Martin Vlachynsky

The term \"wage\" and its size are very important in national discussions about labor markets, taxes and insurance payments, but also part of international comparisons for investors deciding to build a factory or to place investments in a specific country. A lot of confusion has been created by the introduction of gross wage with arbitrary distinction between \"employee paid\" and \"employer paid\" taxes and contributions.

Similar to many post-socialistic economies in Europe, GHG emissions have significantly dropped in Slovakia since 1990. Slovak GHG emissions decreased by almost 40% between 1990-2000, and the decrease in emissions continued until 2015.

The pandemic period has not been kind to some patients\' relationship with health professionals. A period of information uncertainty, spawning hoaxes. The patient with their own opinion and their own information falls under a crooked gaze.

I dare to write that the health financing situation is becoming increasingly muddled. With all three health insurance companies (allegedly) starting to cut their losses, the problem of financing Slovak healthcare has moved up a notch. Of course, it is too early to be scared, but from a systemic point of view, any future financial problems of the health insurance companies would be much more serious than the financial problems of the hospitals.

The current social package worth more than a billion euro has definitively confirmed that Slovak government is going kamikaze in the area of public finances. After all, the money is \"lying on the pavement\".

The number of health professionals is a globally discussed issue. The WHO expects 18 million missing health professionals by 2030, mainly in lower- and middle-income countries. Two out of five active doctors in the United States will be 65 years of age or older in the next decade.

For Slovakia, in particular, as the extremely strong generation of \"Husák\'s children\"* does not have a sufficient population replacement and will start to put a major strain on the health and pension systems in the coming decades.

The famous Art Nouveau hotel Rónai, later Royal, later Slovan, is now a preserved ruin in the center of Slovak Piešťany. During socialism it was completely \"washed out\", like many other buildings that were either nationalized by socialism or built by socialism itself.

Rising consumer prices have become an important issue both in the world and in Slovakia. Although with the current single-digit growth, consumers of the 1970s would have laughed us out, it is good that we are talking about this topic out loud. Perhaps it will help us avoid much bigger problems.

The vaccinated are already ignoring the pandemic on a personal level - and the unvaccinated are too. (Un)vaccination has become a hard political stance and nothing can be done about it.