EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion
In the first part of this series, we explained why the left is in crisis and needs to return to its roots if it is to reconnect with the working class. In the last part, we outlined the first two key steps towards achieving this goal - in this one, we continue with four more.
Bring back the anti-war left
Trump continues to increase military spending. Now he is starting to demand the same from Europe. The world is becoming more and more militarized. Historically, such periods have always led sooner or later to a major war. Now is the time to become the voice of reason again and oppose this. Empires have failed entire civilizations, undermining the financial security of their peoples, and have led them to mediocrity. Feeding this armada will soon begin to weigh very heavily on the taxpayer and will make it impossible to cut taxes, without which its prosperity cannot return. Oppose this.
End the affair with the civil servant
This is very applicable to Bulgaria. Those employed in the state administration are objectively a vested interest, contradicting any leftist idea of equality. The positions of these people are protected by the state and they can appoint a new staff at will. This bleeds the real productive sector, on whose success depends whether our salaries will increase or remain mediocre. Our taxes cannot be low, on the one hand, because of the maintenance of their salaries, but on the other - because of the small number of taxpayers who remain.
However, civil servants are a loyal voting bloc that votes loyally for the one in power, for fear of losing their privileges if the change happens. Try, lefties, to sell the idea of cutting the bloated staff and even taking out loans for the electronicization of administrative work, from whose savings you can finance tax breaks and increased child benefits for the poorest workers who want to have children but do not have the financial security. This is a leftist policy, but it will definitely be attractive to the entire electorate.
Attack all vested interests
As a leftist, you should be scandalized by the fact that half of the EU budget goes to agricultural subsidies, which in turn go to 60-year-old millionaires, since for at least 60 years mass farming has not happened "in the place of grandparents in the village". This cannot be good for reducing inequality. The benefit of the subsidies is concentrated mainly in the recipient company, while their cost - dispersed among all taxpayers. The same applies to tariffs on trade - the mass consumer benefits from cheap imports.
There is a clamor going on against free trade at the moment, and this is an opportunity to win easy votes. If you are going to help someone, at least it should not be the richest. You can also take a cue from the Western European left and attack the teachers' unions and by giving schools the right to determine their own curriculum, you can increase the quality of the product and consequently the qualifications of the working class.
Support the young
We know how concerned you are about retirees. Yet in most places, and soon in Bulgaria too, retirees will retire with more savings and assets than a young person has at that time. This is simply due to the longer time to save, which is a function of wealth. In the West, the richest fifth of the population is dominated by people over 60. Against this background, our pay-as-you-go pension system is a proven Ponzi scheme, benefiting current participants at the expense of future ones. And it can’t be otherwise with this low birth rate and increasing life expectancy.
Young people are forced to set aside more money than 20-year-olds for retirement, which they need much more money to start a family and all the conditions for this, because these things are done while a person is young. The demographic crisis will be solved by the young, not the old. If all direct taxes and social security contributions for young people were abolished today, not only in Bulgaria, but also in Europe, the incomes of young workers would jump by a third, and employers would be much more stimulated to hire and invest in this demographic group. This is a very left-wing policy, with which you will gain a loyal electorate for the next two generations at least.
Conclusion - return to your roots
Once upon a time, you, the left, made it official to eradicate poverty and illiteracy among the poorest layers of the working class in the West, even if capitalism would have slowed down by a few decades. Your redistributive policies in the then ethnically homogeneous Europe aimed at achieving higher social mobility in the capitalist, but ethnically heterogeneous and fragmented communities of the USA and Europe. Now you spit on all that. Listen to the advice described above and we, the right, would be happy to help you implement it. This is the level at which we would like the left-right debate to be.
