Eternity RPC Board
Ernst Krenz: I presume that you live in Goldecia considering you are talking about GBC.
I will not deny that Mamadou Obama has some stances that are more right wing, in fact I strongly disagree with a number of his proposed policies. Particularly, his proposal to limit immigrants to their country to those with an annual income of £20,000 minimum, with the amount increasing for couples and families, would effectively mean that the vast majority of Voltans will be barred from entering Goldecia based on income alone, and this is not even addressing the issue that when someone moves from one country to another they have to find a new job so temporarily they'd be without an income. Furthermore his proposal to limit the amount that the minimum wage can increase will harm the poorest in their country, and his anti-union stances will no doubt lead to large corporations being able to exploit the worker more easily.
But at the same time, it is the Goldecian people that voted him in. They voted him in in spite of his clearly anti-worker stances, and the choice of the Goldecian people is something that the government is going to have to respect, whether we like it or not. The previous administration's refusal to even deal with a country that is not communist, or heck even deal with a country that is communist but doesn't follow our exact interpretation of communism, has caused Volta to make numerous unnecessary enemies in the world. If we really want to be able to have a meaningful influence in the world, we need to look beyond the narrow scope of our ideology.
Mr. Obama has extended a metaphorical olive branch to Volta, something that he must have done knowing the strong disagreements that we have. I'm not going to simply ignore this, in fact I welcome his moves to mend ties. Right now we have a chance to repair relations with Goldecia, I am not about to abandon that opportunity because of some political disagreements that we may have.
Regarding the question of whether this would be in line with the revolutionary values, I see no contradiction there. Just because the revolution happened that doesn't mean we have to make enemies with everyone who doesn't agree with us. Besides, it is my hope that we can maintain a friendly relationship with non-communist countries while at the same time supporting the global worker's movement.
Christel Schäfer: Let me remind you right now that we are receiving questions, if you would like to submit a question you may do so by calling the free number 10 5401-2323. We have already received nearly half a million calls. Alternatively, you can text your question to the number 2230. We have received nearly 240,000 text messages. In fact, let's go to one of those text messages right now.
Iztli Olin: Goldecian Prime Minister Mamadou Obama has specifically expressed interest in expanding trade with Volta, so let us expand further on this subject. In the Congress of the Communist Party of Volta, held every 4 years, you specifically stated that the Neues System will include reforms to trade law. Many people are asking, what specifically does this mean?
Liselotte Sheinfeld from Köstritz asks, "What will the reforms with international trade mean? Will it mean this mean that capitalism will come back into Volta?"
Ernst Krenz: Absolutely not. Just because we trade with other countries doesn't mean that capitalism will find it's way back into Volta. You see, the expanded trade will merely give us greater access to the global economy. Our previous refusal to deal with non-communist countries caused us to be unnecessarily isolated from the world economy, and that will only harm us. These reforms are not meant to open the floodgates to capitalism, and neither I nor the Communist Party would ever approve of measures that do that. What it does do instead is give us greater access to products that were produced abroad, and give the world economy more access to products that were produced within Volta.
Merely doing that will never open the floodgates to capitalism, simply because these other countries still have to follow our rules and regulations when doing business in our country. We may have to change some of our regulations due to the fact that some of the regulations are too strict even for Voltans to follow, but it will not bring back capitalism. The hope is to improve the situation of the overall Voltan economy by giving us more access to foreign products.
Iztli Olin: I want to inform viewers that we are also accepting calls via the internet, a new development for Volta. You can send your questions through the social networking site kyberkafe.vo by joining this programs official group. So far we have over 13,000 registered users, almost all of whom are under the age of 30, and over 30,000 questions. This method of communicating with the Chancellor has proven unexpectedly popular, particularly among the younger generation. In fact, let us go to one of those questions right now.
Christel Schäfer: Speaking of the economy, we have a lot of questions about it. We have a question from Lieselotte Fielder, a student at Senevald University. She has a question about economic growth. She says "The official statistics for GDP growth has been under 1% for the past few years, yet the government seems to maintain that this slow growth is good for Volta. This figure seems too slow to me, can you please tell me is this slow GDP growth really a good thing, if so why and if not what will the government do to try and get it growing faster?"
Ernst Krenz: Well, Lieselotte, you ask a difficult question. It is true that the government has until now maintained that this slow growth is good for the Voltan economy. And to a certain extent the government is right, there is such thing as GDP growth that is too fast. Look at some of the countries in the world where their GDP growth is something like 20%, that kind of growth simply is not sustainable in the long run. It will inevitably slow down, or even worse, turn into a decline when a bubble bursts. When that happens, then it is the average person that suffers as the entire economy has to readjust to not experiencing such rapid growth.
That having been said, the current economic growth rate of Volta is something that I believe is too slow. Less than 1% is a very small number, and that is something that I want to raise. That is why I have been pushing through the Neues System. One of the reforms in the Neues System is the adoption of a certain kind of market socialism, and once that has been implemented I believe it will make economic growth jumpstart. My hope is that we can reach a growth rate of at least 4%, preferably higher.
Iztli Olin: Let us go back to one of the questions from outside of Volta.
I will not deny that Mamadou Obama has some stances that are more right wing, in fact I strongly disagree with a number of his proposed policies. Particularly, his proposal to limit immigrants to their country to those with an annual income of £20,000 minimum, with the amount increasing for couples and families, would effectively mean that the vast majority of Voltans will be barred from entering Goldecia based on income alone, and this is not even addressing the issue that when someone moves from one country to another they have to find a new job so temporarily they'd be without an income. Furthermore his proposal to limit the amount that the minimum wage can increase will harm the poorest in their country, and his anti-union stances will no doubt lead to large corporations being able to exploit the worker more easily.
But at the same time, it is the Goldecian people that voted him in. They voted him in in spite of his clearly anti-worker stances, and the choice of the Goldecian people is something that the government is going to have to respect, whether we like it or not. The previous administration's refusal to even deal with a country that is not communist, or heck even deal with a country that is communist but doesn't follow our exact interpretation of communism, has caused Volta to make numerous unnecessary enemies in the world. If we really want to be able to have a meaningful influence in the world, we need to look beyond the narrow scope of our ideology.
Mr. Obama has extended a metaphorical olive branch to Volta, something that he must have done knowing the strong disagreements that we have. I'm not going to simply ignore this, in fact I welcome his moves to mend ties. Right now we have a chance to repair relations with Goldecia, I am not about to abandon that opportunity because of some political disagreements that we may have.
Regarding the question of whether this would be in line with the revolutionary values, I see no contradiction there. Just because the revolution happened that doesn't mean we have to make enemies with everyone who doesn't agree with us. Besides, it is my hope that we can maintain a friendly relationship with non-communist countries while at the same time supporting the global worker's movement.
Christel Schäfer: Let me remind you right now that we are receiving questions, if you would like to submit a question you may do so by calling the free number 10 5401-2323. We have already received nearly half a million calls. Alternatively, you can text your question to the number 2230. We have received nearly 240,000 text messages. In fact, let's go to one of those text messages right now.
Iztli Olin: Goldecian Prime Minister Mamadou Obama has specifically expressed interest in expanding trade with Volta, so let us expand further on this subject. In the Congress of the Communist Party of Volta, held every 4 years, you specifically stated that the Neues System will include reforms to trade law. Many people are asking, what specifically does this mean?
Liselotte Sheinfeld from Köstritz asks, "What will the reforms with international trade mean? Will it mean this mean that capitalism will come back into Volta?"
Ernst Krenz: Absolutely not. Just because we trade with other countries doesn't mean that capitalism will find it's way back into Volta. You see, the expanded trade will merely give us greater access to the global economy. Our previous refusal to deal with non-communist countries caused us to be unnecessarily isolated from the world economy, and that will only harm us. These reforms are not meant to open the floodgates to capitalism, and neither I nor the Communist Party would ever approve of measures that do that. What it does do instead is give us greater access to products that were produced abroad, and give the world economy more access to products that were produced within Volta.
Merely doing that will never open the floodgates to capitalism, simply because these other countries still have to follow our rules and regulations when doing business in our country. We may have to change some of our regulations due to the fact that some of the regulations are too strict even for Voltans to follow, but it will not bring back capitalism. The hope is to improve the situation of the overall Voltan economy by giving us more access to foreign products.
Iztli Olin: I want to inform viewers that we are also accepting calls via the internet, a new development for Volta. You can send your questions through the social networking site kyberkafe.vo by joining this programs official group. So far we have over 13,000 registered users, almost all of whom are under the age of 30, and over 30,000 questions. This method of communicating with the Chancellor has proven unexpectedly popular, particularly among the younger generation. In fact, let us go to one of those questions right now.
Christel Schäfer: Speaking of the economy, we have a lot of questions about it. We have a question from Lieselotte Fielder, a student at Senevald University. She has a question about economic growth. She says "The official statistics for GDP growth has been under 1% for the past few years, yet the government seems to maintain that this slow growth is good for Volta. This figure seems too slow to me, can you please tell me is this slow GDP growth really a good thing, if so why and if not what will the government do to try and get it growing faster?"
Ernst Krenz: Well, Lieselotte, you ask a difficult question. It is true that the government has until now maintained that this slow growth is good for the Voltan economy. And to a certain extent the government is right, there is such thing as GDP growth that is too fast. Look at some of the countries in the world where their GDP growth is something like 20%, that kind of growth simply is not sustainable in the long run. It will inevitably slow down, or even worse, turn into a decline when a bubble bursts. When that happens, then it is the average person that suffers as the entire economy has to readjust to not experiencing such rapid growth.
That having been said, the current economic growth rate of Volta is something that I believe is too slow. Less than 1% is a very small number, and that is something that I want to raise. That is why I have been pushing through the Neues System. One of the reforms in the Neues System is the adoption of a certain kind of market socialism, and once that has been implemented I believe it will make economic growth jumpstart. My hope is that we can reach a growth rate of at least 4%, preferably higher.
Iztli Olin: Let us go back to one of the questions from outside of Volta.