Since this country is facing the latest instalment of a joke called European elections, it is only fitting to take a look at a political process which makes little sense. First, we must ask ourselves, what did Slovenian MEPs of the first term do for us? Rather than of course running up high costs – covered by the taxpayers – incurred by some twat who was explaining to his equally useless eurobuddies about Slovene potica and the suffering of Slovene mothers. Second. What are we to think about an institution as silly as the European Parliament? It has none of the functions a parliament traditionally has. It is hosting a third-rate debate club, which is deliberating questions as important as the primary source of a Basque bat. And third: Why must we vote for these local clowns? Isn’t this a European election? Why can’t we vote for a German party if we feel that it would better represent our interests? Again, we are limited to the trivial choice of Pahor/Janša-type, albeit with a European flavour. It would be best if Slovenia gave up this expensive an useless circus and lets Brussels know that until European Parliament becomes a proper parliament, Slovenia will not take part in this Eurosong contest.
Economist Rado Pezdir on Vest.si (source via DrugiDom)
The fact that Rado Pezdir is one of the self-styled shock-jocks of Slovenian economics should be more than enough to preclude any substantial comment to a text which clearly falls under the AW category. And if his macroeconomic antics, which echoed those of Mičo Mrkaič, Jože P. Damijan and other members of the Slovene Macroeconomic Forum (or Sexy Motherfuckers as they wanted to be known at first), were still somehow understandable (you cannot expect a Thatcherite to make an about-turn just because the reality had changed), his swipe at upcoming European elections is completely unforgivable.
Granted, European elections and -by extension- the European Parliament (EP) are not all that they could be. I will not go into the history of evolution of EP, but suffice it to say that it did indeed start as a debate club for elderly gentleman who were way past their due date. But it has grown considerably, both in terms of representation as well as in the scope of its powers. Budgetary powers of a parliament are among the most important powers in this day and age. And in this respect EP is not lacking. Furthermore, the parliament approves and can recall the European Commission (the “executive branch” insofar as we can talk of division of power on the EU level), which is another important factor in the game of checks and balances. Even if we can put Pezdir’s lack knowledge on political intricacies down to his economic background (for which he is dully forgiven), his lacking in the basics outlined above is below the acceptable minimum.
With this in mind it seems pointless to go delving deeper into shallowness of Pezdir’s text. But hey . you only live twice, or so the song goes. Maybe in his next lifetime, provided that he does not reincarnate as a member of Tephritidae persuasion, Rado Pezdir will learn that indeed one can vote for a German (or Latvian, or British) candidate or even a party, provided that such a party would find it reasonable to run its candidates in Slovenia and conform to Slovenian legislation on political parties. The fact that no non-Slovene parties or candidates do such a thing proves only that the Slovenian political market is saturated with little room for expansion. As an economist, Pezdir should be able to understand that, but he doesn’t. Which could tell us something about his overall abilities of perception as well.
And finally, if Rado Pezdir really believes that MEPs debate on geographical origins of food and animals, his arrogance and ignorance are truly infinite. It takes only a quick glance to see that during its last session (May 4 to 7) the EP – among other items on the agenda debated credit requirements directives, electronic communications networks, personal data and the protection of privacy and frequency bands for mobile communications.
To cut a long story short: As it is, Rado Pezdir has once again shown that he favours style over substance. This time, however, he is way out of his depth and has ashamed himself as well as Vest.si which ran his piece. But truth be told, this is only the last and most blatant example of the fact that Rado Pezdir has nothing important left to say. And in that respect one feels that Tom Lehrer, a matematician/musician pengovsky only recently discovered, was right when he said that if a person has problems communicating the very least he can do is to shut up.
Congratulations for the award! 🙂
favours style over substance?!
now … I wonder where did you get that impression from? true, rado fails to provide any substance whatsoever, but otoh he also fails to show any style whatsoever. and with him lacking both substance and style, we can only conclude that rado is void and must thus be a figment of our collective imagination.
yep, it’s just our brain that’s playing tricks on us. (thank god)
@Davor: Thanks! 😀
@jaKa: So, you’re saying Rado is just a really bad dream?
Who or what made this guy an “expert” of any sort? I wonder if Rado knows who passed legislation that curbed roaming prices in European mobile telephony so he can afford to stay in -telephonic touch- with his German friends. I don’t suppose they are from Trier? 😉
Glad you enjoyed the pigeon-loving Prof
Lovely hairstyle 😉
No comment about Rado – for me he falls in the “Damjan Murko” category. Not sexual orientation, but brain category.
I just want to thank you pengovsky for teaching me about Tom Lehrer. Wonderful, hilarious, and a scary reminder that things never change. Those songs fit perfectly in this century as well – just change a few names.
Hahaha, Rado is completely correct, of course. The EU parliament and EU commission is nothing but a bloated bureaucracy of good-for-nothing ruling class wannabes. It’s the old European ruler-serf relationship where the new noblemen pay no taxes whatsoever and they get to vote and control the lives of ordinary people. They get to hike up the taxes and spend other people’s money.
As for the people who choose to go to work in this evil machinery, I can only say kudos to them for realizing where the milk and honey flows. Drink, drink while it still flows 🙂
Rado is unfortunately not a very successful shock-jock, mainly due to his speech impediment. However, he is very smart and does have something to say. He also has the guts and courage to talk about these unpopular viewpoints in a country where little people like to take pot shots like the one in this entry. Kudos to Rado!
crni, this time you let me down big time (thanks for the kudos, though
)
Ignorance of what the EP does and ignorance of the benefits of its actions to EU citizens thankfully does not diminish same.
Welcome back to the EU – where apparently a good enough environment was secured by that bloated bureaucracy for you to have found a suitable work challenge 😈
Ignorance is not the same as disagreement, you see. I simply do not agree with a lot of the EP and EC policies and attitudes. I hate the benevolent master mentality. For example, the mobile roaming rates you mentioned – the government does not need a special law to enforce them. In the USA those rates had dropped much sooner because of competition. The mobile calling rates in the USA are much lower than Europe in general. And that after the mobile infrastructure in the USA was behind Europe for years, due to the excellent land-line system there. But now they are better. Not due to bureaucrats, though.
As for my challenging job – the challenge is definitely there. It’s the compensation that is lacking. This is due to enormous taxes, not due to my employer not spending enough. Of course, the eurocrats wouldn’t know about that, because they don’t pay the same taxes as us, normal serfs. Also, my employer happens to be an US company 🙂
crni, I can’t wait to see that in person in a couple of weeks. I haven’t been to the US in 3 years and the last time I was there my attempts to buy a prepaid SIM card failed miserably because there was no SIM card in the phone and the phone I ended up buying only worked in a certain region. Sheesh… Let’s see how we fare this time around.
I don’t think many condone over regulation, but laissez-faire philosophy has been proven wrong and has led to two of the greatest economic crises I think think of. The philosophy of “just let the market handle it” doesn’t work. Plain and simple.
Touché on the employer. Have fun… it’s gotta be exciting! 😀
Strange, I thought experts were still out quarreling over what caused the great economic crises – not enough regulation or incorrect interventions on the market, i.e. Smoot-Hawley tariff act and Greenspan’s magic vanishing interest rate. Both are distinctly not laissez-faire acts but rather interventions with very good intentions that paved a nice road to hell. So your “plain and simple” is not quite that.
However I personally do not think extreme laissez-faire is the way. I do think EU is over-regulated, though. I also think there is no way to limit or eliminate human greed and therefore boom and bust cycles are here to stay.
Strange that you had SIM card problems. My mother, who is probably less tech savvy than you, had no problems whatsoever 5 years ago. Next time don’t go for Metro PCS, they are selling old technology.
crni, I really am no expert on the area, but when I see ultra liberal economists agree to nationalisation of banks and call for greater government involvement in the resolution of the crisis in terms of more regulation, my logical conclusion is that they have come to realise that too lax an economic framework coupled with human greed, which I agree is impossible to limit, is not sustainable on the long run. Besides, I don’t remember these same economist scream murder when interest rates were being slashed.
I’ll let you know about the SIM card… am quite interested how I fare this time.