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Or, as we have been saying for a few years, the black zero, the balanced federal budget.
We are only able to achieve this supposedly well-balanced budget here in Germany because not only do you pay for it with all the tricks and tricks available, but above all because you can still get it halfway done at the expense of the actual and also existential state tasks .
The really interesting thing is that this is a political compromise that is supported by all relevant parties.
Probably only the die-hard socialists would sacrifice this self-deception in favor of an even greater deception, namely socialism, which exists neither in real nor in ideal terms; To put it even more clearly, socialism is to politics what squaring the circle is to mathematics: an impossibility.
One could actually ask the question how it was possible for almost all of us to let ourselves be dazzled by the black zero, although I would like to go one step further and try to give an answer.
The basis of our state is the rule of the people, and it should therefore actually be quite self-evident that every member of our state has the chance to live as comfortably as possible, because otherwise "ruling" would hardly be worthwhile for the individual citizen.
It is therefore also “law” that state welfare compensates for the need of every citizen through no fault of their own, or at least alleviates it. If only for the sake of justice, a citizen who got into trouble through their own fault would have to continue to fall back on the care of religious or humanistic institutions or people.
In order to be able to guarantee this state care, to strengthen the weaker citizens among us and to compensate for discrepancies in the wealth situation of the citizens that society perceives as too great, the principle of state redistribution has been established.
State redistribution is therefore a political and social necessity and is therefore generally accepted by all citizens – even the richest among us.
However, any state redistribution must also rules and limits have, know and comply with them. For the first time there must be assets that can be redistributed. Then a redistribution must neither become the mere exploitation of citizens nor serve as an instrument to bring all citizens into line or to dominate them. Ultimately, any redistribution must be transparent, efficient and also targeted for the citizens, namely for the benefit of the citizens.
Here in Germany, the principle of state redistribution has taken on a life of its own since the 1970s at the latest and has also escaped control by the state and citizens. Redistribution has meanwhile mutated into an "apparatus" that primarily serves self-preservation and is also spreading more and more into all social and political processes and areas.
And as soon as someone only addresses this existing problem, which has happened again and again in the last decades, e.g. B. through Helmut Schelsky, these citizens are accused of heresy from all sides.
“Today, solidarity very soon means mass organization with its support and administration elite. The welfare state as protection for the socially disadvantaged very soon unexpectedly becomes a planned, bureaucratic guardianship state and remains so.”
Helmut Schelsky, The independent and the cared for person (1978: 18)
Even the attempts to create at least more transparency in the matter, such as through Paul Kirchhof, which, among other things, would like to achieve more transparency in taxes and levies, are rejected and thwarted by the majority.
In the meantime, state redistribution has long since created an apparatus that has not only gotten completely out of control, but also increasingly thwarts its own intention: it is not the weaker fellow citizens who are strengthened, but those who feel at home in this apparatus and manipulate it for their own benefit be able.
A clear indication of this is that, despite the greatest redistribution ever achieved, many fellow citizens see themselves on the edge of their own existence and, moreover, the wealth discrepancy within our society today has never been so great.
Another sign of this is that the top performers in our society can hardly believe that their performance is really worthwhile and are therefore beginning to question the foundations of our society.
In the meantime, the apparatus has become so extensive and non-transparent, but also so powerful, that it continues to be nurtured and fed by politics, although its actual benefit for the state and citizens is hardly recognizable.
In the meantime, the whole thing has gotten so much worse that politicians are withdrawing the necessary funds from the actual state, which it urgently needs in order to be able to fulfill its very own tasks: education and infrastructure are more than inadequate, external security can no longer do itself and the interior can only be ensured to a limited extent.
In return, however, politicians are making more and more funds available to the redistribution apparatus without even knowing what will actually happen to them in the end.
And that's what I call the great self-deception, because every year we celebrate a black zero, no matter what the cost - and obviously only because we all don't know anymore whether we could do without this apparatus can or want to live at all.
It really is about time that we finally lifted the veil, even at the risk that we would all be broke long ago – black zero or not!
"The more is given the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase."
Leo Tolstoy, Help for the Starving (January 1892)
