‘Hard core’ capitalism? No, thank you

I know that there is a crisis. And a recession. Next year there will probably be a depression. Maybe even a collapse. And that in a crisis/recession/depression/collapse such moves are made. The state saves what can be saved. With whatever it can. But when the worst is over (by 2011 or 2012 it should pass), we will have to deal with the question of what kind of socio-economic system we live in. Are we still in transition? Have we ‘adopted’ capitalism? Or do we still live socialism in our hearts? Do we want state interference in ‘everything and anything’ or purified capitalism? Do we have the resources for any of those options?

Perhaps such a question in a country where the state makes up more than half of the market is meaningless. Croatia – that is the state! Between Croatia and the state, only a few healthy private companies have squeezed in. In the recession, more and more are struggling. And too many chronically ill state companies. The average economist probably has no doubts – the state must leave the market. So said the new Minister of Economy.

While he was on the side of employers. But on the other side of the table, the picture is different. He does not intend to ‘ease’ the number of employees in the state and public administration. Although he still knows that private companies can hardly sustain that. He has completely hidden in his new job. He did not appear to journalists. He left the conclusion about the non-interference (only mediation!) of the state in the case of Pevec to the spokesperson. So that no one would ask him anything. Still, I do not believe he has changed his mind. It is more likely that he has broadened his perspective. The one that looks a little further than profit. The one that in the calculation of shutting down companies and leaving them to the market also considers workers on the street.

And I, probably like Minister Popijač, know what I do not want. I do not want an economy in which one private producer supports at least two employees on state welfare. I do not want a state where the number of retirees and employees has almost equalized. I do not accept corruption. I do not want a ‘nepotistic’ state that rigs jobs. I do not want a government that prioritizes political functions over production and export. And political games without limits. I do not want dissatisfied entrepreneurs who are completely alone navigating through the jungle of bureaucracy and state officials who do not know their job.

But! I do not want capitalism in the American way either (I would not mention the Japanese one out of pure compassion). I have been to America and I did not like it. At first glance, I was fascinated. Above all by the female ‘fetish’ – low prices. Then by the possibility that everyone except the absolute fools, ignoramuses, or lazy people (and Croats are not like that, are they?) can have a decent life. Despite that, I realized that I do not want ‘hard core’ capitalism. That is the kind of capitalism in which a refined American in his later years, who retired and started a new company – and works in it – asks me: ‘I do not understand you Europeans.

What kind of workers’ rights are you talking about, what kind of annual vacations? Work and money are the most important things in life!’ Hm, that somehow resonates more with the infamous: ‘arbeit macht frei’. After all, if I had work and the owner’s profit on my mind 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year – that is not really the case (I ask the editors not to take this personally and tragically). The crisis, which was caused solely by the greed of big capital, has shown that the time for satisfying the only premise of capitalism: profit – is over! I know what I do not want. I also know what I want – the space between those two poles. I want modern ‘Keynesianism’. A state with a market and a soul – fully aware that I will never get that!