Project for Philosophical Evaluations of the Economy |
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Democratic politicians live up to their task
Dialog with the Alter Ego on unpopular austerity budgets, drafted and published on Oct. 21, 2010
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Statement by Noah denkt™ (Nd): Surely, these last couple of years have provided good reasons to become
somewhat cynical about the political profession. But if there were any doubts as to whether democratic politicians
would still be able to live up to a historic challenge recent events have effectively dispelled them.
Answer by Alter Ego of Noah denkt™ (AE): Oh, you are referring to the austerity budget, that the new British
government introduced yesterday?
Nd: Well, we are referring to that and to many other examples of courageous government leadership which we
have seen this year.
AE: Such as?
Nd: Such as French President Sarkozy’s resistance to the current unrest in France, the Latvian, Hungarian and
Greek governments’ courage to introduce very unpopular austerity budgets, and the backbone with which the
governor of the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg is defending the reconstruction of the Stuttgart train
station even though a hysterical wave of protest is vilifying him to the point that he is receiving death threats now.
AE: And you truly believe that these stances you mention here deserve praise?
Nd: Absolutely. In fact, we feel that the resilience, which elected politicians are demonstrating now, is of historic
proportions and deserves all our admiration.
AE: There are however those, who believe that the stubbornness with which European governments are currently
cutting their budgets is misguided. After all, there truly is some danger that said moves will dramatically undercut
the nascent economic recovery.
Nd: Of course, that is a legitimate argument to be made. But still, we do not subscribe to it. We continue to believe
that it is more important to restore trust and to get the fundamentals back on track before we can return to
distributing pain killers again.
AE: The matter of the fact though is, that none of us knows for sure at this point, which of the two strategies (hard
cuts or soft cuts) will ultimately turn out to be the correct one, do we?
Nd: That is true and that is why it takes to so much courage to do what Mr. Cameron, Mr. Sarkozy and others are
doing right now. And we should therefore support them rather than oppose them.
AE: But guts is not a value in itself. It is so only if it is married to reason, isn’t it?
Nd: True. But you can probably concur with us when we say that it hasn’t been an abundance of courage which
has characterized the recent past. In fact, one might even argue that it was the precise absence of such courage
which led to the financial meltdown. It must therefore be highly welcome if such courage is finally coming back to
the fray now.
AE: Why do you believe that this will help the economy?
Nd: Well, we are quite convinced that Mr. Cameron and others’ leadership example will instill a certain can-do
optimism into their respective economies. After all, it is to a large extent one’s resilience and one’s ability to
overcome towering resistance that defines the existence of an entrepreneur nowadays. And so anything that
gives these daredevils hope is in deed pretty helpful.
AE: Well, hopefully you are right on this
Nd: We are. Just wait and see.
Dialog with the Alter Ego on unpopular austerity budgets, drafted and published on Oct. 21, 2010
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Statement by Noah denkt™ (Nd): Surely, these last couple of years have provided good reasons to become
somewhat cynical about the political profession. But if there were any doubts as to whether democratic politicians
would still be able to live up to a historic challenge recent events have effectively dispelled them.
Answer by Alter Ego of Noah denkt™ (AE): Oh, you are referring to the austerity budget, that the new British
government introduced yesterday?
Nd: Well, we are referring to that and to many other examples of courageous government leadership which we
have seen this year.
AE: Such as?
Nd: Such as French President Sarkozy’s resistance to the current unrest in France, the Latvian, Hungarian and
Greek governments’ courage to introduce very unpopular austerity budgets, and the backbone with which the
governor of the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg is defending the reconstruction of the Stuttgart train
station even though a hysterical wave of protest is vilifying him to the point that he is receiving death threats now.
AE: And you truly believe that these stances you mention here deserve praise?
Nd: Absolutely. In fact, we feel that the resilience, which elected politicians are demonstrating now, is of historic
proportions and deserves all our admiration.
AE: There are however those, who believe that the stubbornness with which European governments are currently
cutting their budgets is misguided. After all, there truly is some danger that said moves will dramatically undercut
the nascent economic recovery.
Nd: Of course, that is a legitimate argument to be made. But still, we do not subscribe to it. We continue to believe
that it is more important to restore trust and to get the fundamentals back on track before we can return to
distributing pain killers again.
AE: The matter of the fact though is, that none of us knows for sure at this point, which of the two strategies (hard
cuts or soft cuts) will ultimately turn out to be the correct one, do we?
Nd: That is true and that is why it takes to so much courage to do what Mr. Cameron, Mr. Sarkozy and others are
doing right now. And we should therefore support them rather than oppose them.
AE: But guts is not a value in itself. It is so only if it is married to reason, isn’t it?
Nd: True. But you can probably concur with us when we say that it hasn’t been an abundance of courage which
has characterized the recent past. In fact, one might even argue that it was the precise absence of such courage
which led to the financial meltdown. It must therefore be highly welcome if such courage is finally coming back to
the fray now.
AE: Why do you believe that this will help the economy?
Nd: Well, we are quite convinced that Mr. Cameron and others’ leadership example will instill a certain can-do
optimism into their respective economies. After all, it is to a large extent one’s resilience and one’s ability to
overcome towering resistance that defines the existence of an entrepreneur nowadays. And so anything that
gives these daredevils hope is in deed pretty helpful.
AE: Well, hopefully you are right on this
Nd: We are. Just wait and see.
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| Keywords: Cameron's austerity budget, unpopular austerity budgets, resistance to austerity budgets, criticizing austerity budgets, austerity budgets in Europe, defending austerity budgets, austerity budgets in Europe, return of the political profession, managing budget deficits, Europe's debt problem |