By: Mitja Iršič
Lately, the media has been filled with news that is extremely conducive to pub debates but does not have a direct impact on our lives. The President of the National Assembly is making every effort to violate all protocols of etiquette, forcing her female sexuality into the public eye. The Prime Minister “accidentally” found himself in a photo with a potential new companion.
We got the largest government in the EU, consisting of political rejects from SAB, LMŠ, and political commissars from the Levica. The Prime Minister has initiated debates on the environmental footprint of carnivorous diets, and the media has gratefully followed suit with articles and even a televised discussion on the same topic. The coalition cannot agree on who supports and who opposes the new tax administration law, which will allow customs officers to have actual control over civilians without a court order. We listen to all this and discuss trivialities in cafes, hair salons, TV studios, and factories, fed to us by kidnapped media. Meanwhile, we completely forget that we are getting poorer every day.
Indeed – did anyone clearly tell you that since January 1st, 2022, you have a lower salary due to Golob’s income tax reform? It is a direct attack by the government oligarchy on ordinary people, where the government has truly embraced Golob’s wise thoughts, saying, “What does the common people need more money for; they will just buy stupid things.” An attack where they took your money and redirected it to reward their fighters for justice and thousand-year socialist realms: NGOs, the so-called civil society, loud parts of public administration. It is true what they say in that commercial, that Slovenes care only about “how much something costs and what they will get for it.” Slovenes are very frugal, calculating, and financially rational. Yet, we overslept, and the far-left will have stolen around 7,000 euros per year from us by 2025.
Moreover, the same income tax law has raised the income tax rate to 25 percent, which means that the average landlord will pay 67 percent more taxes than last year – or, in other words, higher rents will be paid by landlords. A property tax is being prepared, which threatens that you will slowly give back to the state the apartment in Ljubljana that you rent out or buy another such apartment for the state during your lifetime. Yet, you are not a “large landowner” who has “grabbed” multiple properties – you have simply saved and sacrificed for a better old age.
If you are a normative part-time artist, you will pay an effective 8 percent instead of the current 4 percent tax. The same goes if you are an ordinary taxpayer but earn more than the average Slovenian salary.
This government has made you poorer in 8 months. And you are not even aware of it, as those who shape our reality did not tell you. We were too occupied with wings, shoes, the prime minister’s corona foolishness, bizarre ministers, the vegan group for nutrition, summer trips to Vienna… things that, in the end, we dismiss with a wave of the hand and say: Oh, that’s politics. The main thing is that we still live normally. It is a typical political frog boiling scenario. When Hugo Chavez took over the reins of the Venezuelan government in 1999, Venezuelans did not start cooking their pets overnight for survival. The standard of living gradually decreased, barely noticeable. By the time people realised what was happening to them and resisted, they were already living in a military autocracy with closed emergency exits.
Fortunately, our centrally planned Chavistas live in the system of supranational European capitalism, which is not perfect but is still normal enough to restrain domestic authoritarian and socialist outbursts in the future. Therefore, we probably will not suffer the fate of Venezuela, but we might face the fate of Argentina. A complete collapse of the financial market, the economy, and international competitiveness, with a standard of living at the level of Eastern European countries outside the EU.
Eight months of government has given us some clear answers: Golob’s political commissars will economically bet on the growth of bureaucracy, strong state interventionism, the depletion of the domestic economy and private taxpayers, and handing out sweets to the leftist voter base. The recipe for bankruptcy is ready. However, at this moment, we are still preoccupied with miniskirts and menus, as we still float on the global wave of printed money and low interest rates. Life is not bad enough for us to notice it, and the media simply do not tell us clearly enough that the government has stolen part of our income.