Neoliberal narrative watch: German debt rules edition

The debate about reforming the public debt rules in Germany is throwing up constant examples of why it’s so urgent and necessary to have a strong alternative narrative to neoliberalism. 

Yesterday evening on the Maybrit Illner talk show, CDU politician Carsten Linnemann’s arguments came straight from the free market playbook. 

In a compelling, urgent tone he argued that the German state is so inefficient and bureaucratic, that it has to be reformed first before it can even be capable of handling large investments. 

The evidence? A piece of paper he took out of his pocket, claiming it’s a regulation that requires handymen to have their ladders checked once a year for safety. Calling it one out of “many” measures that are holding back the German economy, he ended with “let handymen decide how they want to work, at their own risk”. (What’s a few dead or injured workers a year right?) 

According to Linnemann, all of these layers of bureaucracy need to be cut back, and only then can the German state think about large investments. Another guest, a journalist, chimed in with “otherwise, any investment will go straight to inflation”. 

This will be news to the principal at my kids’ school in Berlin. The toilets look like they haven’t been renewed since the 1970s, and smell like it too. Many kids, including mine, prefer not to go to the toilet at school and to hold it in until they get home. Thousands of schools in Germany are in a similar state. 

Linnemann could also try asking local authorities what they need to spend money on and how they would manage it: he would be overwhelmed with the response. Following 15 years of underinvestment bridges and roads need fixing, internet needs upgrading and social programs cannot meet demand. We could go on and talk about the national railways, need for green infrastructure, and more. 

If you truly want to improve living standards, postponing these investments for another 5 or 10 years is madness. 

The point here is that none of the speakers on the Illner TV show pushed back on the core free market story underlying his talking points. Other guests, including the Green party rep were forced to agree on some of them such as the need to modernise and digitalise government offices. 

Here’s a rough example of how a new narrative could be used to push back:  

“Look, the reality is that this country needs a well-funded, capable government to provide the goods and services that people want, and that private markets will not provide: Public transport in the countryside; affordable schools and healthcare; robust security and defense; free cultural and social spaces where people can meet. 

Your party will always argue the state is inefficient and incapable. If you wanted to modernise it and make it more digital, you had many chances to do so in the last 15 years and didn’t take them. 

The question is why? Because your goal is not really to make the state more capable. You want some state structures to fail, so you can “prove” how inefficient they are and then privatise them, creating state-sponsored profits for your party’s donors. And others, you want to shut down entirely, so you can offer tax breaks to the wealthy.

By the way, that’s also why your party always tries to create distractions with scare stories about people on benefits and migrants, because you can’t be honest with voters about what your agenda really is.”