Our economy?

[duncan drennan]

sometimes i wonder if there is not a bigger picture which we are all missing...like maybe the aim is to get as many of us out of here...

I was watching the latest reports on the xenophobic attacks and listening to the reactions of various high up politicians and then marrying that to the number or crises we've been bombarded with this year.

One of the things that I suspect is that we have a bunch of people who are inexperienced running the country and learning lessons the hard way. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but how we go forward from here is. Because government tends to be a slow moving beast we probably have to look 10 years back and examine what was going on then to establish what we did wrong.

So going back to Jim Collins, do we have leaders who are willing to learn from their mistakes and build momentum in the right direction, or leaders who will continue in a negative spiral.

[Dave A]

Here is the sort of story that makes me wonder about gov strategy.

In a move that will see an additional two million South Africans receiving social grants, Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya on Friday announced that people earning more than R2 000 will soon qualify for welfare assistance.

Addressing the National Assembly during the department's budget vote debate, Skweyiya said the current means test, where people earning more than R1 500 a month did not qualify for grants, had kept many people out of the social security system.

"Consequently, we have agreed to work towards the removal of the archaic means test on certain grant types. This will have the consequence of removing the urban/rural qualification divide whilst raising the threshold to R2 200 per month for child support, old age and disability grants," he said.

The changes were meant to assist the poor to cope with current economic challenges characterised by high inflation and rising food prices.

"All these reforms in our social security system will go a long way towards widening the social security safety net and may see the entry into the system of 2 million deserving people," he said.

"This exercise will however, pose a fiscal challenge which may require either a gradual phasing out of the means test or reconsideration of the tax threshold levels," Skweyiya said.
full story from IOL here

It's throwing money at the problem instead of treating the root causes. And then there is the effect on the fiscus... More money being taken from enterprises and individuals who could create more employment to finance handouts.

Or maybe I'm just being too insensitive.

[Marq]

Pretty soon if the government carries on in this way, I will pass the means test.
No job No money No future and man am I going to be mean then.
But at least I should qualify for a grant somewhere in the many categories of hand outs. Who knows maybe I'll be mean enough to qualify for a few categories.

So you guys out there had better keep making big bucks and stop inflation and eating cause the coffers must be full when I come round.

[IanF]

I heard that there are about 8 million people in SA receiving a Government grant of some sort. This frightens me.

[Moneymaker]

There's an election coming up.........so this is no surprise. They're buying votes amongst those who they have failed to address in the last 15 years with housing etc. Since most domestics dont earn R2000 per month, this will possibly see even more people giving up work which will increase unemployment, and since taxes will have to go up to afford this benefit, maybe there will be employers encouraging their domestics to take up the offer.....???

[dianezenga]

You know guys, reading these posts, you could be talking about the US too. Crime is rising, prices are outrageous, fuel is $5.00 gallon in some areas, the housing market is not good. It is a sad state of affairs it seems in the entire world. It is sad that people feel they are not safe in their own homes and cannot protect their families. I do not know about SA but I know the US government does not do enough when it comes to rising fuel costs and such. Why doesn't the President just say Enough already? The war in Iraq? I will not even go there. Hang in there SA!

[Dave A]

I hear you Diane. When it comes to oil prices in particular, that's clearly a global issue. It's in the capacity to absorb and adjust these shocks where we probably differ most. A question of scale on multiple fronts, really.