“You mustn’t stamp…”
The Comedian left a new comment on your post " GDP and the decline of the euro (lebbasi) ":
I, after these last two, missed them a lot. It is clear that Bagnai cannot be one and three, and if he is in the senate or in the commission, he cannot write on the blog. My question is: does there exist or is the birth of a point of reference for the economic current of thought to which Bagnai belongs? I'm thinking of an editorial project – even if it's not free. In short, I personally would pay to have a small critical analysis, even once a week, perhaps with the possibility of asking some questions (limited to the topic covered)
Published by Il Comedian on Goofynomics on Jan 8, 2023, 5:40 pm
In fact, being one and three would involve a significant administrative simplification: I could ask you directly for 8×1000 instead of 2×1000 for the political project to which I belong (the League) and 5×1000 for the cultural project I founded ten years ago ( a/symmetrie : by the way, don't miss next Thursday's webinar with partner Torlizzi on the age -old topic of speculation – strictly with two zetas). However, I think you all know to a certain extent that this simplification would bring with it significant costs:
so I'm happy to be one and only and I thank Il Comedian very much for the esteem he expresses.
The problem of political commitment is not so much the occupation of time (it takes a lot of it, it is clear, but also being here with you to study the problems and gather your observations is part of that job), as the absolute unpredictability of agenda.
Today, for example, I'm in Commission V, which is not mine, to replace a colleague and friend, President Gusmeroli: there are the amendments to Aiuti quater to be voted on. Since I live in Rome, it seems to me a duty to offer myself when some colleague has commitments in the area (I am generally in my constituency from Thursday afternoon or Friday to Sunday). The decree is "armored", as the liturgy requires. What could have been approved was approved by the Senate budget, here we just have to reject the opposition's amendments, obviously giving its representatives the opportunity to expose ourselves because instead we should meet their proposals. We do so with benevolent and supportive condescension.
Some of you will think that this is not a very useful way to pass the time, but "I would like to say" (cit.) that life is like a pig: nothing is thrown away!
Today, for example, I learned a feature of the House rules. In the Senate, as I may have told you, attendance in the Commission is attested by the signature. In the Chamber, on the other hand, you have to "beggiare" (from the English "to badge" – or not to badge, which however means something else ) with your electronic card: a grillinata that dates back to a couple of legislatures ago, as he explained to us Claudio Borghi on Twitter. Of course I adapt, especially when I don't understand, so even today I diligently carry my microchip, but the machine gives me back a disturbing message: "It's not on the list". I look at an official who says to me: "Honorable, you don't have to stamp, because you are substituting!"
I have a disgust motion that I repress, and I go back to my seat.
Passing by other officials, I burst out: "Did you see my annoyance? Because in my opinion it's not true that I don't have to stamp because I'm substituting: I don't have to stamp because I'm a representative of the Italian people".
Will they understand?
The (wrong) idea that the parliamentarian is an "employee" rather than a representative is one of the many metastases of the cancer of anti-politics, and any gesture or symbol that tends to confirm it is intrinsically the enemy of democracy, your enemy. But of course a lot of work has been done to hide this simple truth, and certainly 30% of the reader belongs to that noisy majority who are convinced they can achieve stronger representation by weakening their representatives. A level of counter-intuitiveness of a good economist (the ones who will explain to you tomorrow why the things they predicted yesterday didn't happen today), but so be it. This is our world, and if we want to change it let's make sure it's not for the worse, because I remind you that even the Orthoptera were seen by many of you as a revolutionary force, when I was explaining this simple truth to you :
and you didn't agree.
Who was right?
(… take care, I'll see you later at Dr. Merlino …)
This is a machine translation of a post (in Italian) written by Alberto Bagnai and published on Goofynomics at the URL https://goofynomics.blogspot.com/2023/01/non-deve-timbrare.html on Mon, 09 Jan 2023 09:55:00 +0000. Some rights reserved under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license.