits
Published:
November 19, 2014 at 9:16am
Michael Farrugia, the king of social benefits, celebrating the Labour Party’s victory in March last year at Darren Casha’s Medasia, with the chairman of the Malta Council for Science and Technology
The government’s entire budget is four billion euros. A quarter of that is going straight to Michael Farrugia’s ministry for onward distribution in social benefits.
In all, Farrugia’s ministry has taken a full 30.6% of the country’s entire budget.
In comparison, education gets 11.5% and health/energy gets 13.6%, 80% of which will be spent on healthcare.
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Very simple. We are back to socialism. Only that the brand we are experiencing now fits perfectly in the category of national socialism.
In Germany this ministry takes up 48% of the entire budget. What I find much more worrying is that the Ministry of Finance in Malta snatched 23.1% of the budget. What for? His German counterpart only gets 5% of the pie and is at the bottom of the list.
Alternatively, Edward Scicluna could claim that the budget was based on fake surveys and, therefore, the conclusion drawn above is spurious.
Are Joseph Calleja’ state-sponsored concerts financed by the social benefits budget? Why does the country feel a need to systematically sponsor these silly concerts which would make any classical music lover run? This is not culture, but populism of the very base kind.
To have one of the golden spoilt twerps singing in the choir.
That’s why the slogan was conceptually misleading.
The slogan, if it were honest, should have been built around this specific focus.
Patronage and clientelism at its worst. The economy degenerates but with this level of state control rest assured the party will be in government for another decade.
There is no such thing as a free lunch. There is not much pride in living off benefits, but there again does is matter for the narrow-minded?
Malta does not really have a liberal party. It has a Catholic Labour party (the PN). It has a National Socialism party (the PL) and a Socialist party (AD).
Benefits are a legacy of the well intentioned Poor Laws of Queen Victoria, now a scourge on society in both the UK and Malta. Then we complain that we have well qualified, hard working Europeans stealing our jobs.
My apologies. I meant Elizabethan Poor Laws.
Labour has always existed on double meanings. I still remember the slogan “jien ghal paci u l-progress”.
This budget, like any other Labour will give during this legislation is based on handouts. The lesser creatures need handouts in order to keep them happy at bay while the big boys have their noses in the trough.
Is JPO still wearing that wedding ring?
Miskina Carmen.