Much is frequently proclaimed about how the important goal in public management and private life is not the acheivement of economic growth but the extent to which this contributes to a better quality of life for ordinary citizens. For it could happen (as some claim is actually the case) that for many people, economic progress really serves to increase tensions and burdens, thus making life more difficult, even when one has more to spend. The question that arises is: how should the quality of life be measured as it improves or deteriorates?
That measure must be established according to a method which is as "objective" as the one for economic growth, so it could be tracked over the long term, and so, yesterday's situation could be compared with that of the day after tomorrow. The problem is that what constitutes an improvement for certain social strata might mean the opposite for others.
As of now, the comparisons made usually relate to questionnaires which are regularly conducted with the public (like at Eurobarometer) about how they feel in their everyday lives. These provide a picture of how mentalities change, also in a long run perspective within a population at large. However it is doubtful whether they really reveal changes in the quality of life in society as a whole.
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TARIFFS
The claim has been made that as Malta does not export so much to the US, then there's little need to worry about the impact of the higher tariffs that the US administration is imposing on its imports from practically the whole world. Even if this is true (which I doubt), we certainly cannot ignore the changes that are taking place. In a globalised world (which was actually promoted by the US first and foremost in its own interests), almost all areas of the national economy everywhere depend in one way or the other on what is happening elsewhere.
Given the kind of fundamental upheaval which Trump has been carrying out, the impact will surely be enormous, even at the expense of America's closest allies, not to mention the US itself.
To believe that we can remain isolated from all this is an illusion.
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US UNIVERSITIES
Many many years have passed but I still feel much gratitude toward the US universities which in the past gave me to the end, a full go-ahead to carry out the studies I wanted to undertake, at the time I wanted to. Which is why I worry about what's hitting them at present.
They're being forced to cancel their programmes intended to give a better opportunity to ethnic and social minorities by allowing them to benefit from the tertiary education they can offer. Universities are being forced to expel foreign students and to fire academic staff because they protested and spoke out against the atrocities that Israel is committing in Gaza, and this on the excuse that their behaviour is anti-semitic. Universities are experiencing a barefaced interference in their management and academic research.
Unfortunately the US looks like it is drifting toward times which resemble those lived during the 1950's, when with his antics, Senator Joe Mc Carthy pushed the country towards fascism.