Friday, March 29

The leader of the bosses asks not to talk about “rich and poor” because it “radicalizes” society


The president of the Spanish businessmen, Antonio Garamendi, has asked “not to talk about rich and poor”, in reference to the Government, since they are “worrying” approaches, in the opinion of the leader of the CEOE employers’ association, which divide and radicalize society .

The employers press in the EU against taxes on electricity and banking in countries like Spain

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“If there is something that worries us at the moment, it is that approach or image that we are seeing of the breakdown of society”, the Basque businessman maintained at the Economic Forum ‘Companies facing the new challenges of 2023’, organized by The Post. “You can’t talk about rich and poor, you can’t talk about ‘the government of the people’, you can’t radicalize society”, Garamendi continued.

The president of the employers’ association has affirmed that “when we are in the street we are not seeing what we see in the political debate” and has defended that inflation harms everyone, the most vulnerable, but “also the companies”, he has highlighted . According to the Bank of Spain, the business and profitability of companies grow at a “very high rate” in this context, compared to the great deterioration in the purchasing power of wages.

The CEOE opposes several of the measures of the coalition government that seek to increase public resources by increasing taxes on higher incomes and companies with extraordinary profits in this price crisis, such as energy and banking.

Antonio Garamendi has charged again this Tuesday against the rise in what the highest wages are quoted, the so-called maximum contribution bases, which are increased in the Budgets by 8.6%, in line with the rise in pensions and the forecast of inflation (8.5%). The Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, explained yesterday that the Government’s idea is that these maximum bases rise every year at least as pensions do, according to prices, to which it is also intended to add an additional bonus as a result of process of ‘unstopping’ the contribution of the highest salaries.

One in five people at risk of poverty

Although the head of the employer criticizes the talk of “rich and poor”, the data on poverty and inequality in Spain are among the highest in the EU for years and, although the situation was improving with the recovery after the financial crisis , the pandemic has once again aggravated the problem.

According to the latest official data, the population living below the poverty line in 2021, with income data from 2020, rose to 21.7%. More than one in five people in Spain. This is the highest figure in the last five years, since 2016, with an increase that, however, is not as pronounced as that which occurred in the last Great Recession.

Inequality also increased. The INE shows that the gap between those with more and less income has increased after years of decline. “The S80/S20 ratio”, used to measure inequalities and which compares the income of the 20% of the population with the highest income with that of the 20% of the population with the lowest income, was 6.2 compared to 8.8 for the year previous.

Although inflation affects all households, those with fewer resources are especially affected by the rise in prices due to the limited margin to assume more expenses and be able to meet their basic needs.



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