Yesterday Prime Minister Viktor Orbán spoke at the latest in what we can only imagine is an endless succession of conference about his government’s economic program. He apparently had some tart words to say about bureaucracy and governmental complexity.
Addressing the delegates, he said that applying for EU money was “very complicated” despite his government’s attempts to make it easier, and that it takes “nerves of steel” to go through the process needed to get EU cash for projects. He went on to say that starting next year the government would develop a system for getting money from Brussels that is “fit for a human mind,” as it was imperative for Hungary to draw down every “last cent” of available EU funding.
Here is our tart response: What about the equally or even more nightmarish swamp of bureaucratic complexity, over-taxation, constant regulatory churn and official rent-seeking faced by local businesses that don’t base their business models on free money? How about making rules for these firms that are “fit for a human mind”?
On the other hand, maybe he has a point, since anyone who tries to run a “normal” business in Hungary that doesn’t rely on government largess is probably crazy to begin with.
