Scary Results of Income Survey
Open beans, broken eggs, old bread
The survey demonstrated that the middle-class has turned to open bottles and packages in their purchases of perfume, detergent and beans. The low-income group is buying low quality and unhealthy products such as crumbled cheese, broken eggs and broken rice, according to the survey.
The survey showed that, despite the fact that Turkey's chronic inflation has gone down to 27 percent from previous years 50s-60s, living standards are worsening and the cost of living is still very high. These are some of the results of the survey:
*Out of the 120 million breads baked in one day In Turkey, 22 million are wasted. Stale bread sold at half price is the basic food for poor families.
* Half of Turkey's 65 million population lives in shantytowns where toilets are placed outside the houses. Ten percent of the population still lives with no clean water and no toilets. Four percent of the houses in city centers have no toilets. Thirteen percent of houses in districts, and 39 percent of houses in villages have no toilets.
* The first-hand automotive sector has been revived by the falling interest rates. But the low-income group is not able to even buy second-hand cars. People no longer sell their old car to buy a new one. They get their spare parts from cars that have been crashed in accidents.
Three-months of salary for a week of vacation
* The poverty line in Turkey this year was 1 billion 356 Turkish lira (USD 975). A family of four needs more than 1.5 billion Turkish lira (USD 1,079) for a week of vacation at a four-star hotel. This amount is the three-month salary of a junior civil servant. This has lead many people to spend their vacations in their own cities or villages.
* People who have emigrated from villages to cities still provide their food from their villages because it costs less.
* Despite the fast growth of population in Turkey , the consumption of meet and milk remains lower than other countries. In the United States, the consumption of meet per person per year is 45 kilograms, while the European Union it is some 19.5 kilograms. This amount is 5.2 kilograms in Turkey.
* One in every three middle-class family who sent their children to private schools before, registered their children in state schools this year.
Shantytowns are "luxurious"
* Consumers have abandoned supermarkets and have turned into small shops. The sales of chain markets in the second quarter of this year fell by 0.5 percent compared to the first quarter. Sales of small markets and shops went up by 1.6 percent.
* The people in the low-income group take aspirins and make mint and lemon teas to treat themselves instead of visiting a doctor.
* The sales of second-hand household goods like refrigerators, televisions and washing machines boom. Low-income groups buy their clothes from street markets.
* The cost of building a house has increased so much that even building a house in a shantytown is a luxury now.
Aygun: "Turkey is broken"
Turkish people is eroding because of the frequent financial crises says Aygun commenting on the results. "Turkey is broken," he said arguing that Turkish family and children were under threat.
Aygun said the fact that Turkey was on the 96th row in the human development index out of 175 countries was terrifying.
Aygun poited to the fact that there was a boom in pick pocketing and said that the number of people who earned their living from the things they picked from garbage bins was increasing every day.
Prices of products:
* Pasteurized milk costs 1 million 475 thousand Turkish lira (USD 1) in markets. Street peddlers sell it for 500-600 thousand Turkish lira (USD 0.4).
* Yogurt is 1 million 675 thousand Turkish lira (USD 1.2) at markets. It costs 500-600 thousand Turkish lira (USD 0.4) when it is made at home.
* Goat cheese is sold for 7 million 350 thousand Turkish lira (USD 5) at markets. When it is crumbled, its price drops to 1.5 to 2 million Turkish lira (USD 1-1.44).
* Bread , which costs 300 thousand Turkish lira (USD 0.22) in Ankara, is sold at 100 thousand Turkish lira (USD 0.07) when stale.
* Washing machines are sold at 2 billion Turkish lira (USD 1,400). Second-hand machines can be bought at 200 million Turkish lira (USD 145). (RS/BB/EA/EK)