Ideal society
In the last five days, we’ve been spectators of a
pathetic show that has amazed the global press. In our country there’s a
majority who want to vote (if you don’t believe me, just check the results of
the last Catalan elections and the political position of each party regarding
the referendum) if our nation has to become independent from Spain. Our
government, with a secessionist absolute majority (72 seats out of 135),
convened the referendum for the first of October of this year. What happened
next was simply surrealist. Almost 900 people who wanted to vote peacefully,
including children, women and old people, were brutally injured by the Spanish
paramilitary police. All this happened in, according to the EU or the USA, an
example of democracy in Western Europe. Soon I realized that we don’t live in
an ideal society. So, I asked to myself with sadness and hope: How would an
ideal society look like?
I don’t want to
build on this paper a utopian society which would be unnatural for human’s
behaviour. I just want to draw a better society than the one we have nowadays
in our country and, to do that, I would focus in the two main points in a
society: the economical and the political system.
Spain is an
economic miracle of capitalism; in the 60s and 70s Spain transformed its
economy from a backward one in Europe to a developed world’s economy focused on
industry and tourism. Catalonia is the industrial centre of Spain and since the
Olympic Games of Barcelona it has become one of the world major centres of
tourism, technology and globalization. Despite this, Spain suffers from the
main problems of the wild capitalism it practices: an extremely high
unemployment and a widening gap between rich people and poor people, which is
destroying the middle class, an important characteristic of a prosperous
society.
To solve this,
Spain has to change its oligarchic-based economy (ÍBEX 35) and its wild
capitalist practices. To change our oligarchic economic system we can be
inspired by Germany, which promotes little businesses and start-ups that
empower people and make them more productive. Additionally, a dense business
ecosystem, like the German one, relaxes the state funds and investments in
employment, which are mainly done by these little businesses which compete with
each other in a prosperous competitive and very productive economy. The result?
Germany is the third largest exporter in the world (only after China and the
USA, two countries which are far more populated than the European one) and it
has an unemployment of 5,6%.
Otherwise, to reduce its economic disparities a state can mirror in the example of France. France is a
state-based economy with a very high minimum salary, a high unemployed payment
and a very strong welfare state. France has one of the lowest inner regional
disparities in Europe and in the world.
The other main
point to achieve an ideal society is to have a good political system. In Spain
we have a Parliamentary Monarchy that is really inefficient. The head of state
in Spain is a king, who has never been elected and who is not selected by a
meritocratic system either, but only because he’s the son of the former king
who was friend of a bloody dictator who ruled Spain for 36 dark years. On the
other hand, it’s not true that any Republic would be cheaper than the monarchy,
as many people in Spain assume. The presidential salary in Spain is lower than
the one in most of our neighbour states. Moreover, most Republics also have to
pay a chief of state different than the president, the Prime Minister. Salaries
of the Prime Ministers all over Europe are higher than the Spanish King’s one.
The reason why it’s preferable a Republic than a Monarchy is that the first
option is far more efficient, democratic, modern and, in the Spanish case, it’s
simply much more worthy for our grandparent’s memory.
To sum up, an
ideal society would be a Republic with a dense little business atmosphere
despite conserving an interventionist system with a strong social security
system to prevent high income disparities. If the state is a plurinational one
it should recognize the right of self-determination of its nations. Spain is
still far away from the ideal society I have exposed and it’s every day further
from it. So, Catalan people are right when we say that if we have the chance to
start a new country all the way from the start we shouldn’t miss out it. We
wish a state where police defends its citizens and it doesn’t attack them.
Despite the
Spanish police violence, the “yes” option won in the referendum, so the government
will soon proclaim independence. Our independence won’t be all problems’
solution, but it will be an opened door to achieve the ideal society we all
wish. Now it’s the time to declare our independence. I would just say what
Nike’s advert said: “Just DUI!” or something like that.
Genís Fibla i Costa
2nd BTX A
No comments:
Post a Comment