Germany: Tax Reforms Pass

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Mon Mar 22 09:25:42 PST 1999


At 11:39 AM 3/20/99 -0600, Peter Kilander wrote:
>(finally, "reform" is used in the correct sense. I'm sick of seeing welfare
>"reform", social security "reform" financial industry "reform" etc etc)

Cursing and putting words in parenthesis is a religious response to reality that is beyond our control. Derogatory language does not change the basic fact that the US has changed -- i.e. reformed - its welfare system, social security etc. as well as that Germany has changed - i.e. reformed its own.

People on this list may not like the changes in the US and like those in Germany -- but the changes themselves are real, not fictitious.

Besides, as someone once observed, every nation has a political system it deserves. Most of the US-ers (pardon this neologism, but I owe it to the Canadians and Mexicans on this list) hate everything that smacks of the public sphere and love private, country-club-like environs. So the ruling class agenda to dismantle public response to social problems and privatizations of public institutions sails quite well here (as compared to countries like Germany).

Cheers,

Wojtek



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