From our archive:
On May 19, 2010, an Actona Institute conference was held in Krakow, during which he gave a lecture on the harm of the welfare state. Prof. Leszek Balcerowicz. Among the audience there was a well-known director, author of loud films: “Piles positive, pluses negative”, “Common General” and “March liberators”, Grzegorz Braun. During the session of asking questions, Mr Braun wanted to know erstwhile Prof. Balcerowicz stopped believing in socialism.
Text version:
Grzegorz Braun: There are quite a few people younger than me here, and possibly not everyone remembers that the prof. devoted half his life to supporting the socialist system. That is why I am very pleased that today, so strongly, the prof. condemns this strategy and points to it as the incorrect way for humanity. I'd like to know at what point that breakthrough occurred, at which point that terrible fact reached your professor. Was that before 1989 or after... (Applause...) Since the practice of acting as a prof. of the minister does not confirm the unbreakable convictions that were here today, I will remind you of the miraculous proliferation of areas of licensed entrepreneurship in Poland. So the question is, what then, in 1989, stood in the way of dismantling the welfare, social state and whether it would take us the next 20 years to analyse as apparent as those to which the prof. came in today's lecture. due to the fact that I fear that I will not live to dismantle socialism in Poland (Applause...).
Prof. Leszek Balcerowicz: These applauses, I understand, are for dismantling socialism. I'll talk to you in Polish, 'cause it might get more. Sir, if you knew the facts better, you would know that in the second half of the 1970s, fewer people dreamed that possibly the russian Union would fall and you would remember that in the second half of the 1970s, attempts were nevertheless made, fewer to compression the maximum freedom within the geopolitical constraints that seemed inviolable at the time. You most likely weren't in the planet at the time, which is why you can talk of the past with specified large confidence. But I was there, and I remember what the attitude and the anticipation of almost a 100 percent of society was. I was not 1 of the prophets, but I was 1 of those people who thought that at least something had to be corrected. And in the late '70s, there was something called Balcerowicz's first syndrome. Nobody talked me into it, I did it myself. It was an informal team. erstwhile the first large "Solidarity" was created, there was besides immense request for social improvement projects. Who worked then (... – ed.)? It turned out that only us, a squad of respective young people who I managed to create, did then, without any authoritative order, come up with a improvement task which, from today's perspective, seems to be very small radical, of course, due to the fact that he did not propose what seemed impossible at the time, not only to me, but to the large movement of Solidarity, which you, later born, can owe a lot to, although you most likely do not realize at all, and you think that you can talk with specified moral pride here. It's typical of any people later born. The first draft improvement was presented as a consequence of these works, and was mostly accepted by "Solidarity" and those people who were at the time making a peaceful revolution besides realized that moving on, proposing capitalism, was simply impossible. Buddy, that was impossible. It's easy to be a prophet after 20 years. specified prophets are on our feet. But it's just a tacky moral-intellectual thing that you do here and any who applaud him. This is tacky. You request to know what the limits of possibilities were, which we crossed anyway. Then what was... It was rejected, no 1 accepted it, then it was martial law. The fact that at the time we proposed a maximum of what we thought could be done, that is, a marketplace without privatization, did not consequence from me reasoning capitalism was worse. No, but it was completely unrealistic. In the 1980s, we continued our work, although no of us inactive assumed that Poland would be free in my lifetime. Fortunately, it did. But erstwhile she was free, there was one more time a request for people who were so prepared to do their homework. I mean, they studied the experience of privatization, stability, deregulation... As it turned out, there weren't many of them, there was a band I made. I wasn't the 1 pushing for government, I was asked to take responsibility. For the first time in the past of the world, there was a shift from socialism to the socialist economy. After hesitating, I yet made it. I took it not due to the fact that I was trying to get power, but due to the fact that it had to be done. And specified statements as yours is the tiny cost of this large thing that Poland managed to do. Thank you.
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Editorial: Procapitalism.pl portal asked Grzegorz Braun to respond to the answer of prof. Balcerowicz to the question he asked. "It would be incorrect for the professor, due to the fact that he would no longer have the chance to address my statement," said Grzegorz Braun.
He prepared: Paul Sztęberek
Photo: Psz
* Oh, my God * Prof. Leszek Balcerowicz gave his lecture to the audience in Krakow in English. The talker 3 hours after him at the same conference Prof. Jan Kłos stated at the outset that he would talk Polish due to the fact that "Poles do not have geese and their language."
