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Promises and Trust
In a discussion of “promises and trust,” former German President Johannes Rau of the SPD said that when promises
are not kept, these broken promises constitute a crime. This is exactly what we conclude in our book,
The German Disaster
. When promises made on the basis of trust are broken, i.e. with the result that contracts, laws or regulations
are violated or laws are stretched to an unreasonable extent, then it is understandable that just 6 percent of
German citizens still trust politicians.
The giveaway policies of politicians who want to hold on to power at any cost has led to debts in the social
system that cannot be repaid. Add to this the pay-as-you-go system, the bailout liabilities, the mothers’ pension
scheme, early retirement – all are promises that can’t be kept, i.e. crimes. It is the people who have to pay for
them. The state coffers are empty, the people pay all the costs, which are rising every day. In addition, the
Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 2012 that the right to property did not apply to benefits such as pensions,
social security contributions and state subsidies, although a legal claim exists on the basis of the law in
relation to the amount (pension formula) and the claim based on the right to property is unnecessary. So, active
beneficiaries will not receive what has been promised to them because future beneficiaries had to pay much higher
qualifying contributions to absorb the general public debt as well as the increase in debt resulting from the
devaluation of the euro. Hefty cuts then become necessary if the system is to be sustainable in any way for the
future.
Politicians made a lot of promises and did not keep them. For fear of the crash, they created the bailout, and
turned responsibility over to the ESM, the European Banking Union and the ECB, which imposed debt policies on
all of the euro countries based on cheap credit and the printing of money, thus flooding the systems with cash.
Thus, there is no one who still expects that money can give them security. Investments, pensions and yields are
terms that belong to the past, as are prosperity, retirement pensions, education, and intergenerational care
through intergenerational contracts.
Politicians are not tackling the problem of reform. They continue with the same programmes or give them a new name
to raise people’s hopes, but are unable to sustain any of them. The people are given no information at all about
how bad things are in Germany.
The national news media peddles whatever Chancellor Merkel says and conceals whatever she conceals, and therefore
does not correct what is wrong. There are no reforms. The people cannot participate in political decisions, there
are no controls over the banks, businesses and politicians. Any supervisory bodies that do exist must withstand
accusations designed to discourage them from actually supervising anything. Promises from politicians are
all-to-often found to be lies or impracticable ideas. Thus, politicians are criminals or dreamers, which attests
to the unsuitability of their professional careers. Joining them are churches, unions, the press, advisors and
many more who feel important once they taste the nectar of political idiocy, which makes them so woozy that they
lose their minds.
Unfortunately, the voters also fall for this time and again. Even young people. According to Stern magazine, half
of young people up to age 29 (57%) would vote for Angela Merkel in direct elections because they have the highest
confidence in the chancellor. Putting aside how the survey of young people was conducted, the press must
acknowledge that they have reported Merkel’s point of view instead of the truth, and the youth have fallen for it.
It is a pity, because this leads to misplaced trust again. And this promotes politically motivated crimes for the
future, as reforms are excluded. This means that young people who trust this chancellor now are being deceived
about a financially secure future. Instead, they will be required to pay for Chancellor Merkel’s debt, forfeiting
prosperity and political participation as a result. This includes grants for students and other public assistance,
as well as the decline of assets such as pension plans, government bonds or life insurance schemes. The German
nation, which calls itself a social state, works against itself and therefore against young people.
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