Paying for expanding without due diligence. China’s virtues and their buyer’s weakness. “Plastic education” and unemployment. Pirate protection: decadence at work?
 
1. The economic crisis. Through its impact on the national economies of indebted countries, the Euro is increasingly becoming a problem. Beyond that, the common currency is not proving to be a solution. Much rather it is appearing as an impediment to the recovery. At the same time, it is becoming a proper subject of discussion in polite society that the EU and the Euro rank among the major causes of the crisis.

The result is that in some countries a growing part of the population wishes that the old, pre-Euro currency would return. In whispers that are growing louder, the forced exit of debtors and the voluntary departures of the net donors is being discussed. All wish to jump and search for the parachute is on.

Shaky economies, with a politically induced lack of economic discipline and devoid of leaders endowed with the “common sense” of politics, sneaked their way into the €-Zone. This success is more than a mere consequence of the crooked cleverness of applying governments. “Europe’s” managers have not exercised due diligence precisely because they suspected that what they might discover could block their expansion oriented strategy. Once inside the cookie-jar, new members were encouraged through the implied guarantee of band-aid for the injured, to practice a politically rewarding profligacy.  The assumed protection from the consequences encouraged vote-buying governing elites to abuse their over-estimated security.

2. Excuses at work? It is fashionable to blame the US’ trade deficit on China’s cheap goods. Other countries, in what we might call a “virtual class suit”, are bound to join the complaint. There is a tenable argument that plays well before local audiences and which blurs the total picture. One can find homegrown causes for the inability of the US to compete. Lack of discipline, unclear economic policies comes to mind. The list continues with luxury projects that encumber those who work, quotas that limit efficiency and paralyze the school system, are some of them.

To a significant extent, these do-it-yourself hindrances may be credited to the government of the moment. Even more the political class is to be blamed. It rules regardless of which of its fractions won the last election. The distorting mistakes are of long standing. Facing them, being inconvenient, is avoided. With the help of the media -its shakers and makers are members- the critique of destructive policies can get the silent treatment. Thereby the proposed remedy is shrunk to promises to limit the extent of self-imposed damage. This cagey admission of reduced problems is softened so that the beneficiaries of existing misallocations would not get upset.

This leaves us with the question: “What is to be done”? Needed is a new public spirit. One of its consequences needs to be a reconstruction of the way institutions are staffed and operated.

3. Sorry to bring this up. The US’ and in many cases Europe’s leveled system of education produces too many unemployables. The struggle against excellence and for diplomas to all that do not hold their certificate upside down while reading it, pays negative dividends.  Especially the case of America is a severe one. That happens to be where the rule of the educationalists has been longest. So many things, from hamburgers (good) to soft gum on your seat (bad) and including PC (plainly &%*”+!!) tend to emerge first in the experiment friendly States. Initially the matter, especially if it is harmful, is in Europe registered in shock. Just in time before “it” can be duplicated.

Sometime in the late Stone Age, America decided that equality means that all should attend the same school with the same program. With that, a practical idea had been jettisoned. It is that everybody should have access to the instruction that he wants, can use, and is able to absorb. The training provided should transmit a skill for which, like in the case of all products, there is a market expressing a societal need. Admittedly, meeting these criteria implies a separation of school types and their curriculum. It also produces people with different diplomas and certificates of competence. A fundamental idea is at work behind the scheme. All individuals are assumed to differ from each other in significant ways and this divergence is to be recognized and catered to.

It is warranted to plea for systems that provides alternative educational tracks, which lead, along a variety of routes, to a real skill. Inevitably, this approach runs counter to what some understand under equality. After all, such a system separates according to motivation, expectations and talent.

A cornerstone of the suggested approach is the training of competent craftsmen and technicians. To the writer’s knowledge this approach, as the 1-3% unemployment rate suggest, is best implemented in Switzerland. Besides the traditional college track, young people can opt for a trade. That means about three or four years in a practice-oriented program that includes about two days of classroom instruction. Ultimately, a continuation at a college specialized in the area of training is an option. For instance, after the completion of the training in banking, one can enroll in a business or economics program that leads to a standard BA or an MA. While your correspondent’s son earned, representing the fourth generation, a PhD, his daughter got uninterested in the Gymnasium. Therefore, she dropped out and chose the banking trade. Not being acquainted with the system, folks at home were aghast. Today she leads a branch office and is confident regarding her future.

4. A win-win situation or the best of all worlds. Take the case of the rare piracy trials. There is a problem to convict. The captor –as is the case now with Germany- may not have a law against piracy. The result: no law, no crime, no conviction.

If the pirates are stopped by timely and forceful intervention then it happens because they did not manage to attain full control of the ship. If they had no control of the vessel then, so the defense, they are not guilty. Guilt only begins once a criminal act has taken place. Now then, if they enter the ship the pirates become guilty. However, in this case they cannot be prosecuted. Since they control the ship and hold hostages, no charges are leveled but ransom is transferred. In this case, after collecting their reward, the pirates disappear. A large portion of leniency or decadence further complicates sanctions. In a report from Germany, a public person put the matter succinctly. He claimed that proceeding is problematic. Evidence is lacking. The pirates might be under age. Furthermore, not speaking the language and being unfamiliar with the ways of their captors, the poor fellows, once they are “fished out of the water”, are at a disadvantage. Additionally, incarcerating them will prevent their rehabilitation. Jail cannot educate and they will have no future in Germany after their release. The separation from their culture will also cause damage to the accused. Finally, in Somalia no one will take notice of a harsh sentence. At that juncture, the dear man forgot one thing. In case of the release of the pirates, you can rest assured that, all the other “fishermen” pursuing a lucrative sideline, will take due notice.         

The dilemma reminds one of the recent trial of a Jihadist once held in Guantanamo. He had been prosecuted for a crime that the American court system did not anticipate and this was done under rules that did not fit the situation. Frighteningly, it took nearly three hundred charges to make one of them stick –accidentally? - in an American court.