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Some time ago when I last posted about Estonia, I mentioned our pension reform. Said reform allowed people to withdraw from the national pension fund if they so chose. Because everyone's a better investor than bankers. "It gives the people an opportunity to decide their own future". So around 150k people (or 11% of the whole population) did. During the following weekend after the payouts some shops reached new sales records, exceeding even Christmas. Particularly tech shops. Although the government got to reap more tax income in the process to patch the budget so that's "great".
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Oct 19, 2021 11:11
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You mean like entire pension or a part of it?
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Oct 19, 2021 11:22
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Oh god if they did that here poo poo would get hilarious. It's probably a decent bet that they're gonna bail out all the people who did this rather than starve 11% of their pensioners
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Oct 19, 2021 11:48
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aphid_licker posted:Oh god if they did that here poo poo would get hilarious. It's probably a decent bet that they're gonna bail out all the people who did this rather than starve 11% of their pensioners Uh, if I were you I would be careful about betting Baltics won’t starve their pensioners.
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Oct 19, 2021 11:52
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That's crazy, I think the entire Polish social security system would collapse if they did that here (instead of collapsing in 30 years)
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Oct 19, 2021 12:27
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cinci zoo sniper posted:Uh, if I were you I would be careful about betting Baltics won’t starve their pensioners. 
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Oct 19, 2021 15:54
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My grandparents have 45 and 50 years of publicly recorded, taxable work experience. Grandpa is largely just making the ends meet, and only thanks to being married to a much younger, employed wife, and having multiple supportive children. Grandma is surviving, but only because my parents had enough pity in them to charitably co-finance her flat, and the end of her life is not generous with dignity. If you’re older than like 50, Baltics are a really ruthless place to live in. Especially if you’re not a skilled blue-collar labourer. cinci zoo sniper fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Oct 19, 2021 |
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Oct 19, 2021 16:24
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cinci zoo sniper posted:If you’re older than like 50, Baltics are a really ruthless place to live in. Especially if you’re not a skilled blue-collar labourer. What if you’re ~45 and work in banking? Literally asking for a friend (cuz I worry about him).
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Oct 19, 2021 18:54
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If you didn't sell a kidney and invest the money in stocks when you were 20 then maybe you shouldn't ask others for handouts when you're 70?
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Oct 19, 2021 19:03
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Dirt Road Junglist posted:What if you’re ~45 and work in banking? Literally asking for a friend (cuz I worry about him). I'm actually familiar with that industry in Latvia specifically. If they're in a customer-facing role, changing employers is only going to become more difficult from this point onwards. If they're mid-senior back office somebody, they'll do fine, but moving into or retaining executive positions may not be trivial.
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Oct 19, 2021 19:04
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aphid_licker posted:There were lots of Nazis fighting for Germany in Afghanistan. Nazis fuckin love doing army poo poo. Nazis, or at least people expressing a totalizing view of nationality have been involved on every side of every national conflict since the end of the Cold War. Nazi ideas about blood nationality are now assumed to be simply fact. The solution is transnational government (ie no more national states), not any side winning. It's truely amazing that people are willing to live like garbage in exchange for a skycloth that makes them feel important, but its not surprising. There is no reason for non-viable statelets to have any meaningful authority outside of local government. wisconsingreg fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Oct 19, 2021 |
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Oct 19, 2021 19:45
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Looking forward to Poland vetoing Fit for 55 package to prove how Morawiecki is totally not having a meltdown.
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Oct 19, 2021 21:19
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Xarn posted:Yeah, we gonna get ultra hosed again. cinci zoo sniper posted:It’s a sparsely populated land of aloof people with 70% of the population fully vaccinated. Yeah I was just in Iceland there wasn't a mask to be seen outside of the airport. Like I might've seen 5 over 10 days or so. High vaccination rate, low population density and strict entry requirements seem to give you a lot of wiggle room. Dirt Road Junglist posted:What if you’re ~45 and work in banking? Literally asking for a friend (cuz I worry about him). mobby_6kl fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Oct 19, 2021 |
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Oct 19, 2021 22:19
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So remember when I said in Belarus they were about to start fining people for not wearing masks in public spaces? Well, today Lukashenko had a meeting with ministers, and reverted even that little shred of anti-covid measures. Nobody should be pressured to wear a mask, to social distance, or to get the vaccine. Apparently, doctors should just 'work effectively' and cure people instead of trying to impose unnecessary restrictions on people, and things will be back to normal in no time. And not a single person could say a word against that. It's amazing how an authoritarian regime fails at the only thing authoritarian regimes are occasionally good at.
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Oct 19, 2021 22:31
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Bat'ka so bad at everything he fails even at authoritarianism
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Oct 20, 2021 03:23
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They don't have enough masks, is that it?
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Oct 20, 2021 04:03
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Nenonen posted:They don't have enough masks, is that it? No, there are enough masks. But Lukashenko's electorate have been fed propaganda about covid fascism in the west to explain why nothing is being done in Belarus. So now introducing literally any anti-covid measures that affect common people means losing face for Lukashenko personally, who called covid a hysteria and 'jokingly' claimed you can cure it by working in the field on a tractor. He doesn't care about anything else.
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Oct 20, 2021 10:25
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Erulisse posted:You mean like entire pension or a part of it? All of it. Well, almost. There's still the "first pillar" or state pension. That comes out of current budget and is bare minimum. It depends on years worked, etc. Then there's now formerly-mandatory "second pillar" pension funds: every month 2% of one's income and further 4% by the state is paid into it. But there were problems with it: poo poo productivity and high management fees. Now we get to choose where the money is invested in, who invests and growth has gone up. In may 2020 the state stopped paying their 4% for five months and people had the option of opting out of their 2% payments as well. Those who didn't opt out got the right to have those 4% payments reimbursed after those five months passed. I don't know why that was for. Lack of money? All stocks were going down at that time (first wave of covid), it would've been a good time to buy. But after that came the option to opt out entirely. All the machinations with this "second pillar" were a part of one party's play for restoring their popularity. It failed because they're still somewhere at around 5-7%. They're trying to out-conservative the conservative racists. At least now they're in opposition. There'a also the "third pillar". The voluntary one. 15% of one's yearly salary paid into it or up to 6000€ is reimbursed by the state. So I'm happily paying into that one. edit: another black hole where people's pension money and any money disappears to is to scammers. Russian speakers are most affected, especially the elderly. jonnypeh fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Oct 20, 2021 |
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Oct 20, 2021 10:47
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We have identical tiering system, but what we’ve done for the 2nd pension level is to allow citizens choose their fund manager. https://www.manapensija.lv/lv/pensiju-2-limenis/salidzini-ieguldijumu-planus/ On this page you can check a basic comparison between 2nd level plans. Interface is in Latvian, but should be legible. INDEXO (fund manager) Jauda (plan) is the most popular choice for people under 40. They have a decent reputation as a manager due to them pioneering transparency in management (For instance, public Q2 2021 report in Russian, in case you read it - https://indexo.lv/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021Q2_INDEXO_Jauda_atskaite_RU.pdf ).
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Oct 20, 2021 11:19
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I'm pretty sure that in my age cohort (early millenial) the expectation that the pension system in Latvia is unsustainable and will collapse is largely seen as axiomatic. Rain is wet, sky is gray, all government spending is graft, nobody will get retirement. I've heard this being repeated for as long as I've been paying attention and I have little doubt it will become an entirely avoidable yet self fulfilling prophecy.
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Oct 20, 2021 13:40
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a podcast for cats posted:I'm pretty sure that in my age cohort (early millenial) the expectation that the pension system in Latvia is unsustainable and will collapse is largely seen as axiomatic. Rain is wet, sky is gray, all government spending is graft, nobody will get retirement. Its exactly the same in Germany. Nobody under 30 expects a pension.  But we don't even have any system beyond the public one. The general advice for retirement preparation is to just get your own brokerage account and buy some ETFs(not that most people have any money left for that after paying the insane mandatory public pension fund contributions)
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Oct 20, 2021 13:47
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a podcast for cats posted:I've heard this being repeated for as long as I've been paying attention and I have little doubt it will become an entirely avoidable yet self fulfilling prophecy. It’s basically this, we’re going to boomerang ourselves with doomerism. It’s not a clean or easy problem, but there are no natural forces stopping us from enjoying a functional welfare state, just our intrinsic hatred for the fellow man.
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Oct 20, 2021 14:18
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cinci zoo sniper posted:just our intrinsic hatred for the fellow man. And the constant prop that has ingrained those ideas, and, in Spain at least, the massive push by conservative governments to get people on private schemes. Oh and austerity.
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Oct 20, 2021 14:26
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mobby_6kl posted:strict entry requirements That wasn't really a thing in Norway from my experience (obvious caveat with specific airport, day, etc apply  ).I just walked through a gate with "eu covid pass" markings and that was it.
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Oct 20, 2021 15:47
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I don't know about Latvia or Lithuania (I suspect their circumstances are similar to ours), but shortage of medical workers is an issue in Estonia. There's a lot of stress because of the number of COVID patients and quitting because of it. Not even overtime pay makes it worth the effort. So now they've resorted to hiring medical students. Some numbers I saw during the height of the last wave said that we're short of 500 nurses. Being in close proximity to Finland is not helping. Better not get into a traffic accident now. edit: from an article published right now: "the government has demonstrated for months that restrictions that have been set do not actually apply". Yeah, no poo poo. Since late August we've had to wear masks in public spaces and on public transport. Many do not. There are no consequences. Employees do not care, security workers in malls do not kick these people out. In extreme cases the police might be around and handing out masks to people without one. For dining somewhere the employees have to check proof of vaccination or of an antibody test, which could be faked really easily anyway. Assuming that they check it. Assuming that the employees wear their masks in the first place. One gym does not check for proof of vaccination on purpose and they call such requirements illegal. They were handed a fine of 9600€, which they will be contesting in court. They will be of course keeping their doors open until then. There's a lot of people out there who do not care about the orders of the government. The police has had the authority to fine people for not wearing a mask only since May. Too bad they don't actually use it. jonnypeh fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Oct 20, 2021 |
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Oct 20, 2021 18:59
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jonnypeh posted:I don't know about Latvia or Lithuania (I suspect their circumstances are similar to ours), but shortage of medical workers is an issue in Estonia. There's a lot of stress because of the number of COVID patients and quitting because of it. Not even overtime pay makes it worth the effort. So now they've resorted to hiring medical students. Some numbers I saw during the height of the last wave said that we're short of 500 nurses. Being in close proximity to Finland is not helping. We have paused non-life threatening hospital procedures a few weeks ago for a few months at the very least, ignoring historical backlog from the last time we did that due to the pandemic. Ambulances were instructed to ignore casual-seeming calls a few weeks ago, and they seem to be discussing further restricting that to “literally dying” cases. Some hospitals see ambulance cars queue for hours outside, until their “cargo” gets admitted into the hospital. A substantial number of regional hospitals is already at full capacity with regards to COVID-19 patients, with the largest hospitals in the capital already expanding both into hallways and outdoor tents, as army is preparing to deploy field hospitals, hospital staff prepares to triage patients, and government prepares to beg Germany or something to bail us out like they did Benelux earlier in the pandemic. This is on top of historical lack of medical staff, overbooked GPs, outdated facilities, and other issues caused by the fact that leaving the Riga city border means travelling 10 years into the past, while at the same time even mid-senior hospital specialists in the capital are paid a laughable pittance that pales in comparison to reasonably expected earnings of a 21 year junior programmer. The lovely silver lining for the pandemic here is that government finally caved on medical pay, so now they’ll be paid not like dogs, but like well fed dogs. We have been plugging holes with medical students since the start of the pandemic, loving their studies in the process because no one thought to adjust residency rules accordingly, and now it’ll be more of the same. On the topic of conscripting unfortunate students, police cadets are being drafted into curfew enforcement starting tomorrow.
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Oct 20, 2021 19:31
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jonnypeh posted:I don't know about Latvia or Lithuania (I suspect their circumstances are similar to ours), but shortage of medical workers is an issue in Estonia. There's a lot of stress because of the number of COVID patients and quitting because of it. Not even overtime pay makes it worth the effort. So now they've resorted to hiring medical students. Some numbers I saw during the height of the last wave said that we're short of 500 nurses. Being in close proximity to Finland is not helping. Glad my friend's baby was delivered safely last year. And hopefully they won't have to hop the ferry back to Talinn anytime soon.We thought him leaving the US for Estonia in mid 2020 was going to be a good thing...
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Oct 20, 2021 19:40
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cinci zoo sniper posted:We have paused non-life threatening hospital procedures a few weeks ago This is exactly what Belarus ministry of health done 2 days ago due to literally no more space for covid patients, Luka ordered to cancel that and roll as normal somehow. Memorable idea was for his civil administration (usual civil cervice, not medical) to examine normal patients while real medics deal with covid
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Oct 20, 2021 21:26
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cinci zoo sniper posted:This is on top of historical lack of medical staff, overbooked GPs, outdated facilities, and other issues caused by the fact that leaving the Riga city border means travelling 10 years into the past, while at the same time even mid-senior hospital specialists in the capital are paid a laughable pittance that pales in comparison to reasonably expected earnings of a 21 year junior programmer. The lovely silver lining for the pandemic here is that government finally caved on medical pay, so now they’ll be paid not like dogs, but like well fed dogs. The thought that medical staff don't deserve a pay raise because they can put in more hours in private practices on top of their regular work is way too common. Little did it help us, at least the masks indoors/on public transport rules have been in place since they got introduced and people in Riga seem to follow them for the most part.
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Oct 21, 2021 10:45
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Haltūra is the original sidehustle.
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Oct 21, 2021 10:48
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“Kāpēc sasodītā ēnu ekonomika nemirst?!” I yell as I benevolently pay a neurosurgeon 12k per year.
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Oct 21, 2021 10:53
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Chałtura in Poland, it’s the name of the game
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Oct 21, 2021 12:37
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Paladinus posted:So now introducing literally any anti-covid measures that affect common people means losing face for Lukashenko personally, who called covid a hysteria and 'jokingly' claimed you can cure it by working in the field on a tractor. He doesn't care about anything else. quote:Russia orders new lockdowns in Moscow as COVID deaths continue to climb
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Oct 21, 2021 12:40
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Maybe they'll be able to lower retirement age again for the survivors!
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Oct 21, 2021 12:50
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aphid_licker posted:Maybe they'll be able to lower retirement age again for the survivors! Think of all the pensions that don't have to be paid anymore
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Oct 21, 2021 21:07
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Nitrox posted:Think of all the pensions that don't have to be paid anymore The flip side is that they’re also the loyalist core of Putin’s electorate. I doubt that mass pensioner extinction event would topple him, but it’s one fire history shows he’s unlikely to toy with at lengths.
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Oct 21, 2021 21:11
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Budzilla posted:Russia is having some COVID problems due to vaccine hesitancy. RT has been in full schizophrenic mode for the past year where the english version offers space for anti-vaxxers and bemoans HOMOFASCISTIC VACCINE MANDATES while the russian version has their editor-in-chief cry about unruly people not vaccinating and advocating for the harshest state measures Meanwhile everything is in freefall basically because lives are not worth much really
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Oct 22, 2021 10:43
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fatherboxx posted:RT has been in full schizophrenic mode for the past year where the english version offers space for anti-vaxxers and bemoans HOMOFASCISTIC VACCINE MANDATES while the russian version has their editor-in-chief cry about unruly people not vaccinating and advocating for the harshest state measures It really is ironic to look at Russia’s vaccination stats when we have a double digit % domestic population that would only accept Sputnik.
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Oct 22, 2021 10:45
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cinci zoo sniper posted:It really is ironic to look at Russia’s vaccination stats when we have a double digit % domestic population that would only accept Sputnik.
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Oct 22, 2021 11:01
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I wouldn’t be surprised to see the exact same turn of events here, in this hypothetical scenario.
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Oct 22, 2021 11:02
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