The Begging State – Privatisation of a special kind

Trastevere train station – probably I will never feel comfortable with these vending machines, but bad luck: the only way to obtain a train ticket [if I would have known that aerlingus is not late but very late this day I could have walked …]. No place where to go to, asking a real human being something like: Buon giorno. Per favore, vorrai …

Did I say no human being? But no. It is called street level economic activity: A young(ish) man stood at the vending machine, helping everybody: Italians, Romans (sure, they are some kind of Italians too), frequent train-users, the occasional traveller … – he had been really grateful for being occasionally allowed to keep the change.
And I had been really grateful for the little bit of additional research opportunity on the question of reducing the cost of labour power and shifting it amongst different bearers: the (Italian) Prodi/Monti state[1] saves money needed for maintaining public services; the (Italian) state saves money for social benefits; the invoice is paid by impoverishing the public and private individuals alike …

…. But no worry, I won’t claim L’Etat c’est moi! That is still done by those who in actual fact undermine most systematically the state as what it claims to be: a democratic institution. The Louis XIV^th of today are the Golden Lehmanns, Gates, Sarkozys, Orbans and Merkels …