Defining "irony": when Germany balks at socialism

Some are criticizing Germany's Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck for talking about "orderly unwinding", but what really angered the rest of Europe was when he had the audacity to object to a continent-wide collective bailout: "The chancellor and I reject a European shield because we as Germans do not want to pay into a big pot where we do not have control and do not know where German money might be used." He also said, "It's already quite enough that German taxpayers have to pay for the antics of banks which set up in Dublin in order to escape German taxes."

And then Economy Minister Michael Glos said:

"An emergency European plan, such as the one currently being discussed by the banks, is a distraction from what they themselves must do," Glos told the Bild am Sonntag in an interview to appear Sunday.

The banks must "put in place measures to restore mutual confidence," Glos said, adding: "There is no more confidence in the banks. That is the primary cause of the financial crisis."

Glos declared bankers were "very well paid" and that it time for them "to show they deserve their salaries."

"To ask the government to put taxpayers' money at risk by creating a fund to reduce debt ...and ward off the loss of confidence to me seems unjustifiable," Glos said.

Imagine that: one of the major socialist countries in the world, which has no problem redistributing wealth among its individual citizens, balks at its (remaining) wealth being redistributed to other nations, since this continental bailout will leave Germany footing much of the bill! Yet it shouldn't be surprising once we consider German politics of the last several decades. Remember, its so-called "fascism" was in fact proudly defined as national socialism, which, just like its "enemy" Mother Russia, meant full economic control by the state, with a top layer of extreme nationalism to keep the people's energies focused on anything but individual freedom. Socialism within itself, only for itself.

What will it take for enough individual Germans will wake up from their collectivist stupor, and wonder why they already "pay [taxes] into a big pot" whose distributions they neither control nor are aware of? Isn't it "already quite enough that German taxpayers have to pay for the antics of" their own chronically lazy?