Frithjof Bergmann on the VISION SUMMIT 2008: Financial Crisis is Just a Cover Up of Rising Poverty

November 1st, 2008 by Frans Prins Posted in Berlin & Germany, Blog, Consume, Fair Trade, Politics

I just jumped into a workshop at the Vision Summit with Professor Frithjof Bergmann, founder of New Work. He starts his talk with a strong statement: “the financial crisis is used to cover up what hides behind the curtains. But he believes, it is not hard to look behind the scenes and see what hides there: Why are so many banks in trouble? Many, many people got money from the bank, but can’t give it back. What hides behind the scenes is a “battle of division”(“schlachtspaltung”).

“Many people think that the crisis has to do with that the banks are in trouble. But what lies behind is the problem of poverty. In the US this gets already more clear, while luxury hotels got less customers, and businesses of wellness and luxury are in trouble. This is more the case in the states as in Europe.

The signs are everywhere. The price of wheat got up twice. In Africa water prices got up. The house prices has been pushed up just to create an illusion of wealth. But meanwhile the economy is shrinking.

If there is a strong connection, if under the finance crises actually the growth of poverty is, if that is connected, than the question is, what can we do about it?

The cause behind the problems is the growing poverty, rules (as they are implemented now) will not use much to end this, to end the cause. It is an diversion, it distortes us from the cause of the problems.

Neoliberalism is bankrupt. No politician can say publicly: there is an enormous prblem,but i don’t know what I can do about it. than he is in trouble. It is in the interest of politicians to cover up to problem, to be silent about it.

In the current discourse in Germany it is covered up by pointing out, that the unemployment got under with 2 million people last years. But meanwhile the circumstances got much worse. the work circumstances got worse, changed. so the wealth got under. This dimension is covered up.

The pressure of people that have nothing, these people will not have patience. The devision between poor and rich, thats the topic, off course also connected to the environment. Many is done to push the economy. it is not about coffee but about the Starbucks experience. But the hang for experiences is part of the problem.

I do not like the idea of a ground income, but I stand for an idea of a ground economy. People should have the possibility to do what they really really want to do. If you have the experience of a work that you have work that you really really want, than consume articles get less important.

The difference between me and Marx: the idea to have the state to solve the problems of work, that is a huge mistake of dear old Marx. Many is not there in our modern culture that has been there earlier: religion, große familien, riten, etc wir haben sehr viel verloren. now we have to do something that the modern culture gets better, more human, more elegant etc. Now that is possible, because of technologies. The culture developes itself in direction to selfrelience. One wants to experience himself, one wants to live how he or she wants to live really.

For people who do not earn so much money, it doesn’t take so much sweat to grow some vegetables on their roof. In the USA the prices of seeds got up: because very many Amercians are starting to grow their own gardens. that’s a move towards more selfrelience.”

Generally, I think Bergmanns discours is very valuable, because it thematizes the unspoken, it puts the topic of poverty radically on the table. But his solutions, smart technologies, selfrelience and people doing what they really want to do is not enough. One of the problems that are totally interconnected with the ecological state of our planet, and I believe you can’t fight poverty without facing the huge ecological impact we currently create. Okay, getting rid of our current experience hungry consume culture might be an approach. But whould new technology, still basing on plastics, really change things on this level?