Truly the ever growing demographic imbalances have become a topic that gives rise to much worry. At least if it is to be considered as a serious matter (and I believe it should)  that the Maltese population will continue to decrease till it disappears completely. Meanwhile, old people are bound to become an ever growing majority and it is difficult to see how funding for pensions and social services can be sustained.

Foreign workers could be recruited so that their work effort would maintain the flow of the country’s economic inputs and outputs. Whether they want to or not, those among them who’ll stay for a few years only would introduce a climate of social instability. Those who remain permanently would provide a stronger sense of security but would change the character of the society in ways that cannot be easily predicted. Moreover a society that gives the appearance of decay and exhaustion will have more and more difficulty to retain its young people…

It does not seem as if we are moving towards some resolution of this major problem. The latest available statistics confirmed it is getting worse.

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THE EUROPEAN ECONOMY

As was to be foreseen, the tariff manoeuvrings of the Trump administration in the US have triggered setbacks for the European economy. Already before Trump arrived, stagnation had spread. The EU had for quite some time launched efforts to regain momentum. Reports were separately prepared by two former Italian Prime Ministers Draghi and Letta about which reforms had become indispensable. Their recommendations moved along congruent lines and were invariably lauded. That they should be implemented as soon as possible became a universal invocation.

Top of the list in this came the need to roll back in a big way the red tape that is suffocating initiative; as well as the too many barriers that still remain between the national markets of European countries which are shackling the (common) single market and preventing it from delivering on the efficiencies that it is supposed to be creating. It doesn’t really look as if the sense of urgency which one and all invoke is giving results.

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MODEL

The Entertainment Industry and Arts Association has published a study about the fair pay to which its members and others active in their sectors of activity should be entitled. It gives a clear picture of the conditions under which participants are at present expected to contribute to the Maltese cultural and artistic scene; and how they are and should be financially remunerated. The proposals are interesting as they offer a model regarding  what a “fair pay” should be for those working fulltime, parttime and on a voluntary basis, as “amateurs”.

However one needs as well a good picture of the economic dimensions of the arts market: how big it is; how it is financed between ticket sales, private and state subsidies; how it is split between government initative and private projects. Realistically all this would be required to evaluate whether the proposals being made could be financially and artistically viable.