Friday, January 15, 2010

Pessions and Salaries

I have just spoken to a relative worrying about the father not working anymore. He used to work what was know as Shire Bus Lines before liquidation but has grown up with it. A good driver/mechanic whom if there had been no privatisation would have been enjoying his pession(though too little for todays financial needs) but would suffice than nothing in old age.

How can these people really be helped? Expect from their children?

To rotate the circle here is a situation I think so much overlooked. A father like him educates a child to get to college and get a job. He expects to rest(retire; not work through the life he has been alive) after that. When the child gets a job he is expected to help the Father who is living on a small pession. But his wages are calculated to suffice only for him. The pession of the Father as well to suffice only for him as an individual. The father has a wife and afew other dependants and relatives at the village. The young graduate has young brothers and a father to take care of. How do we break even?

Now for the father whose company was privatised before any of his children could qualify for university, the situation is worse. He has no pension and no child educated enough to get a break-even salary and support him.

Restructuring: a stastical survey that gives a distribution which is skewed towards the upper quartile for the rich and skewed towards the lower quartile for the poor is bad as bad can be. A normal distribution is required. In restructuring for a salary of a malawian employee the extended family show also be considered other than the household itself. The pension should also consider this. No wonder you find no employee happy with their wages in the civil service.

The law: it seems the law has put fixed amounts in most charges, fines, wages, etc. These things with changing economies deprecate and become useless. Is it possible to put something representative which changes with the changing (is it, inflation rates)? Discount Houses and Banks must have worked these out. It now remains with lawyers to work these out I guess. They don't even have to work alone. We have economists who can help.

Remember also those not receiving pensions from privatised companies.

Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone