A blabbering note on the economical crisis in the world; ground observations

Sweden: Villa, Volvo, children and a dog

A lot of Swedish families are holding their breath right now. The failing economy has reached all the way into the Scandinavian homes, and when Ford-owned Volvo, who is a large employer in Sweden, has been forced to cut back, thousands of people are about to lose their jobs. Volvo just announced that they will have to fire 2700 employees in Sweden (out of a total of 3300). They’ve given a collective notice, which means that now the union will sit down with the company and negotiate the terms. The Swedish papers are filled with honest, middle class families interviewed in their homes; families that are about to lose one or in a lot of cases two incomes, risking their welfare as they know it. Of course this is all it is in Sweden: nobody will be thrown into the street without any means to survive. All of the fired employees will receive unemployment benefits, which compared to the American ones (or the non-existing Egyptian ones for all that matters) are significant. Their life style might have to be slightly altered, but they will not have to starve or (in most cases) not leave their homes.

The United States housing bubble

It’s easy to generalize about Sweden because of its homogeneity and stability. It’s harder when it comes to the United States. I’ve seen stories in papers about people here too; families that have to leave their homes as victims of the United States housing bubble. One thing is certain, if you fall in the US, you fall further, because there is no security net there to break your fall. I know, because our family has been affected too. Unemployment is a very unpleasant state in the US, compared to in Western Europe, because the economies are built so differently. If you don’t have a job or have generated wealth while you were working, you lose everything – not only your income, but your insurance and your retirement money. Imagine if you would have to go to the hospital at this point in your life. Surgery is expensive. There will be no Forsakringskassan (as in Sweden) or Mutualiteit (as in Belgium) there to cover your bill.

In Egypt the poor simply remain poor

Things are a little different in Egypt. A direct result of last weeks’ problems has been that the cash machines don’t work, and we’ve been unable to make transfers – international and domestic. This might just be a coincidence, but then again not. A few months ago, the prices went up too – a lot. There are already so many poor people here though, that I can’t really say I notice poverty significantly more.
Although there is no social system to mention, people act differently here. Faith makes people generous, and I’ve seen more voluntary sharing here than anywhere in the world. Most important though is the family; people don’t let each other fall, and members of a family look out for one another.

I don’t have time to read all the articles, and whatever macro economy I studied at the university is long gone, but I do know this; the world economical crises has gone unnoticed by nobody, not even me. The professor and I are in our 30’s and because of the choices we’ve made, we don’t really have anything to lose but our daily bread; we don’t have a car or a house. We don’t even own any furniture, art or valuables. We both have jobs but they are mere temporary contracts. The one thing that we do have – that we deliberately chose to invest in – is something nobody can take away from us, ever, no matter how expensive the oil gets: we both have a great education – university degrees; our only security, and somehow we imagine we’ll be able to build on that, some day, when the economy gets better. Because it will, right?