The world according to Janusz Korwin-Mikke: state children, counterfeiters and other paradoxes

Janusz Korwin-Mikke has been famous for years for statements that balance on the border between provocation and bitter truth. This experienced politician and columnist is fond of hitting sensitive topics - from family policy to the pension system to the economy - always spicing his judgments with a large dose of irony. In a recent interview, he again did not disappoint: he sprinkled bon mots that amuse some to tears and infuriate others. However, under the humorous cover of his words are serious and even brutally logical punch lines.

Family vs. state: who has the children?

Asked about the reasons for the low fertility rate in Europe, Korwin-Mikke rejects popular explanations in his typical style. He calls the argument that young people today cannot afford children utter nonsense. "The poor have always had children, not the rich, " he notes soberly, recalling historical realities. "To say that people can't afford children is complete nonsense," he adds with conviction. If it's not material issues that are keeping Poles and Europeans from expanding their families, then what is? Korwin-Mikke points to two main reasons - both, in his view, due to excessive state interference.

The first culprit is the removal of children from the family by the all-powerful state. Korwin illustrates this with a glaring example: "If I give a child a slap on the ass, I can go to jail - in other words, I have violated the ass of state property." - he mocks, deliberately sharpening the picture of the situation. In the old days, when a family tragedy happened, sympathy was due to the mother and father. Today," the politician argues, "the child is treated as state property, for which the state holds the parents accountable. It is officials who decide whether a child needs to be vaccinated, what the child's education program should be, and even how a parent can discipline the child. As a result, according to Korwin-Mikke, the role of the parent has been reduced to that of caretakers guarding the "state child."

From this perspective, Korwin draws a shocking conclusion: if the offspring no longer really belong to the parents, the effort to raise the next generation ceases to make sense. "If children are state-owned, why give birth to and produce state-owned children? A slave will not produce children for his master," he chuckles provocatively. This perverse metaphor of slave and master strikes at the heart of his argument. Citizens, like subjects of the state, see no reason to "produce" children when the fruits of their efforts will be taken over by the master's court anyway. Korwin-Mikke suggests that people subconsciously sense this dependency - and react with rebellion in the simplest possible way, by refraining from having children.

He sees a second reason for the lower fertility rate in the... the pension system. According to Korwin-Mikke, the introduction of state pensions has undercut the natural motivation to start large families. In the past, children were the "investment" for old age - they were the ones who were supposed to take care of their parents at the end of their lives. Today, when the role of caregiver was taken over by Social Security and the state pension, the logic of many people has become simple: if the state will support me in my old age, why the hell do I need children? - this is the unspoken conclusion Korwin-Mikke seems to attribute to modern society. Brutal? Perhaps, but in his view this very mechanism is operating unnoticed in the background. The welfare state paradoxically discourages having offspring, taking away from families both the responsibility and the benefit of raising children. In this way, Korwin concludes, the expanded welfare system undermines itself, leading to a demographic crisis.

Real or counterfeit money - who is stealing here?

Korwin-Mikke attacks economic topics with equal ferocity, especially where he senses falsity or hypocrisy in the system. He bluntly calls inflation a hidden tax and even a form of robbery perpetrated on citizens. He explains it in his typical figurative way: when the government adds money, increasing the amount in circulation, the real value of our savings decreases. "Instead of PLN 100, I'm left with 50 in my pocket, and the other 50 the government has," Korwin-Mikke calculates, showing with a simple example how the purchasing power of money decreases. The state, deliberately causing inflation, takes away half of citizens' savings - maybe not directly to the safe, but through price increases that eat up the value of banknotes. The comparison could hardly be more blunt. In Korwin's mouth, money printing equals theft, differing from ordinary robbery only in the subtlety of execution.

Speaking of thievery, Korwin-Mikke goes a step further and poses a perverse question: who causes the lesser evil - the counterfeiter of money or the government that runs the banknote printers? His answer again makes us smile, but also makes us think: "It is better for the counterfeiter to add money than for the government to do it," he argues with a spark of irony. Why? Because according to Korwin, a private counterfeiter, although operating illegally, at least has human needs and will spend the new money in the real economy. "Such a forger will buy se for it a chair, a table .... that is, he will give work to craftsmen," - he argues with perversity. The money will go to the carpenter or shopkeeper, circulating in the market. "On the other hand, if the government does it, it will buy some speed cameras, batons for the police..." - Korwin-Mikke adds, not missing an opportunity to stick a pin in those in power. In his picturesque comparison, the forger comes off almost as a benefactor, and the state as one that wastes resources on bureaucracy and the apparatus of oppression. Of course, Korwin-Mikke does not approve of the actual counterfeiting of banknotes - this is deliberate hyperbole. What he means to say is that the state never economizes at our expense as efficiently as the market (even the black market) would. His message is clear: it's better to leave the money in the hands of citizens - otherwise it will feed the proliferation of "speed cameras" and other dubious expenditures by the authorities.

Korwin-Mikke is also wary of big financial players who, like governments, can manipulate the system to their own dictates. He recalls the history of accusations against George Soros, who was accused of deliberately manipulating Asian currencies in the 1990s. Soros defended himself at the time, claiming that it was impossible to make money from such an operation (because the profit from hiking the exchange rate equals the cost incurred to hike it). Korwin, however, only shakes his head at this. In his opinion, practice shows otherwise - there will always be a loophole that a clever investor will exploit. "Stock exchanges have different opening times.... a shrewd financier can make money on this," he notes, and cites his own memories from the communist era, when as a young economist he saw firsthand how cynical gambling on various markets can yield crores of dollars. He describes how Polish debt was secretly bought up by shady companies on the Vienna Stock Exchange - all it took was a phone call just before the close of trading and a loan of millions of dollars for several hours to rake in a sure profit with the right accounting trick. Such stories Korwin spins with a gleam in his eye, proving that nothing is impossible for financial sharks, and that economic theories about the "fuses" of the system can be put between fairy tales. If Soros says something can't be done, Korwin-Mikke retorts: it only means that someone smarter or better informed will do it.

Irony that makes you think

It would be hard to find a more unsettling commentator on reality than Janusz Korwin-Mikke. His statements alternately amuse and shock, but never leave the listener indifferent. Underneath the sharp phrases is a coherent picture of the world: deep skepticism about state omnipotence and the belief that human nature - be it a parent or a financier - cannot be fooled by systemic tricks. Korwin humorously exposes paradoxes: he shows a father as a slave deprived of his own children, or juxtaposes a banknote counterfeiter with a central bank. At first it sounds like a joke or provocation, but upon reflection it stays in the mind as a bitter reflection.

One can disagree with Korwin-Mikke's theses, one can ridicule or condemn them - but it is hard to deny his intelligence and consistency in thinking against the current. His cutting, ironic language makes even the harshest criticism of the system served up like a brilliant aphorism. As a result, Korwin's controversial words live a life of their own, sparking discussions far beyond the political halls. And this, I think, is exactly what he wants: that in the flurry of correct statements someone should stop and think, if only provoked by a sentence about "state children" or "a better forger." Korwin-Mikke is laughing at the system - and we, whether we want it or not, are thinking along with him.

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