Hungarian Politics

[Tamas]

The assurance I know of is Orban's word.

[Tamas]

In other words: I am not entirely dismissing the consipration theories which say that Orban is looking for a controlled defaulting of the country, to finish off the economic conquest of the country by his peers, and make a basis for his future autocratic means.

I'm not that well informed, but my understanding from when Orban took over was that Hungary was basically Greece without the euro (thus not much reason for anyone to bend over backward for them). Ie, a trainwreck was coming regardless of how the government behaved. Unless I was wrong, a controlled defaulting is probably the best the country can do.

I think was plenty of time to correct things. The strategic problem is the chronic overspending, we finance our living via foreign credit.

That's what Orban had a chance to change (via his supermajority), but he didn't. After he took over he had all the excuse for austerity and welfare cuts because of the highly unpopulare predecessors he had in the Socialists. But now 2 years have passed. He will not cut spending until the next elections, just raise taxes, and beat our economy to the ground.

[Tamas]

Meh.

Earlier during the FIDESZ reign there was some talk of liberalizing the weapon law, so you would be more free to get a gun permit, and to defend your property with it.

Well, no, they are done changing that law now. Only change affecting the layman is that archaic weapons will be needing a permit, so much for buying a musket to feel safer at home!

Basically all of the easing concerns making the life of hunters easier regarding handling of their weapon, and guarding it.

I wonder if it is a coincidence that the vice-PM is a huge fan of hunting

[derspiess]

I used to have a Hungarian Mosin-Nagant that was pretty much beaten to shit but still shot pretty accurately.  I think I had originally paid $35 for it

[Tamas]

lol in Miskolc, the shittiest of our main cities, out in the north east, the mayor had to make an extra decree about forcing people to actually stick to the law when receiving their welfare money.

Because, you see, legally, you can get it at the post office, or you can have the mailman bring it to you.
But the gyp... I mean the welfare receivers have made a habit of ambushing the mailmen en masse, once one of them dared stepping out of the post office door, on welfare-money day.
So what you had, were scenes in front of the post office, were this horde of gyp... welfare receivers would sourround the mailman and yell at him until he managed to pay their due. Noise, abuse, and trickery were abundant.

So they now made this strictly verboten and assigned some policemen on mailman escort duty in the vicinity of the post offices.

edit: a report sez though that the mailmen are not enthusiastic about the change. With the mob around them, they could pay out most of the welfare in a grand swoop, now they have to go one-by-one. And they speculate that it was safer too, since nobody would attempt to rob them from the mob, since the rest would just beat the shit out of him/her right there, the money being theirs. Now they will have to navigate some pretty shady neighborhoods alone with big slums of cash.

[Zanza]

Wait, someone literally walks around with the money and distributes it? 
Why don't you use bank transfers?

[Tamas]

Wait, someone literally walks around with the money and distributes it? 
Why don't you use bank transfers?

Dude, a lot of these people never had a job in their life, and barely finished elementary school. They will not go and create bank accounts.

The government is working on having these welfare payments being sent to the electric cafeteria-benefit cards we employed people also use, altough needless to say it is meeting heavy resistance from bleeding hearts.

[The Brain]

Didn't Orban build guns for the Turks in 1453? Dude must be like a thousand years old now.

[Tamas]

Our National Tax Authority has put ITSELF on the public blacklist of people/companies with too much tax credits.

[Tamas]

Interesting. Orban suggested that state sponorship of political parties should stop from next year.

Right now they receive money based on the number of their seats in Parlaiment. It is 80-90% of their official income.

I of course support the idea, but one cannot miss the timing of this proposal: FIDESZ is everywhere, their sponsors and vassals in the economy control everything, or in full-fledged offensive to control everything, with legal support.

So of course FIDESZ doesn't need that state money anymore. They ARE the state. But they can eliminate the chances of the other parties for running an effective election campaign.

[Zanza]

Read an article in Der Spiegel which said that Hungarian students will now have to stay twice the length of their studies in Hungary after graduation. Despite paying tuition fees and youth unemployment of 25%. The consequence is apparently that the emigration doesn't happen after their studies but before...

[Martinus]

Hungary = failed state

[Tamas]

Read an article in Der Spiegel which said that Hungarian students will now have to stay twice the length of their studies in Hungary after graduation. Despite paying tuition fees and youth unemployment of 25%.

That's for when their fees are paid by the state.

Still retarded. IMHO there should be
a) less state-funded places. there are only so many sociologists you need, not mention teachers in a shrinking population
b) concentrate the state funds on paying fees for the successful, hard working students. I can accept that state funding of higher education is an investment for society, especially for backwardish states like ours. What I can't accept is sponsoring the partying and loitering of layabouts.

[Tamas]

If they give 500 million forints to a private company as a grant, and that results in 25 new (allegedly high-skilled, mind you) jobs, doesn't that mean that you spent 20 million forints (more than 90k dollars I think) per new job? That means the ROI is like 20 years.

[Tamas]

which reminds me - these "national consultations" are ridicoulous. They are spending tons of money on sending out these questionaries, with such important, highly debated topics as "should the creation of new jobs be encouraged?" and the like. And there is the accompanying advertising campaign, with billboards, and the PM appearing on TV commercials to ask for your help in deciding on these important questions