For our second guest post in this discussion about economics, here’s my dear buddy Bjarne Braunschweig. He cites Klaus Werner-Lobo<\/a> and Jesus of Nazareth<\/a> as the main influences on his economic thinking, and everyone who knows him knows he cares a lot about Fair Trade<\/a>. As always, comments below are open for your questions and comments.<\/em><\/p>\n Michael stated that systemic problems within existing systems ought to be recognized, and then we should try to figure out how these can be overcome. Mattan wrote something quite similar: \u201cWe should see how permissive we can get, how much we can let people run their own life \u2013 and then see where and if it fails and how can we fix it in the least disruptive way.\u201d They described the \u201csystem\u201d in different words: Mattan called it freedom for oneself<\/em>, and Michael simply called it the system of the society we \u2013 at least in Germany \u2013 live in right now<\/em>.<\/p>\n My problem is: We already have seen our system fail again and again and again. And what are we doing? Nothing but to curl up in our own little nests of comfort \u2013 built of money \u2013 which we want to keep as comfortable as possible, by any means necessary. We fail to look at the system itself or the big picture. When I am talking about \u201cthis system\u201d or \u201cour system\u201d I am talking about the free market, which is run by enormous companies and governments cooperating with each other. This may not be true for all the markets and economics of every country, but we have infiltrated even the smallest and poorest countries with our \u201cDiet Coke and Snickers\u201d ideology and we are thereby undermining the free and less stable markets in a lot of African and South American states.<\/p>\n Our system is failing. Right now. The situation in Germany is grand! We have public schools, for which we do not have to pay. We have a lot of universities at which we can study for free. We have a welfare system, which is failing in some cases to provide personal freedom and dignity, but provides money in exchange for sending a few letters of application per month. There is a serious problem, though. A so called \u201cnew lower class\u201d is rising in Germany. What they lack most is not money, but education and perspective. But that is a topic, as Michael also said, that should be addressed in a different post. And seriously, we talk and cry, while we are standing above most of the worlds population in almost every way possible. Health care, schools, money, we have it.<\/p>\n And as much as I see the need of people in this country who try to get a job which does not leave them empty inside, perhaps even heartbroken, I also see people suffering on a much greater scale in so many parts of the world, such as east Africa or China.<\/p>\n We have freedom of speech. We have freedom of religion. We have the right to speak up against injustice. As Michael stated, we as the wealthy people \u2013 living among, beside or away from the poor \u2013 have certain responsibilities. We have power, in one of the few currencies power can come in: money. And with great power comes great responsibility. \u201cWe are all capitalists: we all agree that where the market works, it should remain, because we realize that free enterprise is a necessity for our freedom and that the free market, where it works, is the only moral way for people to interact in their skills, abilities, time, needs and wants<\/em>\u201d, said Mattan so passionately (emphasis mine).<\/p>\n
\nIf you’re looking at 2008 and the devastating \u201cminus\u201d on the stock-markets or if you look at how Greece is crumbling into little pieces of foreign policy-intruders, you can see it, feel it, sense it.<\/p>\n
\nFreedom for us and the free market? How about freedom for everybody<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nAn estimated 70 to 75% of the world’s population does not.<\/p>\n