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INSM campaign in 2006 in front of the Brandenburg Gate
Photo: insm.de
The coup was too much even for his own friends.
When the lobby-financed “Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft” (INSM) launched for a major advertising campaign against the Green leader last week, the Federation of German Industry also grumbled.
In the ad, the green one stood as Moses with ten commandments, according to which we (probably) no longer fly, participate in free trade, live more beautifully, drive combustion cars, make our own decisions and do a lot more.
Because of the Greens, of course.
The initiative's heads of propaganda tried to defend themselves with the misleading name.
Others found it a bit anti-Semitic.
You could also say: probably nobody has tried to sell the people in the country for so stupid since the wall came down.
No comparison, of course, of course.
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Controversial campaign motif of the INSM
Photo: insm.de
The action seems to be just one more example of what has been going on for a few weeks with representatives of traditional economics in Germany - whether in lobbies, allegedly business-oriented party wings or the inclined media. The closer the federal elections approaches and the possibility that the Greens could soon rule, the more angry and confused the attempts to prevent this become - even if it is by reviving old-market liberal beliefs. Plump or not. Then Moses has to work - plus a set of Teletubby sayings.
You don't have to like the Greens and their occasional penchant for teaching. But the panic actions pretty much go against everything that economists around the world have recognized since the great financial crisis at the latest: that the market doesn't regulate it that easily. And it's not that easy. According to recent surveys, what the big money stumblers are helplessly trying to propagate no longer finds clear approval even among their own clientele. Contrary to what the advocacy group might suggest.
This applies to the INSM, which likes to gagaesk large posters with heavy messages such as “Germany drives better.
With a social market economy «.
And that could also apply to lobbies such as the Association of Family Entrepreneurs, which, according to its own statements, represents 180,000 of these businesses and thus a turnover of 1.7 billion euros.
The positions are roughly the same.
There has been a lot of hard work and unity over the years:
against wealth taxes
against higher inheritance taxes
instead, for lower taxes for the rich and corporations
against the minimum wage
against an end for internal combustion engines
against obstacles to employ people on a temporary basis or with work contracts
against the supply chain law
against money transfers for other EU countries
against redistribution (downwards)
against rescue packages from the European Central Bank in times of crisis
and against joint funding of large projects and reforms in the EU.
Plus against quotas for women, mothers' pensions and pensions for people who have worked for a very long time.
Pension?
If so, then later, of course.
That sounds like a very clear political preference.
The family business association finds that the SPD has a »myriad of outdated policy approaches« and »unpractical solutions« - as well as that the Greens program »does not hit the truth«.
It's good we know now.
While that of the FDP reads "beneficial to hopeful".
I see.
At this point at the latest, the question arises as to whether all people who run a (family) company in Germany (or are members of the association) also see it that way.
Especially since we live in 2021 (and not, let's say, the year of Mr. Ronald Reagan), where today:
even more conservative economists admit that it is good to have a minimum wage - and, if in doubt, an inheritance tax as well;
the formerly orthodox industrial countries organization OECD has distanced itself from the dogma of deregulated labor markets - and instead calls for inclusive growth;
the once market-liberal International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that in the face of diverging conditions it can be good to levy wealth taxes;
or a corona property levy;
President Joe Biden practiced a departure from the longstanding state neurosis in the USA - and finally invested again in infrastructure and climate rescue;
There is broad consensus among economists around the world that central banks have been right to buy bonds and keep interest rates low since the financial crisis;
And now it is becoming apparent that the nagging was absurd, too, that joint bonds in the EU could be expensive for Germany.
The fact that all these views are not crazy fashion, as it is attempted to downplay in orthodox circles, seems to have reached those who, according to the demands of the lobbies, would have to think just as much as the heads of propaganda from INSM and family businesses.
But apparently by no means always doing that.
Actions like the one with which a number of German millionaires expressed the initially bizarre wish to be taxed more heavily - because the money is needed to save the climate and other things - suggests this.
Thoughts that do not (yet) appear in the poster world of large lobbyists.
According to recent surveys, what the big money polterers try to propagate helplessly no longer finds clear approval even among their own clientele.
A survey by Deutsche Bank Research from this week is even clearer: The experts asked a representative 200 companies in Germany about their opinions relevant to the election. And? Market rules? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that. More than 40 percent of business leaders say that a government made up of the CDU and the Greens would mean a big difference, but for companies it would be "the beginning of a long overdue restructuring of the German industrial landscape" - only 20 percent see it differently. Almost 40 percent do not see Germany's competitiveness weakened by green participation in power. That sounds somewhat different in the lobby pamphlets.
This also applies to the big question of whether the state does not have to fix it occasionally: A good 40 percent of business people also say that »a higher level of state involvement secures jobs« - and that the German state is basically »more active and more controlling in competition with other countries act «should.
Keyword: industrial policy.
And: China.
The fear of the costs of climate policy also seems less clear in the real economy than in the lobby: almost 50 percent of business practitioners do not expect any significant burden for the next few years - and 40 percent of them even see advantages because their products are likely to be in greater demand .
more on the subject
Lobbying before the federal election: Come on, let's buy a chancellorA column by Christian Stöcker
The gap between uniform policeman, as the associations operate, and the on-site company views, when it comes to the EU, seems even bigger. It is true that 60 percent reject the idea that there is a »permanent joint borrowing«. However, more than a third of German business people consider the oh-so-terrible joint liability to be acceptable - mainly because it means that important sales and delivery markets are preserved for their own company. Sure, crisis countries don't buy anything. A simple insight that has yet to come to the association's meeting. The majority of companies don't think that's so bad because there are currently loans at extremely low interest rates. Standard Macroeconomics 2021.
All of that doesn't say who will be right in the end. It is just astonishing how much verve and an incredible amount of money the loudest of the lobbyists try to hammer into the people of the country with things that neither correspond to the state of recent experience and modern teaching, nor apparently represent what the people think they think supposedly represented. What is reassuring after all - to know that not everyone who does something in the country therefore represents arch-conservative economic views or liberal market sermons from the old days. That makes you hopeful.
The views are "sometimes more heterogeneous than statements from leading associations suggest," write the two Deutsche Bank authors Marion Mühlberger and Jenny Franke. One could also say that one or the other will get away with a zeal for conviction and party. There's no fame photo for that.