[lbo-talk] Economic psychology?

[Wojtek S]

Of course, these are both hypothetical and empirical questions and no
one can answer them definitively. However, I submit to you, dear
reader, that the answer is not as straightforward as in the US and the
UK cases. Whereas the yellow buttons would hold no attraction for
President Obama and PM Cameron, Mrs Merkel’s yellow button is a far
more powerful candidate. For my part, I would like to think that Mrs
Merkel would want to opt for the red button. But I seriously fear that
she would be terrorised by the reaction of the German electorate were
she to do this, and thus let the Greeks and the Italians, the
Spaniards and the Portuguese, ‘off the hook’ so easily. For two years
now, the German public has become convinced (falsely) that Germany has
escaped the worse of the Crisis because of the German people’s
virtuous embracement of thriftiness and hard work; in contrast to the
spendthrift Southerners who, like the fickle grasshopper, made no
provisions for when the tide turns nasty. This mindset goes hand in
hand with a moral righteousness which implants in good people’s hearts
and minds a penchant for exacting punishment on the grasshoppers –
even if punishing them also comes at a cost to themselves.

http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2012/07/23/a-mental-experiment-for-establishing-the-relative-mood-for-solving-the-crisis-in-europe-in-britain-in-the-usa/
-- 
Wojtek

"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."