Libertarianism in Hungary: Who Knew

How cool to find a sympathetic voice in Hungary:

I will only give you a job if:

  1. I can fire you, when and if I want to.
  2. If VAT goes down to at most 20%, but better yet 15%.
  3. If the state takes away “only” 30% of your money.
  4. If higher income is not exponentially punished.
  5. If the state punishes corruption instead of decent companies.

Until these things change, I won’t give a job. Until the state ferrets out corruption in every possible aspect, I won’t start a business, and I won’t create jobs.

There are things that contribute to people giving people jobs and then things that discourage such activity.

Mr. Jakab lists his reasons thusly:

I wouldn’t hire a woman.

The reason is very simple: women give birth to children. I don’t have the right to ask if she wanted to. If I had the right, and she answered, she could deliberately deceive me or she could change her mind.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any problem with women giving birth to children. That’s how I was born and that’s how my child was born. I wouldn’t hire a woman because when she gets pregnant, she goes for 3 years maternity leave, during which I can’t fire her. If she wants two children, the vacation is 6 years long.

The elderly:

I wouldn’t hire people over 50 either.

Not that I have any problem with the most experienced professionals. I wouldn’t hire them, because they are soon in the protected age. And then I would be trapped with them, similar to the trap with employing women. You can’t fire people in the protected age, so I would have to pay the salary and its total cost even if he or she doesn’t work well, or at least up to acceptable standards. I couldn’t fire the protected employee, but someone would have to do the  job right; so I would have to hire another person. It’s all right with me if they’re protected, but then I won’t hire them.

Interesting that the regulations meant to help the “protected class” serve only to discriminate against them.

I would only hire 25-50 years old men.

They’re also risky to hire. Since I don’t have the right to fire them, if for any reason (I don’t have enough income, or I don’t like how they work) I want to. There’s a high risk that they will go to court, and there’s a high chance they will win. But this risk I would be prepared to handle.

You would cost me €1572.

This is actual 2011 data from the www.nettober.com  salary calculator. As you can see, your €760 salary would cost my company €1572. The only way this 2x state multiplier could be lower, is if I pay a lower salary. But I wouldn’t hire you for less money, because I think you couldn’t make a decent living for less then €760. You would become depressed, destroy your own life, my company and even me. So, I am not willing to hire anybody for less than this sum.

Wow!  In order to provide a salary of 760 Euros, the employer would have to pay 207% of that in state burden.

There’s way more at the link; go read the whole thing.  But this sums it up:

I would also have to take into consideration that a 35 years old person is entitled 25 days of vacation per year. This means 1 extra month where someone else has to do step in. If I needed 12 peoples’ labor, I would have to employ 13 to account for the one who’s on vacation at any given time.

But I would still give you a job despite everything stated previously.

I am a braveheart entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs take risks, so I would sell my apartment and move to a rented flat. I would hope that the €90,000 from the sale will be enough. I would launch my business bravely, and if I didn’t succeed (quite likely with startups) I wouldn’t be a crybaby.

There are people in the world willing.  Why do we make it so hard?

 

 

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