According to the French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, the Budget Minister, Eric Woerth, made the following remarks in private:
“The economy is in very, very bad shape. Tax receipts, in particular company taxes, are catastrophic. I have to try and balance the budget with deficits which are completely out of control. And this seems to have escaped everyone’s notice”.
- Question: Why didn’t he say this in public? Answer: Because he would be skinned alive.
- Question: Why would he be skinned alive? Answer: Because this is news that no-one wants to hear. Politicians for obvious reasons and the rest of us either because we are not actually too badly off and are loath to encourage measures which would leave us worse off, or because we are already feeling the pinch and are interested only in a government which alleviates our pain.
So there is a sort of devil’s pact between government and governed to pretend that our massive debt and deficit will go away of its own accord, with no more than a marginal effect on our standard of living.
Where will it all end? I have no idea. To tell the truth, I’m surprised it hasn’t ended already!
No comments:
Post a Comment