I had a really good day at work and got home completely exhausted. There came a blessed dinner looking through the Budget Sheet we all got from Mission Year. It is difficult to budget, when you haven’t got enough to budget from for necessities, let alone luxury like hairdresser. I`ve been blessed with the best chicken dish and pudding with lots of custard.
Thesis case study II.
First of all we need to understand what parts distrust plays in people’s life to understand B’s case study. Distrust could be translated into both political and economic terms: undesired effect of oppression (communist approach, dictatorship and its role in everyday life, the Big – Brother syndrome, Orwell, 1984) or too many legislations in a country for example France (Aghion, 2009). Hungary as a post – communist country with a transition economy and an ever changing legislation system to fit into the EU expectations suffers from both. This translates into a Fast Fashion parallel: before the legislations are implemented in everyday life, they often become invalid and are replaced by new ones. Distrust is in every level in Hungary amongst people and between people and the government. This and the underpaid bureaucracy have a direct effect on the scale of uncivic behaviour, which has also flourished during the communism behind the scenes. This has been destroying the community spirit for decades, which resulted in isolation and the lack of understanding of the benefits of working as part of a team to achieve better results. ‘Közös lónak túrós a háta.’ is a Hungarian saying and symbolically translates into: collaboration is trouble (B to Fodor, 2009).
B has several examples of working as part of a duo or team. She often did not get paid an ethical wage or did not get paid at all. She does not find it beneficial to work with others any more, but do everything on her own. Her experience led her not to embrace the opportunity of working with a business partner, who is good at marketing. She works entirely on her own, which means spending time on marketing which is not her strength and taking time away from her painting and decorating skills. Business opportunities are more likely to become successful if people with different skills and strengths come together and develop a product or service in the form of a ‘Dynamic Duo’ (ECCA).
By examining B’s situation we can see that current policy making indirectly promotes the benefit system and makes her feel disempowered. She is a single mother in her mid-thirties in Village B, where there are very few jobs. She has been living on benefits for years and gets around 30.000Ft (half of the living wage) per month. Her background is ceramic painting and she worked in a famous ceramic factory, until it closed its doors due to privatisation in the 1990s.
A few years ago B was chosen for a 1 million Ft loan from a Job Centre initiative to buy a kiln and start her own business. On the same day she was offered a one year contract by the local ‘elderly care’ home to work as a carer. As a responsible mother she has chosen the job, as she did not trust in the government in terms of frequently changing its policy. She was aware, if she would not be able to pay the taxes, the loan and make a living for herself and for her son it would made them bankrupt. She would like to come off benefits and provide a better future for her son, who inherited her creative talent, but under the current policy making from the minute she would start her own business she would have to pay the high taxes.
B has a few regular customers around Easter and Christmas buying her ceramic jewellery and interior decorations (prices are between 250Ft and 1500Ft). Her activity is illegal and she is constantly worried about being found out by APEH (Hungarian Tax and Financial Control Administration). As there are very few jobs in the village B has no other option but relying on the 30.000Ft benefit per month. She would like to have her own product catalogue, but to the question if she would consider having a website her answer was no. Going public would mean a visit from APEH and a huge find, which would jeopardise her and her son’s future. (The fine would be around 100.000Ft. Data was collected from source with similar fine.)
From this case study it is clear, that instead of empowering a woman to start her own business with a low or even tax free starting up period, the current policy making rather keeps her on benefits, without using her skills. By examining B’s situation it can be clearly seen that for her to earn her living as an artisan and become an entrepreneur therefore lose her benefits would result in extreme poverty.
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