August 6, 2005
JUST GIVE ME MY CHECK AND GAS THE TURKS:
New German Left gains momentum (Ray Furlong, 8/06/05, BBC)
Simply called "Die Linke" (The Left), the new alliance has surged to 12% support in opinion polls - and blown the election wide open.
The secret of its success is another man: Oskar Lafontaine.Once the leader of the SPD, he resigned as finance minister in 1999 and spent years in the wilderness - but has now returned to politics.
"Many people take this as a sign that there's a change in Germany, and the people hope that we combine the power of the Leftists, and people like this. They want it," says Mr Bisky.
"So we are going through a good time. We come together with Lafontaine and for the first time the leftists in east and west come together."
Mr Lafontaine has been bitterly criticised by the SPD for "populism".
In particular, after he complained about foreign workers coming in and taking Germans' jobs - using the term "Fremdarbeiter" (foreign worker) once used by the Nazis - instead of the more neutral "Gastarbeiter" (guest worker) generally used.
"I can't help it if the Nazis spoke German," was his blunt response to the criticism. [...]
The party has also called for higher wages in Germany, to boost domestic demand, and pledged to make pensioners "once again proud to walk the streets."
So the new left-wing party has a very traditional socialist message.
But it seems to be a message the voters want to hear - and it is causing as much of a headache for the conservatives (CDU/CSU) as for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, because it is mobilising people who would not otherwise have voted.
"Until recently, we expected the CDU leader, Angela Merkel, to be the next chancellor in a government along with the liberals (FDP)," says Moritz Schuller of the Tagesspiegel daily.
"Now we will probably see a coalition between the Social Democrats without Schroeder - he will have to disappear - and with Merkel. She will still be chancellor, because she will win the election. But it will be a less impressive win."
It's a happy fictioon that6 Europe is going to hit a bottom from which it is forced to reform. Instead, its citizens will demand social welfare checks and increasing "control" of minorities as they die off. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 6, 2005 9:11 AM
Where will the funds to back the welfare checks come from?
Posted by: erp at August 6, 2005 9:46 AMthe soap proceeds
Posted by: cjm at August 6, 2005 10:36 AMWhere will the funds to back the welfare checks come from?
Maybe the European nations should make some more massive land sales, to the U.S., India, or China...
I'm sure that the Europeans could raise several trillion dollars - if they were willing to give up the choice real estate.
they already are; there is a lot of foreign buying going on in europe right now.
Posted by: cjm at August 6, 2005 1:15 PMYeah, people will be picking up chunks of prime Europe at fire-sale prices well into this century.
But I was thinking more of transferring sovereignty over a gazillion acres, not being a citizen of a non-EU nation with a nifty house in Europe.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at August 6, 2005 1:45 PMerp:
That question requires thinking ahead--something secular selfish populations are incapable of.
Posted by: oj at August 6, 2005 6:24 PMAlso religious populations, going back to Jamestown, in the U.S.
Why else are we having a debate over SS in the U.S. right now, when any prudent person would see the need to act ?
Despite being far more religious than Europe, we have the same impulse to put off for tomorrow what's not on fire today.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at August 6, 2005 7:42 PMMichael:
No, we dont. we already made significant changes once and we're preparing to do so again even though the system doesn't require them.
Posted by: oj at August 6, 2005 8:17 PMDefine "doesn't require them", since, unchanged, we would have the choice of:
1. Raising taxes
2. Cutting benefits
3. Inflating away the problem by cranking the printing presses up to warp speed
4. Borrowing more money
5. Counting on the 'Droids
3 & 4 can only be used in moderation, before they do more harm than good.
My guess is that 5 will play a significant role, but it's never wise to make your retirement conditional on winning the lottery.
Also, what "significant changes" have been made ?
We raised taxes a bit, and cut benefits a wee bit.
Then we tacked on a drug benefit that cannot be paid for.
None of the above. Our population increases mean we could leave it nearly untouched for at least another century.
Posted by: oj at August 6, 2005 9:28 PMoj:
You've miscalculated.
That is not currently the case, although it's not impossible that we might get 20,000,000 workers to immigrate to the U.S. over the next ten years.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at August 6, 2005 11:45 PMMichael:
The trustees keep pushing back the date that the system runs off the rails and they'll keep doing so.
Posted by: oj at August 7, 2005 12:30 AMDream on.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at August 8, 2005 8:33 AMWatch the border.
Posted by: oj at August 8, 2005 9:33 AM