This single example reveals the entire international dimension of our era. I am convinced that we must succeed in recognizing and utilizing the international dimension of the social market economy in the twenty-first century.
And I am more convinced than ever that the future belongs to those political forces in Germany that are willing and able to elevate the social market economy to a new and necessary level, and to thoroughly reform it as well.
Why?
The bottom line is that in 1998, when we were forced into the opposition but had already initiated our programmatic reforms in large part, the problems, in our view, were still largely German. To be sure, our analysis recognized that there was a lot more going on, but our solutions were still – in a word – German.
Today, in 2006, we are truly global – in both our analysis and our solutions.
This has consequences.
Whether we are in a position to use the numerous necessary individual measures, from combined wages to workplace alliances for jobs, the merging of unemployment and welfare benefits, a simplified tax law, health- and long-term care insurance reform, stage two of the federalism reform and many more; whether we are also in a position to use all of these necessary, often fiercely contested, individual measures to build a comprehensive strategy for our country, one that is also geared toward a global regulatory framework – all of this will determine the future of our country.
And by the way, this will also have a decisive effect on the ability of the two mainstream parties to win a majority. And it will determine who obtains 40 plus X percent in the future.
[ . . . ]
But once the economy is globalized, it moves further and further beyond the regulatory bounds of the nation-state. This has dramatic political consequences. Commercial enterprises plan globally, but governments have to keep an eye on the national interests of their respective populations. Capital starts wandering and is no longer tied to its usual national valuations. Suddenly things that used to be subject to other ethical valuations are being fixed in absolute terms, for example, year-end dividends, stock prices, and the market value.
Of course, I know that companies need to make profits. But what’s the main concern?
For us Christian Democrats, people are the main concern. That’s how it always was, and that’s how it has to stay!
That’s the mission of the Christian view of man. The main concern is the dignity of each individual!
We cannot repeat this often enough, for the drama of today’s economic challenges can be compared with the upheavals that shook society to its very foundations two hundred years ago. That was when the feudal agrarian economy gave way to modern industrial society.
That was when we saw the emergence of the first social questions concerning the exploitation of workers, child labor, night-work for women, and widespread poverty. After many misguided approaches and many disastrous mistakes, the social market economy offered a valid and effective answer to these social questions. The change from an agrarian to an industrial society was not the problem per se, but it took a long time for the human regulatory framework to be developed: the social market economy.
Today, the development of the so-called knowledge society is the litmus test for claims to political effectiveness and validity in the twenty-first century. Globally accessible knowledge is growing at an explosive rate. At the same time, new knowledge is becoming obsolete faster and faster. Modern data networks are enabling the rapid global transfer of information and allowing new instruments of international capital markets to emerge.
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