Our society is always indifferent to different kinds of public polls. Definitely the reason is the publication of the results on the threshold of elections. On the other hand, it is rare to see this kind of analysis among society . Maybe the reason is the fact that they cost much. Accordingly it is worth paying attention to all public polls and analysis- especially it is worth discussing the “Armenian social situation and poverty” statistical research conducted by the World Bank/Armenia. It covers 6.800 families, which is a huge number for our country. Some parts of this research contradict the official information concerning the rapid economical growth two-digit mark. It is worth paying attention to these fields particularly. These figures and the research prove that the economical growth in Armenia doesn’t cover most of the public sector and different groups. What’s more, it proves the opinion that along with economical growth, rich people get richer, and poor people get poorer. Please see the research below about the presence of home technical facilities in families.
Presence of technical facilities in 100 families.
Unit 2002 2004
TV set 91 93
Fridge 85 82
Washing Machine 76 70
Exhauster 44 33
Needling Machine 70 51
Musical Center 20 15
Computer 1,2 3,9
Mobile Phone 1,3 5,4
Photo Camera 20 15
The number of TV sets has increased mostly due to lotteries, because in parallel to the increase the number of other units has gone down. The number of the most important units has gone down (fridge, washing machine, etc.). This means that after 2002 a group of families was not able to buy new technical facilities after the old ones were out of order already. We may make such a conclusion if we pay attention to what kind of expenses middle-class citizens make and where they spend their income. Most of their income is paid for food (54%). In order to purchase technical facilities citizens pay 13% of their income. They spend 10% of their income on communal, transport and connection expenses. We, Armenians, say that we have very good cultural background, but we spend only 1% of our income on purchasing tickets for cultural events. We understand that our citizens don’t have a rest at least once a year, but we can’t understand how they don’t attend cultural events when they attend concerts of different pop and other singers. The problem is that in the statistical reports these concerts are considered as cultural events. The “Armenian social situation and poverty” research doesn’t include poll of families of MPs or ministers. Otherwise the marks of leisure expenditure (in casinos and concerts) would increase for sure.
The chart describing the methods of forming income are very interesting, its proportion is the following: paid work – 41%, agriculture – 26%. As for the rest, people get it as financial transfers or aid. The capacity of all kind of pension and aid payments in Armenia cover 4,5% of our GDP. According to economical cryteria this is a low mark. Anyway, this makes up the capacity of poor group of citizens lower by 10%. However, the report states, “the number of people included in the poverty aid program is limited: the program covers only 40% of extremely poor people and 25% of poor people”. It is also very interesting to compare the proportions of educational and health care expenses in society and private levels separately. The health care sector covers 1,3% of the GDP, as for the educational sector, it covers 2,8%. People separately spend more money on these services; they spend 7% in the health care field, and 4% in the educational field. On the basis of the number of schools and educational institutions in our country we may assume that people do their best to get education and pay for it well (or just to get a diploma). On the basis of the number of diplomas in Armenia the statistical services write that this mark is higher in Armenia than in many developed countries. This means that the reports write that on the one hand we are extremely poor, on the other hand notes that we are educated (even more than some countries). In spite of all this information, there is one question to which there is still no answer and the Jewish like to ask this question most: “If you are so clever, why are you so poor?”