FORTUNATELY my friends, my predictions have
not come true. At least up to now that is. The revival of the “economic
situation” has saved us. Nobody knows for sure what that really means; that is
to say, why the “situation” deflates and then revives. Every great economist has
his or her own theory on this matter. And of course so do the politicians: You
can't help but smile when listening to the vehement convictions of the former
party claiming that the revival is a success of their legislative measures
and that the current party owes everything to one of their debatable “reforms”.
The fact is that this revival has enabled the politicians to forget about the
dangerous issue of pensions, they even boast about having increased them a
microscopic percentage, that is not enough and does not compensate for the
increase in the cost of living over the last few years. Yet it is better than
nothing I suppose.
And
on the other hand, an unexpected light of hope appears on our horizon: the
number of elderly people aged over sixty five is increasing at an excessive
rate. This ageing of the population, which for Germany is alarming, for us the
pensioners (and God forgive “after me, comes chaos) is promising. From being
just an insignificant sector on the market we have now become an important
group. This is not due to our inevitable limited personal purchasing power,
but to our number. The economy is faced with a huge group and naturally it wants
to get control of it. This means there will be more products that are specially
adapted to our needs and our means available. In first place, in terms of price,
and then also in labelling, in quantity, in legibility of the information. In
short, before there was, apart from the indifferent general public, two
large special interest groups: the motorists and children and adolescents.
Now there is another large group: the elderly. Some of us will not see it; but
the majority of us will. yes. Neither the State nor the Economy has become self
sacrificing Sisters of Charity. But as Benavente said exactly one hundred
years ago with his kind cynicism “to make progress, it is more important to
trigger off interest than to stir up emotions”.
Eduardo
Espert
(Bonn)
