RE: Fico rejected by European socialists, Volume 12, Number 26, July 3-July 9
I think your vision of marketing-dominated politics is a bad road to go down.
The first problem is that marketing is an inexact science. You end up with what is often referred to as "cargo economics", a reference to the habit of Pacific Islanders to spend their lives carving runways out of jungles so the planes carrying the supplies they need can land. You can see a similar ecstasy when people like Mr Mikloš start talking about greenfield investments and the knowledge-based economy. Nice, but what's the plan for getting there and what does it cost?
Secondly, foreign investors are not much help because they are just as illogical as domestic voters. Domestic voters want benefits and public services and low taxes. Investors want happy, well-trained workers, good infrastructure and low taxes. And a pony. In the end, running your politics by pleasing everybody is just a substitute for making tough choices.
One thing that can be said for Slovaks is that they like voting for people who don't run away from making tough choices, even if the choices are wrong.
Žilina
