{"id":281379,"date":"2016-11-27T23:05:02","date_gmt":"2016-11-27T22:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=281379"},"modified":"2016-11-30T01:25:12","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T00:25:12","slug":"german-economist-politician-stop-copying-americas-decline-leave-nato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/german-economist-politician-stop-copying-americas-decline-leave-nato\/","title":{"rendered":"German Economist & Politician: \u201cStop Copying America\u2019s Decline! Leave NATO!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Sahra Wagenknecht, Vice President of the German parliament\u2019s Leftist Party, said in Parliament on Wednesday November 23rd, that Germany\u2019s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, could very possibly become replaced by a politician similar to U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump or even farther to the right (something dreaded by many in Germany and especially abroad), unless Germany quickly stops copying America and ultimately leaves NATO, which she says is far more of a danger to Germans than it\u2019s any real protection of the German people. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Wagenknecht<\/a><\/span> is also a major economist, whose study of the economic conditions that lead consumers either to save or to go into debt has been published in both Germany<\/span><\/a> and America<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here are excerpts from her speech in the Reichstag (Germany\u2019s parliament), retaining 40% of the text, as translated by me from German Economic News<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

In Germany, social inequality and uncertainty are growing and with them the number of voters for\u00a0the AfD <\/i>[an anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic party, headed by the fast-rising parliamentarian Frauke Petry<\/span><\/a>]. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

As a preferred partner, the Chancellor has chosen a Turkish dictator <\/i>[Erdogan], who has sent journalists and opposition leaders to prison and found the death\u00a0penalty great. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

It reminds one of Albert Einstein’s adage:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The purest form of madness is to leave everything as it is and just hope that something changes.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, something usually does change, but maybe not the type of change that was hoped. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

What makes people despair of democracy has paved Donald Trump\u2019s way to the White House.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Mrs. Merkel\u00a0\u2014\u00a0it would be nice if you could listen to me, and pursue policies that would be different from the market-oriented management of a globalized\u00a0predatory capitalism, which is the thing that destroys the middle class and makes our society increasingly deeply socially split.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

US citizens did not select the billionaire Donald Trump. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

They have instead deselected, and for this reason, in a country where middle wages are below the level of the eighties, they had, of course, every reason for their response. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Decisions which make the rich even richer, make the corporations more insolent, and make the lives of the working middle and\u00a0the poorer classes even more precarious and are,\u00a0I think, incredible, and irresponsible. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Look at how this country has changed in the past 20 years!\u00a0Despite the booming export economy and despite economic growth, one in six\u00a0pensioners in Germany now lives in poverty and has to feel deceived about his or her life. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

More and more children are starting their lives with the basic experience that they are excluded from the beautiful colorful world and that life will\u00a0offer them much less than others.\u00a0Millions of workers are degraded to second-class workers in temporary work. …\u00a0The non-unionized workforce \u2014 that is now every second person \u2014 now earn 18 percent less than in 2000. Politicians say that Germany is doing well, and that the public should be happy about your successful policy.\u00a0This is sheer mockery of what you have actually been doing. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The American Dream has\u00a0long since also been dreamed out.\u00a0Who believes in it other than the upper class, that the children will be better-off than their parents? Most\u00a0experience the opposite.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The current contribution rate in statutory pension insurance is 18.7 per cent, half paid by companies and <\/i>[half by] employees.\u00a0In addition,\u00a0employees are to sink 4 percent of their income into one of those meaningless Riester contracts <\/i>[privatization funds], which everyone knows now make\u00a0only banks and insurance companies rich. …\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

And you feel that it\u2019s okay that people who have worked hard throughout their lives have been rewarded with poverty pensions of 1,000 euros and less.\u00a0This is\u00a0800 euros less than in Austria.\u00a0This is unbelievable.\u00a0Finally stop this irresponsible pension policy, which produces millionfold poverty!<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

With health insurance it is exactly the same. …\u00a0This is a scandal.\u00a0If you look at this policy, you almost have to suspect that you have signed a secret advertising\u00a0contract with the AfD. …\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, in the case of the sickness funds, as in the case of the breakdown of the pension, nothing went beyond the reduction of wage costs and the\u00a0increase in company profits.\u00a0On account of this, the investments also increase with the profits. Do you know how high the reinvestment rate of\u00a0German industrial companies is today in Germany?\u00a05 percent.\u00a0That is, 95 percent of the profits that they have so successfully increased through your\u00a0policy are distributed to the owners, parked in financial assets or just used for foreign investment.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The state has withdrawn from all important areas where it has previously given stability and security to the lives of the people. …\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Also the years of personnel reduction among the police have made whole residential neighborhoods no-go areas at night.\u00a0In the dilapidated schools in these\u00a0districts, the highly qualified teachers of the future are not being trained by overburdened teachers, but by young people <\/i>[apprentice teachers], many of whom will never get\u00a0a chance in life because the chronically underfunded education system of this rich country is not even able to teach them basic reading, writing and\u00a0computational skills.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

It is your tax policy well-being program for corporations and super-rich people, which is responsible\u00a0for the fact that many states and municipalities are no longer able to fulfill their basic tasks. You celebrate your black zero <\/i>[instead of deficits in the red].\u00a0But do you really\u00a0know what reality is like in many poor cities and communities in this country? …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Overcrowded municipalities can offer their citizens less and less: no proper day-care centers, no library, no subsidy to the cultural organizations or to\u00a0sports clubs.\u00a0In Gelsenkirchen, where 40 percent of all children are growing up in Hartz IV families <\/i>[on unemployment compensation], several swimming pools are closed.\u00a0In the\u00a0overburdened Duisburg every eighth place has to be deleted in the coming years, that is, there will be even fewer nurses, even fewer staff in hospitals.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Their fierce privatization plans are always going on.\u00a0Now even the highways, which the public have paid for by their taxes, are turning into so-called public-private partnerships with financial investors.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

A 31-year-old university graduate who works today at Air Berlin as a flight attendant and is already worried about this job now, wrote to me: …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

“Where is the quality of life to which every human being is entitled?” she asks in her email.\u00a0“Instead of enjoying life, you are always anxious not to\u00a0lose your job because in today’s Germany there are no guarantees and no collateral.\u201d\u00a0…\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

A medium-sized entrepreneur tells me: “As a child\u00a0of Italian immigrants, I was born here and grew up here, so I experienced Germany at a time when everything was still possible with honest work.\u00a0It’s\u00a0different today.\u201d …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, one can restore the welfare state and create a decent labor law that protects the workers and strengthens the bargaining power of trade\u00a0unions.\u00a0Of course, one can have a simple political backbone and oppose the freezing yield ratios of global corporations instead of handing them\u00a0workers who are defenseless. …\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Did it really take a Donald Trump to understand that democracy, freedom and human dignity are no longer well-established in the Western world?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The former US president Jimmy Carter has called the US years ago an <\/i>“oligarchy with unlimited political corruption\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Unrestrained global capitalism is incompatible with democracy and human dignity, even in Europe.\u00a0The wars in which European states have\u00a0participated have not yet brought democracy and freedom to any country.\u00a0On the contrary, they have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and\u00a0expelled millions from their homeland.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

It was really a step forward when, with a view to the Russian bombardment in Aleppo, the federal government suddenly began to speak of the crimes\u00a0of war, of destroyed hospitals and schools.\u00a0But what about all the destroyed hospitals and schools where Germany and its allies have been involved\u00a0in wars?\u00a0Do you really think it makes a difference to the victim of a bombshell, whether this bomb was dropped by a Russian plane or in the\u00a0name of the Western community?\u00a0We do not believe it.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, we ask you not to spend more money on weapons.\u00a0Do not prepare for more war, but leave the military infrastructure of the US-dominated NATO\u00a0\u2026\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Germany is not being defended in Afghanistan, not in Syria and not in Mali.\u00a0All these wars have only strengthened Islamic terrorism and ultimately\u00a0brought it to Germany.\u00a0An end of this war participation would really be the best thing you could do for the safety of people, even here in Germany. …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Where does political Islam have its most important basis?\u00a0These are the Islamic dictatorships on the Gulf, which finance and upgrade terrorist murder bands worldwide.\u00a0According to the Federal\u00a0Government’s own findings, it is also Turkey, which plays a key role in the organization and arming of terrorists.\u00a0We find it astonishing that the\u00a0Christian-social anti-Islamic militants from Bavaria do not seem to mind at all that in the first half of 2016, Turkey outstripped 25th place in the\u00a0ranking countries of German armaments exports, and that Saudi Arabia and Qatar too have more German arms than ever before.\u00a0What kind of mad\u00a0politics is this? …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Democracy will have a future for Germans, when people have the feeling that their dignity and their basic needs for life are respected by politicians and that they are more important than the desires of some corporate lobbyists.\u00a0Take this seriously, if you do not\u00a0want to be responsible for a German Donald Trump. …\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier, in Berlin\u2019s progressive, employee-owned, daily newspaper, the Tageszeitung<\/i>, or Daily News<\/i>, Wagenknecht was interviewed, headlining \u201cTrump Will Change World Politics\u201d<\/span><\/a>, where she commented upon the statement from Germany\u2019s Defense Minister, Ursula von der Leyen, who had expressed shock that Trump won the White House. Wangenknecht said:<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, they are always so shocked,\u00a0Brexit was the same, and then they\u00a0continue to do as before.\u00a0I can’t\u00a0find the result so surprising.\u00a0In the\u00a0USA, mean wages are now lower than\u00a040 years ago, all gains have flowed\u00a0into the pockets of the upper tens of\u00a0thousands <\/i>[the top 0.01%].\u00a0If this does not change, we\u00a0will very often be “shocked” in the\u00a0coming years.\u00a0Central to German\u00a0foreign policy now must be to have\u00a0an independent policy, to break away\u00a0from subservience to the United\u00a0States.\u00a0Europe mustn’t take part in\u00a0any pirouette that Mr Trump may be\u00a0turning, but must focus on its own\u00a0interests.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Wagenknecht said that \u201cIf Bernie Sanders had been the\u00a0Democratic counter-candidate, we\u00a0would not be talking about a\u00a0President Trump now\u201d (which is overwhelmingly supported by the polling, such as here<\/span><\/a> and here<\/span><\/a>). And: \u201cIf we do not\u00a0want nationalist forces to become\u00a0strong, we must finally make a\u00a0different policy and restore the\u00a0welfare state, which protects people\u00a0from the social crash.\u00a0If we do not\u00a0succeed, the view into the USA is also\u00a0a look in the future of Europe.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On 21 January 2012, Germany\u2019s Spiegel<\/i> reported<\/span><\/a> that the German government was secretly spending 400,000 euros annually to spy against 27 of the 76 Left Party Bundestag members, and that Wagenknecht was one of the government\u2019s 27 targets. This might be considered comparable to the U.S. Democratic Party\u2019s secret effort to sabotage Bernie Sanders\u2019s campaign to win that Party\u2019s 2016 Presidential nomination.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whereas the aristocracy condemn rightist politicians who complain about the aristocracy\u2019s dictatorship, the aristocracy take real action to block the political careers of leftist politicians such as Sanders and Wagenknecht who complain about the aristocracy\u2019s dictatorship; and this aristocratic support for the right is the reason why whereas rightist \u2018populists\u2019 such as Adsolf Hitler can win and keep control, leftist populists such as Mohammad Mossaddegh, Bernie Sanders, and Sahra Wagenknecht, either don\u2019t win leadership or else get overthrown by fascist coups if they do win (such as happened not only with Mossadegh but with Salvatore Allende, Melvin Zelaya, and many others \u2014 the aristocracy hate leftist populists). Similarly, polls in Germany show that the AfD\u2019s Frauke Petry could become Germany\u2019s next Chancellor, whereas Sahra Wagenknecht cannot. Furthermore, the Tageszeitung<\/i> reported<\/span><\/a> on 3 October 2016 that so many voters had switched from the Left Party to the AfD, so that Wagenknecht was now starting to adopt some of AfD\u2019s positions that the Left Party hadn\u2019t previously held, such as further restrictions on immigration. The article also noted: \u201cThe AfD is now the largest working-class party, according to a survey by infratest-dimap in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The AfD\u2019s share of the working-class among the voters was as high as 33 per cent, that\u2019s above every other party; among the unemployed [of all classes], it was a whopping 29 percent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There are no indications that the German government is spying at all against the AfD. Apparently, aristocrats don\u2019t take seriously anti-aristocracy assertions that come from the political right \u2014 it\u2019s just assumed by them to be fake, done only so as to appeal to the masses of naive poor voters who don\u2019t understand anything about the aristocracy\u2019s being their real enemies \u2014 not<\/i> \u201cgays,\u201d \u201cBlacks,\u201d \u201cJews,\u201d \u201cMuslims\u201d etc. (the groups<\/i> against which rightist<\/i> \u2018populists\u2019 campaign).<\/span><\/p>\n

CONCLUDING NOTE: In the 2016 U.S. Presidential campaign, the neoconservative anti-populist aristocrat Hillary Clinton ended up campaigning against the indeterminate \u2018populist\u2019 aristocrat Donald Trump, and whereas Trump often campaigned against \u2018illegal immigrants\u2019 and against \u2018Moslems\u2019, Hillary campaigned against allegedly and sometimes actually bigoted Whites (especially Trump). But Trump also campaigned against \u201cthe corrupt system,\u201d and Hillary campaigned for it (as constituting the best way for a \u2018democracy\u2019 to function). So, precisely what ideological lessons can be learned from this election\u2019s outcome cannot yet be definitively known \u2014 it\u2019s not nearly as clear as America\u2019s pundits generally pretend \u2014 other than that around half of the U.S. electorate support the aristocracy if it\u2019s being represented by a \u2018Democrat\u2019 (such as Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton). Democratic Party voters in the U.S. Presidential contest chose the unabashedly pro-aristocracy Hillary Clinton over the at-least-nominally anti-aristocracy Donald Trump; and any drawing-of-conclusions about that now would be premature, at best.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse, originally posted at strategic-culture.org Sahra Wagenknecht, Vice President of the German parliament\u2019s Leftist Party, said in Parliament on Wednesday November 23rd, that Germany\u2019s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, could very possibly become replaced by a politician similar to U.S. President-Elect Donald Trump or even farther to the right (something dreaded by many in Germany and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":281380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[93,896,698,859,25778,524,754,6257,523,25777,76,1024],"class_list":{"0":"post-281379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-germany","10":"tag-hillary-clinton","11":"tag-merkel","12":"tag-petry","13":"tag-russia","14":"tag-syria","15":"tag-trump","16":"tag-ukraine","17":"tag-wagenknecht","18":"tag-warfare","19":"tag-ww3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}