ALLIANCE FO§ DEMOCRACY

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.