σκόρπιες ιδέες

When John Maynard Keynes developed the theory of “effective demand” in 1936, he provided the solution to the problems of unemployment and underconsumption within national boundaries. If consumer purchasing power was stimulated either by tax cuts or government priming the pump, that would get industry going again to supply the surge in consumer demand, and thus increase employment.

But the new international division of labor has changed all that If we stimulate consumer purchasing power here in Greece, we create jobs in Italy and Germany. Since we are members of the European Common Market and can’t protect ourselves, our consumers buy Italian shoes or the best German cars, and cause a balance of payments problem for Greece. Today a Keynesian would run Greece into bankruptcy within a couple of years!

To keep up today, a country would have to produce goods that not only have a domestic market, but an international market. Without minimal global economic coordination Keynesian stimulation is like banging your head against the wall.

Ιf Greece wants a welfare state with health care, education and secure pensions, we must, at the same time, keep in mind the struggle for rising productivity. If we are to survive in this new international division of labor and production in which national competitiveness has become so fierce, we have no alternative. Unless this attitude is adopted by the working and middle classes, the consequences can be quite severe. This does not mean we have an anti-labor attitude. But it does mean that without a very positive commitment of the labor force to improving productivity, we lose the battle.

Greece also has an overgrown public sector. Those who work in the public sector are the privileged workers of Greece. The dream of the average Greek is to be a salaried employee of the government. They have the highest salaries, pensions, medical care and good vacations. We socialists didn’t create this situation, the dictatorship of the colonels did. When we came to power, 90% of all services, from the airlines to banking and electricity, were government owned. Now we have approximately double the personnel required to produce the necessary government services.

If Greece can’t attract the foreign investment to finance our participation in the technological revolution, we are basically condemned to being a tourist country. Our young people will emigrate and we will have an old population here tending hotels.

Ανδρέας Παπανδρέου, άρθρο για το New Perspectives Quarterly, Φθινόπωρο 1987.

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Κάποιες σημειώσεις: Θυμήθηκα την ύπαρξη του παραπάνω από το χθεσινό, εξαιρετικό όπως συνήθως, άρθρο του Βίκτωρα Νέτα στην Ελευθεροτυπία. Το κείμενο μάλλον έχει προέρθει από OCR και έχει κάποια λάθη, διόρθωσα τα προφανή. Η έμφαση, όπου υπάρχει, είναι δική μου.

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