Final Word from Thursday, December 5, 2024

The Senate gave final legislative approval yesterday to a bill for raising the retirement age and making a few other changes. It's commonly referred to as a pension-reform bill, but hardly anyone in the Czech Republic wants true pension reform. That would require a whole-of-society approach, similar to the one called for half-heartedly in the government's security strategy with regard to defense. A fundamental long-term problem of the pension system is that many employers rely on modern-day slaves to boost short-term profits, without regard for the future prosperity and security of the country or its people. The government aids them in this by encouraging them to import Ukrainians, Mongolians, Indonesians and other low-skilled workers. A whole-of-society approach would put emphasis on education, training, health and security and would seek to include as many Czechs as possible in the workforce under dignified conditions. Employers would be penalized for hiring cheap foreigners. Under current circumstances this is out of the question, so the pension system will continue to require pseudo-reforms on a regular basis. [ Czech Republic Mongolia Indonesia Ukraine ]