On Feb 11, 9:45=A0am, Frank Bures <f...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Issues & Ideas
>
> =A9 Foreign Policy Magazine =A0Published: Monday, February 11, 2008
>
> German students will be well-versed in many subjects upon graduation;
one
> topic they will know particularly well is their rights as welfare
> recipients. One 10th-grade social studies text titled FAKT has a chapter
o=
n
> "What to do against unemployment." Instead of describing how companies
> might create jobs, the section explains how those without jobs can
organiz=
e
> into self-help groups and join weekly anti-reform protests "in the
> tradition of the East German Monday demonstrations" (which in 1989
helped
> topple the communist dictator****p). The not-so-subtle sub-text? Jobs are
a=
> right to be demanded from the government. The same chapter also details
> various welfare programs, explains how employers use the threat of
layoffs=
> as a tactic to cut pay and concludes with a long excerpt from the
platform=
> of the German Union Federation, including the 30-hour work week,
retiremen=
t
> at age 60 and redistribution of the work pie by splitting full-time into
> part-time jobs. No market alternative is taught. When FAKT presents the
> reasons for unemployment, it blames computers and robots. In fact, this
is=
> a recurring theme in German textbooks -- the Internet will turn workers
> into "anonymous code" and kill off interpersonal communication.
>
> Equally popular in Germany today are student workbooks on globalization.
> One such workbook includes sections headed The Revival of Manchester
> Capitalism, The Brazilianization of Europe and The Return of the Dark
> Ages." India and China are successful, the book explains, because they
hav=
e
> large, state-owned sectors and practice protectionism, while the
societies=
> with the freest markets lie in impoverished sub-Saharan Africa. Like
many
> French and German books, this text suggests students learn more by
> contacting the anti-globalization group Attac, best known for organizing
> messy protests at the annual G-8 summits.
>
> One might expect Europeans to view the world through a slightly
> left-of-centre, social-democratic lens. The surprise is the intensity
and
> depth of the anti-market bias being taught in Europe's schools. Students
> learn that private companies destroy jobs while government policy
creates
> them. Employers exploit while the state protects. Free markets offer
chaos=
> while government regulation brings order. Globalization is destructive,
if=
> not catastrophic. Business is a zero-sum game, the source of a litany of
> modern social problems. Some enterprising teachers and parents may try
to
> teach an alternative view, and some books are less ideological than
others=
..
> But given the biases inherent in the curricula, this background is
> unavoidable. It is the context within which most students develop
> intellectually. And it's a belief system that must eventually appear to
be=
> the truth.
>
> CAN OLD EUROPE DO NEW TRICKS ?
>
> This bias has tremendous implications that reach far beyond the domestic
> political debate in these two countries. These beliefs inform students'
> choices in life. Taught that the free market is a dangerous wilderness,
> twice as many Germans as Americans tell pollsters that you should not
star=
t
> a business if you think it might fail. According to the European Union's
> internal polling, just two in five Germans and French would like to be
> their own boss, compared to three in five Americans. Whereas 8% of
> Americans say they are currently involved in starting a business, that's
> true of only 2% of Germans and 1% of the French. Another 28% of
Americans
> are considering starting a business, compared to just 11% of the French
an=
d
> 18% of Germans. The loss to Europe's two largest economies in terms of
> jobs, innovation and economic dynamism is severe.
>
> Attitudes and mind-sets, it is increasingly being shown, are closely
> related to a country's economic performance. Edmund Phelps, a Columbia
> University economist and Nobel laureate, contends that attitudes toward
> markets, work and risk-taking are significantly more powerful in
explainin=
g
> the variation in countries' actual economic performance than the
> traditional factors upon which economists focus, including social
spending=
,
> tax rates and labour-market regulation. The connection between
capitalism
> and culture, once famously described by Max Weber, also helps explain
> continental Europe's poor record in entrepreneur****p and innovation. A
> study by the Massachusetts-based Monitor Group, the Entrepreneur****p
> Benchmarking Index, looks at nine countries and finds a powerful
> correlation between attitudes about economics and actual cor****ate
> performance. The researchers find that attitudes explain 40% of the
> variation in start-up and company growth rates -- by far the strongest
> correlation of any of the 31 indicators they tested. If countries such
as
> France and Germany hope to boost entrepreneur****p, innovation and
economic=
> dynamism--as their leaders claim they do -- the most effective way to
make=
> that happen may be to use education to boost the cultural legitimacy of
> going into business.
>
> The deep anti-market bias that French and Germans continue to teach
> challenges the conventional wisdom that it's just a matter of time,
thanks=
> to the pressures of globalization, before much of the world agrees upon
a
> supposedly "Western" model of free-market capitalism. Politicians in
> democracies cannot long fight the preferences of the majority of their
> constituents. So this bias will likely continue to cir***scribe both
> European elections and policy outcomes. A likely alternative scenario
may
> be that the changes wrought by globalization will awaken deeply held
> resentment against capitalism and, in many countries from Europe to
Latin
> America, provide a fertile ground for populists and demagogues, a trend
> that is already manifesting itself in the sudden rise of many leftist
> movements today.
>
> Minimal reforms to the welfare state cost former German Chancellor
Gerhard=
> Schroder his job in 2005. They have also paralyzed modern German
politics.=
> Former communists and disaffected Social Democrats, together with
left-win=
g
> Greens, have flocked to Germany's new leftist party, whose politics is a
> distasteful mix of anti-capitalist demagoguery and right-wing
xenophobia.
> Its platform, polls show, is finding sup****t even among mainstream
Germans=
..
> A left-leaning majority, within both the parliament and the public at
> large, makes the world's third-largest economy vulnerable to destructive
> policies driven by anti-capitalist resentment and fear of globalization.
> Similar situations are easily conceivable elsewhere and have already
helpe=
d
> bring populists to power in Latin America. Then there is France, where
> President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to "rupture" with the failed economic
> policies of the past. He has taken on the country's public servants and
> their famously lavish benefits, but many of his policies appear to be
> driven by what he calls "economic patriotism," which smacks of
> old-fa****oned industrial protectionism. That's exactly what French
> schoolchildren have long learned is the way the world should work.
>
> Both the French and German cases show the limits of trying to run
against
> the grain of deeply held economic ideology. Yet, training the next
> generation of citizens to be prejudiced against being enterprising and
> productive is equally foolhardy. Fortunately, such widespread attitudes
an=
d
> the political outcomes they foster aren't only determined by tradition
and=
> history. They are, to a great extent, the product of education. If
> countries like France and Germany hope to get their nations on a new
> economic track, they might start paying more attention to what their
kids
> are learning in the classroom.
>
> Copyright =A9 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks
> Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.
>
> --
>
> <f...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
My economically active lifestyle does not provide the
op****tunity to keep abreast of current political stalemate
in the Czech republic. Can someone explain, in purpo-
sefully objective format, to those of us here with minimal
exposure to current events in the CR, the source of domes-
tic antipathy toward Vaclav Klaus? Does Klaus' fall from
grace have anything to do with the context of FEEB's
article? Prof. Kyn's earlier post was utterly worthless to
this end.
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