BASKET OF GOODS BY ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN
Lragir, Armenia
Nov 20 2006
Four ARF Dashanktsutyun members of parliament (Levon Mkrtichyan,
Hrair Karapetyan, Vahan Hovanisyan, Armen Rustamyan) drafted a bill
on the list and structure of the basket of goods in April but the
parliament has not discussed it yet. The discussion is postponed at
the request of the authors. Which is the lower standard of living as
defined by the ARF Dashnaktsutyun?
The ARF Dashnaktsutyun proposes 23 food products, 8 non-food products,
and 5-8 services. The ARF included bread, flour, noodles, cereal,
dairy products, vegetables, meat, etc. By the way, in the ARF model
of the basket of goods there is only an annual 36-39 kg of beef and
12-18 kg of fish. No pork, no chicken, no other kinds of meat.
The ARF Dashnaktsutyun prefers apples to all the other fruits. In the
basket of goods, there is no juice, lemonade or water. Drink water
from the faucet.
Of course, the ARF has included clothes and shoes in the basket.
Meanwhile, you cannot buy furniture or electric appliances. If yours is
the minimum basket of goods, you have to live on what you already have.
The authors of the project propose postponing the discussion of the
bill, on the one hand, and on the other hand, they propose starting
to apply the law on January 1, 2007.
This is only one side of the issue, however. According to different
estimations, the basket of goods costs an annual 30-35 thousand drams,
meanwhile, the minimum pension is three times less, 12 thousand
drams. The minimum salary is 15 thousand drams, and it is possible
that in 2007 it will become 20 thousand.