Germans in a Funk

The German voters spoke clearly to their politicians in Sunday’s election. They are frightened. They
are fed up with the status quo but they are afraid of change. They are fed up with 5 million unemployed
but they don’t want to give their leaders a mandate to do anything about it.

That was clear from the reaction to the half-hearted trial balloon for a flat tax to replace Germany’s current complex system of income taxation. Chancellor candidate Angela Merkel brought flat-tax advocate Paul Kirchhof onto her staff and the SPD leader Schroeder jumped all over her. Obviously the German voters agree with him, since the substantial lead for the CDU/CSU coalition evaporated in the weeks after the flat-tax trial balloon.

It’s all so sad. The nation of Kant and Einstein is cowering in a cave like Wagner’s Fafner the dragon.

All in all, you could say that the Germans have had a rough time for the last century. Despite being the most advanced country in Europe they have been cursed with a second-rate political class. Bismarck was too smart for his own good and Kaiser Wilhelm too obtuse. The Weimar years were a lost weekend and
Adolf Hitler was, unfortunately, the most brilliant politician of the twentieth century.

A new aged seemed to dawn when economist Ludwing Erhard jump-started the economy in 1948—when Germany had nothing left to lose—and sparked the twenty-year Wirtschaftwunder. Then the Social Democratic Party returned to power, followed by the corrupt CDU Chancellor Kohl.

Well, the Germans invented the welfare state, so it is understandable that, with pride of ownership, they should be reluctant to admit its dreadful flaws and try Anglo-Saxon supply-side economics instead. We are not talking rocket science here. People should have responsibility for their own lives, as much as possible. Government can’t be trusted with the welfare of the people. Tax rates should be low and government spending as low as possible.

But the Germans are not yet ready to take the plunge. And that’s a shame.