Bolivia's leader decrees special Christmas bonus for state agency workers

[Judi Lynn]

Bolivia's leader decrees special Christmas bonus for state agency workers
Nov 21, 2013 | Sapa-AP

President Evo Morales decreed Wednesday that an extra month's wages should be paid as a special Christmas bonus to all salaried workers in Bolivia, at state agencies, in the military and police and in the private sector.

Bolivian law already requires that salaried workers get a month's pay as a December bonus, so they will now get triple their pay for that month.

The leftist president said he made the surprise announcement because his government's goal is to reduce poverty and more equally distribute the wealth in one of South America's poorest nations.
"The economy is good and the country's growth should return to the workers with a double Christmas bonus," Morales said during a meeting with union leaders.

Bolivia's Federation of Private Companies vehemently objected, calling the decree "politicking" in a statement that said it "bodes terrible for future investment."

More:
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/world/2013/11/21/bolivia-s-leader-decrees-special-christmas-bonus-for-state-agency-workers

[Flatulo]

1. If you just hand people money without a corresponding increase in production, you have to

increase the money supply by printing the money, which then dilutes the value of all currency and you're right back where you started.

Why are leftist so such lousy economists? I can understand redistributing existing wealth through the tax code because it's not inflationary, but this puzzles me.

I see the same thing happening in the US with the Fed QE program. They print $85b every month and use it to buy US treasuries. But since nothing new was created, the effect will eventually be to thin out the value of every dollar. The net result is that the dollar buys less.

It sure keeps those votes coming in though. Ain't democracy something?

[Paolo123]

2. Here's what you are missing.

Theoretically one could give a bonus to workers out of tax money, in which it IS redistribution.

The basic problem going on is that most people find monetary policy totally confusing and so don't realize what is going on. One of the big failures of liberalism in my opinion is the way it turned it's back on sound money. The original "liberals" were fully aware of what central bankers do when given the chance.

For some reason liberalism today means buying into the central banker/scumbag banker revolving door.