Economical

In the survey from the end of November and beginning of December 2002, more than two thirds (68%) of respondents describe the standard of living of their household as being good, contrary to this 31% describe it as being bad. In comparison to 2002, this is the most positive recorded result which, however, is not surprising, because the period of the end of November and beginning of December, or more precisely the beginning of December, is the time of year when the subjective evaluations provided by respondents is the best when compared to the long-term cross-section.

We found out that 13% of citizens consider the taxes that are imposed on those with high income to be too high, 24% as adequate and 42% to be low, out of which 15% consider them to be “too low”. Taxation on people with average income is almost unanimously characterised as high by two fifths (44%) or adequate (40%), 4% characterise them as low. Two thirds (67%) of people view taxes of people with low income as high, 17% as adequate and only 2% as low.

Results show that the most critical evaluation by employees was concerning their salaries, both when assessing their current pay level and, in particular, the prospects for its increase and also job security. In response to the question about the care employees receive from their companies, we recorded an approximately balanced proportion of those who were satisfied and those who were not. When other aspects of current employment were surveyed, satisfaction prevailed; almost three quarters of respondents were satisfied with the interesting aspects of their work or how their skills and qualifications were utilised.

On average, respondents believe that the monthly salary for a family of four which marks the poverty level is 22,210 CZK however the most frequent response stated 20,000 CZK. The concept of the poverty level continuously changes with the perception of income which would be sufficient to cover basic requirements of the respondents’ household needs. People with a higher standard of living...

On average, respondents believe that the monthly salary for a family of four which marks the poverty level is 22,210 CZK however the most frequent response stated 20,000 CZK. The concept of the poverty level continuously changes with the perception of income which would be sufficient to cover basic requirements of the respondents’ household needs. People with a higher standard of living also define the poverty level to be higher.

The majority of respondents evaluate the access to education (71%) and health care (66%) as being very good. Other investigated areas such as job opportunities, social security for the elderly, standard of living for the handicapped, and mainly financial conditions to start a family or to get a flat are assessed in a very critical way. The respondents were unanimous in their views on life conditions of officials, civil servants and entrepreneurs which they considered to be the best (78% or more precisely 74%).

In the survey from the end of February to the beginning of March 2002 three fifths (60% of respondents) the standard of living of their household as being good, compared to 37% who described it as being bad. At the end of March and beginning of April, the ratio of the positive evaluation was increased by 6% to a total of 66% with a currently decreasing critical evaluation of one’s household by 5% to a total of 32%.

Since February 1997 we have been regularly surveying what palace people allocate to the economic standard of our country compared to nine other European countries. 1% assesses the Czech economy as being very good, 54% as probably good, 39% as probably bad and 4% as very bad; only 1% could not judge the situation. When all countries were evaluated a table headed by Germany and followed by Austria was drafted.

With the exception of Romania and Bulgaria where the majority of inhabitants perceive their materialistic living conditions as being bad, the inhabitants of the other countries usually describe them as being average. This group in the Czech Republic contains 48% of respondents. The proportion of our inhabitants describing their condition as being very good or relatively good is 28%, which is the best result out of all countries surveyed.

The inhabitants of the surveyed countries do not expect any significant economic changes both for the better or worse before the beginning of the next year. Approximately half of Poles, Hungarians and Russians and approximately two fifths of Czechs, Slovaks and Bulgarians envisage economic stagnation. Those who are most enthusiastic about their future are Hungarians – almost one third of them (31%) envisage a positive development and only eight percent a negative development.