A Reflection of the Present Economic Situation in Malta

We constantly hear that Malta has one of Europe’s strongest economies. We are told we are living through Malta’s “successful age”. We are told we are lucky, and even honoured, to live in such “prosperous” times. The nation looks busy. Money moves quickly. New buildings rise, often without nationally rooted architecture, without proper living spaces, and without basic planning of the locations themselves. Society changes its image, together with our national landscapes, at a rate so fast that we can barely remember what either looked like before this period. People speak of “growth” as if it is automatically good, almost as if it is sent by God Himself, like rain after drought.

But I want to ask something simpler, and far more honest:

“What do you consider a good economy?”
“Is a good economy one that looks impressive on paper, bigger numbers, more deals, higher prices?”
“Or is it one that gives ordinary people a stable life, strong families, time to breathe, and a real sense of belonging?”

Because if “growth” is real, it should make life more human, not more accelerated.

Accelerated alienation
When our nation and society are becoming more crowded, yet you feel more alone.

There is a strange sickness spreading through modern economic life. You can feel it in the streets, at work, even at home. People are surrounded by non-stop activity, yet the soul of the community feels thinner and thinner, and we can all agree that our communities have changed drastically since 2013, beyond any recognition. Relationships weaken. Friendships become “when we can”. Family dinners turn into logistics, and meeting your own family members requires long-term planning. People are physically present but mentally absent, drained by stress and schedules. Meanwhile, our elderly, many of whom have benefited from this system through rising assets, speculative pensions due to fiat currency; often end up alone in their final years, or placed in elderly homes, separated from the living fabric of family.

This is accelerated alienation, not just the old idea of feeling disconnected from your job, but a faster, deeper separation from your time, from your family, from your kids, from your place, from your culture, from your kin, and eventually from yourself.

It happens when life becomes a constant chase i.e., chase the bills, chase the rent, chase the next raise, chase the next task, chase the next promotion, chase the next “urgent” message. You’re always moving, but you’re not arriving anywhere that feels like home, or peace.

And when this becomes normalised, a society can look alive while it slowly becomes emotionally, mentally, and spiritually exhausted. 

Time poverty
It is the hidden tax nobody votes for, and hardly anyone warns you about.

The most important resource in your life is not money. It is time. 
Time is what you use to raise children properly. Time is how you keep love alive. Time is how you train, reflect, build friendships, care for parents, attain knowledge, improvise, be part of nature, and serve your community. Time is how you become more than a worker; how you become a builder of your nation and civilisation, to pass it down to our REAL FUTURE GENERATION.

But modern “prosperity” often comes with a hidden cost: time poverty.

Time poverty is when you have just enough time to survive, but not enough time to live. You have time to listen to a quick 2–3 minutes of news, but not enough time to research and question what you’ve just heard. When the economy demands longer hours, higher output, constant availability, and endless hustle, while the cost of living keeps rising, and the purchasing power of our currency flattens; people are forced into a life where their best hours are sold away.

You might earn more, but you feel poorer because you have less life left at the end of the day.

So again:
“What is a good economy?”
“One that fills pockets while emptying homes?”
“One that increases activity while decreasing intimacy?”

And there is an extra insult here, one that people feel even if they can’t name it: 

Shrinkflation and Skimpflation

This is where you pay the same (or more) and get less. 
Shrinkflation reduces the quantity. 
Skimpflation reduces the quality. 
In both cases, the public is quietly trained to accept degradation as normal life, smaller portions, thinner materials, worse service, lower standards, shit housing, etc., all at higher prices. The economy grows, yet your daily life is subtly downgraded.

The Dutch Disease
Fast money weakens the real economy and distorts the standard of living.

There is another pattern that often hides inside the “boom cycles”. Economists call one version of it the Dutch Disease. Put simply, it’s what can happen when a country receives a large inflow of fiat money, cheaper labour, and investment, and the economy becomes lopsided.

Instead of building a balanced base through skills, industry, productivity, and long-term resilience, the system starts rewarding what is easiest to monetise quickly: property speculation, finance, rent-seeking, cheaper labour, bodily degradation, and service work that depends on endless demand. Local productive strength gets pushed aside. Real independence declines. Dependencies soar. The economy becomes less like a rooted tree and more like a tall structure held up by constant inflows and constant confidence.

And when confidence changes, when interest rates shift, when global conditions tighten, when investors move, when the required labour skills disappear; those who live inside the system feel the ground shake first.

The Dutch Disease is not only about exports and competitiveness. It becomes a social disease too:

1) Local people feel priced out of their own country.

2) Local people lose their identity and a society to identify with.

3) Work becomes more precarious and service-heavy.

4) Wages chase prices and rarely catch them.

5) A “successful” economy creates anxious and depressed citizens.

That is not prosperity. That is volatility and slavery dressed up as progress.

The moral question the numbers can’t answer
This is where we must stop being hypnotised by graphs built on fiat-currency illusion.

A nation is not a spreadsheet. A life is not a KPI.

So I’ll ask you plainly:

“Is contemporary economic life really worth all of it?”
“Are you really willing to pay such a price?”
“Are you willing to trade time with your family for a version of ‘progress’ that never feels like enough, or brings actual progress?”
“Are you willing to accept a system where the cost of living rises faster than your peace of mind?”

At some point, people must admit the obvious: an economy can “grow” while a population becomes more stressed, more depressed, more divided, more exhausted, and less connected.

If that is growth, it is the wrong kind of growth, and we have forgotten the very meaning of the term “growth”.

Fiat money vs sound money

This is the question people avoid asking, questioning, discussing, or using to challenge their pro-inflationist politicians.

Now we come to a subject many people fear because it sounds technical, but the idea is relatively simple.

Fiat money is money that is not backed by a physical commodity like gold. 
It exists because the state declares it money, and because the system is built around it. 
New money can be created through banking and central policy, effectively out of thin air, though it is dressed in fancy language to keep the public calm. This can be useful in emergencies and can keep systems running, but it also carries a long-term danger: it quietly reduces the value of what you earn and save, and it slowly narrows what you can genuinely decide to purchase inside the market.

That reduction has a name: inflation.
Inflation isn’t just “prices going up”. It’s your money buying less life. And here’s the political part that people need to understand:

When inflation becomes normal, it rewards debtors and asset owners more than workers and savers. It pushes people into speculation because saving feels pointless. It encourages short-term thinking. It makes the citizen dependent and permanently chasing.

Sound money, and the old idea of gold-backed money; represents the opposite instinct: restraint, limits, discipline, and protection of purchasing power and savings. It is the belief that money should be hard to create, so that ordinary people are not slowly robbed through silent debasement.

This is not a magical solution. It comes with trade-offs, and serious economists disagree about feasibility and risks. But the moral question is unavoidable:

“Do you want a system where money can be expanded endlessly, while your time, your wages, and your savings shrink?”
“Or do you want a system that forces discipline and makes it harder for the political class to spend today and bill the future?”

That’s the real debate. Not slogans. Not tribal politics. Discipline versus debasement.
And yes: it’s time to confront pro-inflation politicians.

Let’s say it clearly:

A political class that constantly prefers inflationary shortcuts, more spending, more credit expansion, more “stimulus” without structural reform, may win elections, but it weakens the nation.
Because inflation is the easiest policy to hide and the hardest for ordinary people to escape from. Hence, why many resort to the black market. 

It hits the worker at the supermarket.
It hits the young family trying to buy a home.
It hits the saver who did “everything right” 
It hits the community by turning life into a race.

So, don’t you think it’s time to end the addiction to inflationary politics?
Don’t you think it’s time to demand a system that treats purchasing power as a public good, not as collateral damage?

The “good economy” test

Here is my simple test, my gold-standard test:
A good economy should give most people:

1) enough income to live with dignity,

2) stable prices and stable expectations,

3) time for family and community,

4) meaningful work that builds competence,

5) a future that feels buildable without gambling.

If an economy produces bigger numbers but smaller lives, then it is not a good economy and should be considered as a threat by the population.

And that is the final challenge I’m placing in front of the public:

“What do you consider a good economy?”
“Is this worth the price we’re paying?”
And if not, why are we accepting it as inevitable?
“Did you ever try to imagine a better economic system?”

Author,
Mr. Terrence Portelli

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