It is easy for the Opposition and the independents in the middle to raise mock horror after Robert Abela’s announcement of forthcoming cheques for workers and pensioners totalling some €70 million especially after the revelation of Abela’s massive earnings from Mepa and other government sources before he became premier.

True, the national accounts have gone haywire this past year mostly due, it would seem, to the considerable number of people who have joined the government (in the wide sense) ranks.

True too, this announcement can be looked at as Step 2 of the election campaign already on its way (Step 1 being the vastly expensive Film Awards night) while the Opposition has again been caught dozing instead of being a step or two ahead of the government.

But instead of unleashing the politics of envy and begrudging the workers this €100 cheque (and pensioners the €200 one) the Opposition and sundry commentators should have looked deeper and seen what this announcement really means.

It is, true, a blatant election sweetener from a government so strong that nobody can stop or check (unless that is brought down by its own hubris).

But it is also a backhanded acknowledgement that workers and pensioners have been abused and neglected. Wages have remained stagnant and below the mean of workers in other countries of the EU and so have pensions although they have been improved in recent years. The fact that pensioners will be getting twice the amount that workers will get shows how far they are from coping with life today.

In fact, if we look closer, the amounts workers and pensioners will be getting is puny compared to what they are owed by the country. So instead of all this false alarm because they will be getting this blessed cheque it would have been better if the responsible voices in the community focus on the distance between the average wages and pensions and the ideal as represented by what has been called the living wage.

The social partners are split between trade unions stuck in their positions and representatives of the employers with vested interest to see their wage bill remaining as low as possible. But who will focus on the national interest especially in election times?

The situation in the country is dire. True, the amount of unemployed is very low but then more and more people have been forced to go and live in a garage because of the high rents being charged.

And we are still living before the arrival of that tsunami called inflation which is on its way as any importer will tell you. Freight charges have gone through the ceiling and the more nimble operators have already put up the prices on their shelves without waiting for the arrival of the goods.

For this and similar reasons the government announcement this week is very much in the category of ‘helicopter money' airlifted and dumped to the people on the ground so as to spur consumption and reignite trade and commerce.

This is even better than the voucher schemes which were perhaps too laborious though they may have saved the catering industry in the throes of the pandemic.

Once the distribution is over perhaps some bright researcher can find out where these cheques ended up – how much were added to savings, how much were spent at supermarkets (thus ending up paying for imports) and how much ended up with Maltese producers. My own bet is that a fair amount will end up beyond our shores. Dom Mintoff will be turning over in his grave (but he has grown used to that, even from his own side).

The end result is that our national economy is skewed and disfunctional, with an agriculture that’s on life support, with manufacturing with so many problems, with accommodation and restaurants dealt a hard blow by Covid, with a bloated and unproductive public sector, with a financial services sector which is being squeezed by an over-reaction to grey-listing that’s hurting the small while allowing the big fish to run around.

This ‘helicopter money' will not change the outcome of the election. Most people will run smiling all the way to the bank. Few if any will be bribed by it. It is actually a belated acknowledgement of the many problems we face.

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