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Comment by croes | Hacker News Reader

And why did politicians outsource that to the market?

It's not like the industry and certain media companies lobbied for it big time claiming the market is so much better.

Just look who they voted in Germany for the EU. The same party that blocked the energy transition with faulty studies, made Germany dependent on russian resources, botched the nuclear exit leading to large compensation payments, installed a debt break in the constitution that is based on a faulty Excel calculation etc.

Seems to me like people want to get fooled. As soon you tell them the truth they listen to those who promise easy solutions for complex problems.

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> And why did politicians outsource that to the market? It's not like the industry and certain media companies lobbied for it big time claiming the market is so much better.

Still the politicians' fault if you ask me. It's in their job description to serve the public interest. And it is granted that there will be attempts to influence them.

For this, they are paid well-above the average of a person with similar qualifications, typically granted handsome pension schemes, and afforded many other protections and benefits. All, so they are not financially insecure and susceptible to influence.

If they cave to lobby interests against the public interest, they should be held accountable, and not only on election day.

Of course it's the politicians fault, but voters are to blame too if they fall for campaigns to get rid of those politicians who really want to serve the public interest.

One example is the treatment of Robert Habeck, despite the other errors he made he handled the russian gas crises pretty well. He explained in detail what he wants to do, what the consequences are and why he did it the way he did.

He still gets attacked by right wing media, voters and the industry just because he had to fix what the prebious government botched on behalf of the german industry because they wanted cheap gas. That was a refreshing amount of clear communication from a politician. The result: h is made fun of because he has also written children's books.

Seems like people prefer politicians like Merkel, who said and did next to nothing.

Better fail while you try than do nothing.

Even though I don't really like the Grünen I think Habeck is quite okay. Others:

Scholz: Invisible

Linder: Also quite okay, since he at least seems like some kind of force against overflowing expenses. Could be a bit less invested in his clientele

Faeser: Incompetent

Baerbock: Incompetent

Buschmann: Who?

Heil: Incompetent

Pistorius: Nothing but hot air

Özdemir: Could be okay but was put on a leash

Paus: You can't be this incompetent, I bet on malice

Lauterbach: Quite okay

Wissing: Malicious

Lemke: Who?

Stark-Watzinger: Absolute disaster

Schulze: Useless

Geywitz: Useless

>Linder: Also quite okay, since he at least seems like some kind of force against overflowing expenses. Could be a bit less invested in his clientele

Yes, demanding spending cuts for others but at the same time wants billions of tax cuts.

I agree. It seems to me that people just ... like to forget stuff like that. They just want someone else in charge. And now with the advent of TikTok a certain party frequently targets young people and tells them that there are easy solutions to their problems. Sad thing is, other parties don't seem to get that they need to be where the young people are and provide content that matches what they like to see.

I can also only recommend to read "the invisible doctrine" by goerge monbiot. Sad enough that I can't think of a similar book in German. Or a newspaper that would be able to match the Guardian, for example.

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