Average income and actual income

People buy vegetables and fruits at a supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: QUANG DINH

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has just announced that in the first 6 months of 2024, the average income of workers was 8.4 million VND/month, an increase of 567,000 VND/month compared to the same period. This is encouraging information, but it makes readers wonder.

Social statistics are first and foremost the basis for formulating policies and solutions. According to this announcement, the Government will be assured that people's income has increased and their lives have improved, so some policies can be delayed, such as not increasing the family deduction level or extending the time for reducing 2% value added tax...

Really, does this statistic give us any peace of mind or encouragement?

For those who understand, statistics like this are meaningless and misleading.

Average income is the cumulative number of different income levels from minimum to maximum of different individuals and groups of people, then divided to get the average number.

Thus, it invisibly does not tell us the exact economic picture of society at a specific time with specific faces, this is like the report of the poverty reduction program saying that people's lives have improved, on average each family gets half a chicken in their meals, but in reality one family eats a whole chicken, while the other eats rice with salt (!).

Moreover, the concept of "worker" seems very general, not reflecting real life.

Who are the people who are subject to this additional 567,000 VND/month? Are they civil servants, workers in industrial zones, employees in enterprises, freelancers, or street vendors?

The reality is that the lives of most people are very difficult, production is stagnant, many factories have no orders, causing workers to lose their jobs en masse, those who have jobs have reduced income; the real estate market is frozen, housing construction sites are quiet, causing the large army operating from construction, material production to trading to be sluggish; people are tightening their belts, causing services to be sluggish, stores to close, many types of services are struggling, including food and beverage...

Determining the exact actual income of each group of people and each field will help the Government make the right decisions regarding subsidies for groups that are really in difficulty; debt extension and debt forgiveness for units in temporarily difficult fields, preferential loans for groups with opportunities to recover and breakthroughs in key points that can change the system to increase labor productivity, expand production scale...

Because of a clear understanding of the health of the economy and people's lives, most countries in the region such as Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia... have launched billion-dollar support packages to each household to improve their lives and stimulate consumption.

To do so, of course, governments have in hand the necessary and sufficient information of each individual and household to serve important policy decisions.

General, abstract information and statistics, and predictions with little scientific basis need to change.

This is not only beneficial for the Government, the National Assembly, and provincial and municipal authorities, but also for each citizen. When there is relatively complete information, people will know where to invest their finances, what profession to study, and how to make a living...

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thu-nhap-binh-quan-va-thu-nhap-thuc-te-20240829080121292.htm