What We Are Dealing With, Part 2

Yes, folks, it's that time again. And so soon! David's Medienkritik comes through again. (Although in fairness, David's got it easy. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Or rather, capturing fish in a barrel and then harmlessly releasing them into their natural habitats. But I progress.)

This time we gain some insight on the current German government and its views on the international economic order. It seems that the chairman of The Social Democratic Party (SPD), Franz Muentefering, is vehemently against globalization and the trade liberalization regimes which have characterized the post-war Bretton-Woods international system. Regimes which have been central to the raising of millions of people worldwide out of the throes of deep poverty. Moreover, Herr Muentefering believes the notion of "profit" is inherently undemocratic. In a speech on April 13, he argued:

"The internationally accelerated profit maximization strategies endanger our democracy long-term. (...) Our critique is aimed at the internationally growing power of capital and the total economization of short-winded trade for profit. Because, through that, individual people and the future sustainability of entire firms and regions are lost from sight."

So in other words, profits and economic growth don't enhance democracies by providing opportunities, increasing options and building platforms for the exercise of fundamental freedoms. Capital and trade are not transformative in their power to raise people and communities up from dead-end, cyclical poverty to a state where they can educate, feed, immunize and produce. Rather, capital flows and cross-border trade in the name of profit simply harms individuals and communities by homogenizing and marginalizing them.

Huh. Boy did I have it all wrong.

Of course, when Herr Muentefering talks about the "growing power of capital" and "short-winded trade for profit," he's playing upon anti-American sentiments by making not-so-veiled reference to the "evils" of American-style economics. One often hears such references in Germany. A very common example is "hire and fire mentality," which is code for "American capitalism."

He's also trying to explain away the German government's inability to do anything about close to three decades of an economic malaise so intractable that no one sneezes when unemployment runs at 10% or more. Of course, Germany's economic doldrums are largely rooted in an unwieldly social safety net, inflexible labor markets and...yes...inadequate capital to spawn a true entrepreneurial class. I lived in Germany during the Internet boom and I couldn't begin to quantify the number of young Germans I encountered who wanted to ride the wave. However, they were discouraged from pursuing the dream of starting their own businesses because of a lack of access to start-up cash and a a taxation regime that would heavily penalize them for actually becoming profitable. I dunno, Herr Muentefering, but that sounds fairly un-democratic to me.

And of course, the third pillar of response is neatly summed up in David's article. The hypocrisy of such statements in the face of German arms sales to China and the Middle East is staggering to say the least. We need to protect people and communities from the evils of short-term profits and international capital, right up until the moment that our political offices are at stake and we have to fund the social welfare morass we refuse to reform. Got it.

Of course, this kind of hypocrisy is not shocking when it comes to our friends in Europe. It's deeply embedded in their marrow. But you'd expect to be hearing such outright Marxist ideology spewed by a member of a fringe party rather than the chairman of the lead party in the red-green coalition. Surrealistic isn't even the word. And that's why we call this...

...What We're Dealing With.