In November 2023, I drank a beer with two columns in the restaurant “La Mămicu” in Bucharest. The discussions were especially interesting. They spoke, about one at a time, and I kept quiet, listened and consumed (I was invited). I try to reproduce here the main ideas of the columns as far as my mind helps.

Primo: “Come on, kid, we’re a country. We are the backbone of this state. We keep the whole rogue together; we don’t say that we are good, that we are smart, that we are honest, that we have good intentions, or even that we are competent. no We, simply. The entire life of the modern state, including its own, is organized around power structures. This is a simple fact that you may not agree with, but it is a fact. Entrepreneurs bring welfare to society with their work and employees, and we bring stability, predictability, and order. Without them, we would be poor, as in the days of Neo-Nic, and without us, they would be working in conditions of civil war or gang wars, as in Haiti, Honduras or Venezuela. As it is now, it is very good. Both for us and for them. It is true that you intellectuals have remained somewhat aloof; but you can always be involved in politics! Nice, clean, safe, we are enough for you too, and you do what you do best: scold each other. This is what you are doing even now, in your principled disputes, only for free.”

Second: The human resource that follows is of poor quality. When we entered the system, we entered driven by poverty and ambition. Let’s make a change from within, from the only place where change can really be made. And, without feigning modesty, we succeeded: neither the system of 2023 resembles the system of 1990, nor the Romania of 2023 resembles the Romania of 90. It took a long time to bring out the compromised generation, but we finally did. The trouble is that those who come after us are not like us: they are not driven by poverty or ambition. They come to us purely for work (so they think), for good earnings, with long vacations, high salaries and special pensions. Yes, but in order to achieve this, they must also be savvy and willing to put in the effort, but they are neither quick nor willing. In other words, we have nowhere to recruit valuable people. Graduates go to other countries. Those who come to us from military educational institutions are good, but there are very few of them. We are forced to steal people from the labor market; to get them into the system, we have to lure them in with just a salary that unbalances the market and makes everyone miserable, and we know that very well, but at the moment we have no other choice. In other words, boy, we work on brokenness. This is not something that can last. We need solutions.

Third: The president’s agreement with Enlightened Romania remains a joke. We need oases of competence (I asked what was chosen – my variety). That is, boarding schools of all levels, where poor children get a chance, are deprived of any prospects in their villages burned by hunger and drunkenness. Some of them will definitely go to the free market, get a job and receive money from entrepreneurs, and some will come to us, to the system. We can teach them, we can teach them a trade. Look so that you understand: we made a good or almost good country, but there is no one to leave it. Our own sons have already chosen the universities where they will go to study (one in Ireland, one in the US – my estimate). The system cannot be maintained with the children of colonels. We need young people with ambitions, with ambitions for power, effective power.”

I drank and listened. I wondered why they invited me: these people don’t give free beer to a bum like me just out of kindness! My theory is that they wanted to send a message. – Read the entire article and comment on Contributors.ro