Final Word from Thursday, September 8, 2016
It's not possible, declared Labor Min. Michaela Marksová yesterday, for the wage differential between the CR and Germany/Austria to be so great. She was repeating the words of Bohuslav Sobotka, who made reducing the difference in wages one of his two priorities for next week's EU summit. It's worth reminding readers that this is the same Bohuslav Sobotka who opened his arms wide - and the government's subsidy purse - so that Amazon could pay Czechs far lower than Germans earn for the same work. His cabinet is also subsidizing shared-service centers, which are yet another exercise by multinationals in cost-cutting. On top of this, Sobotka routinely defends the devaluation of the crown, although it increased the wage differential in one fell swoop by 5%. And then there is Sobotka's love for Industry 4.0, which is CDU/CSU's way of eliminating many wage-earning jobs entirely. Robots are the future, says Industry 4.0. They're also Sobotka's perfect voters, because they do what they're programmed to do and don't notice the contradictions and hypocrisy of their politicians. [Czech Republic automation Czech National Bank CNB Bavaria Bratislava Seehofer convergence]
Glossary of difficult words
differential - a difference between amounts of things;
purse - a small pouch of leather or plastic used for carrying money; the money possessed by or available to a person or country;
in/at one fell swoop - all at once; all in one go.