First, we must earn our pensions. We must earn money to support families with children. We must earn money to protect nature. We must earn money to fund modern technology in healthcare. We must earn money to support culture.
How many times have you heard this? It would make sense if people also said: ‘We are taking these specific steps to make our country and our people richer so that, in a few years, we will be able to finance pensions and support families with children.’
But that’s not usually how it’s said. ‘First we have to earn money’ more often means the following: ‘We don’t want the state to pay for such things, regardless of the state of the treasury.’ We think it’s much better for the state to restrict services, forcing people to go into debt and pay the banks forever. Note that the same experts who are so conscientiously saving the state coffers have no problem spending much larger amounts on other things.