I find Mr. Koehntopp’s comments to border on something between amusing and disappointing. Surely we could expect more from the advocates of change we can hope for. I’m sure the irony of a living-wage is not lost on you who have to actually figure out if you can afford to hire that next worker and pay him or her a ‘living wage’ or to simply put in a few extra hours yourself rather than to take on the costs and risks of that next incremental employee.

Yes, at least I will admit that life in the cheap seats is easy.

As for the Pirates, I learned in Politics 101 that to get your way on a certain issue, you work with politicians, not against them. By starting your own party, you are by definition working against all other parties. At least two established parties (FDP and the Greens) have established civil liberties wings that can influence politics right now, not maybe someday in a few years when a new party may or may not be in a position of power. I’d love to be proved wrong, though…

• No minimum wage, instead we’ll keep subsidizing employers that don’t want to pay proper (I’m not talking about high) wages with tax money. Cheap labour and social unrest will begin to grow.

• We’ll keep going to war for no good reason, which scares the shit out of me.

• Hooray for genetically modified food, Monsanto will already have uncorked the champagne.

• No more consumer protection.

• The old power stations will run another 50 years, while energy prices go up. Looking at last year, that’s a catastrophy waiting to happen (Krümmel, Biblis).

• The guy in the wheelchair is still working on his “vision” of a state like – funny enough – we had in the eastern part of germany until 20 years ago.

• Civil liberties? Pah.

My best hope? That I’ll be proven wrong in at least one of the issues above.

I disagree violently with your last part. Not necessarily as a party in parliament, but as a cosnatnt thorn in the side on the streets. That worked quite well this year, and it’s good to have a formal representation of Netizens.