Poor workers struggle in the price "storm"

Tighten spending

At dawn, Ms. Trinh My Dung (Ward 5, Bac Lieu City) left her boarding house and quickly went to the shops to make a living by selling lottery tickets. Previously, she worked as a restaurant assistant and housekeeper, but in recent years her health has been poor so she switched to selling lottery tickets. Her income is small, just over 100,000 VND/day, while she has to take care of her young grandchild, so Ms. Dung spends as economically as possible. "Now everything has increased, from sticky rice packages, loaves of bread to bunches of vegetables, fish... Prices have increased while my income is low, so every morning before leaving the house, I quickly cook a package of noodles and bring a bottle of water, spending economically to pay for the boarding house and take care of food, medicine every day," Ms. Dung shared.

The husband works as a carpenter and the wife works as a housekeeper. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, their income has decreased. The work is sometimes available and sometimes not, causing the income of Mr. Bui Van Trong and his wife (Ward 1, Bac Lieu City) to decrease significantly, but expenses continue to increase. Mr. Trong said that as freelancers, his and his wife's monthly income is very limited. In addition to spending money, buying daily food also has to be frugal to have money to pay school fees and buy milk for their children. Currently, the high price of gas and other foods makes life even more difficult and difficult.

The "escalating" market prices not only cause headaches for poor workers, low-income earners, civil servants and public employees because of the decline in quality of life, but also make business people "nervous" because high prices make sales sluggish.

Street vendors with meager incomes have to struggle to cope with the price "storm". Photo: TQ

Need to strengthen price management

In the context of continuously increasing commodity prices like today, many consumers are very worried, because not only food prices are increasing but other consumer goods are also in a state of "escalation". To cope with the "storm" of food prices, many housewives have to calculate and tighten spending, cutting down on unnecessary consumption.

“Before going to the market, I have to write down on paper what I need to buy. With the price of many items increasing like now, I have to save as much as possible. In order to avoid running out of money, I can only buy less meat, use other foods instead to ensure nutrition for each meal, cut down on all expenses as much as possible, and only spend money on really necessary needs,” said Ms. Kim Ngan (Ward 5).

In view of the difficulties of the people, especially the "escalating" prices of goods, the authorities need to further strengthen the inspection and control of the market for important and essential goods serving people's lives. Avoid taking advantage of unreasonable price increases in order to contribute to stabilizing market prices, preventing imbalances in supply and demand of goods. In addition, the authorities also propagate to businesses and small traders to implement many subsidy programs, price stabilization sales... At the same time, strictly handle businesses, establishments and points of sale that deliberately "follow the flow", indiscriminately increase prices, affecting people's lives.

The life of freelance workers in the city is also full of hardships and difficulties. They always try their best with the hope of having more income to improve their family life and invest in their children's education so that their future life will be less difficult. Hopefully, with the drastic and strict intervention of the authorities, market prices will quickly cool down, thereby helping workers' lives to be more comfortable, their spending problems will have less subtraction and family meals will still be complete.

Minh Luan

Source: https://www.baobaclieu.vn/doi-song-xa-hoi/lao-dong-ngheo-chat-vat-trong-con-bao-gia-99848.html