[kinnth]

Buffet reminded me a lot of Angela Merkel.

They stood clearly and simply for good moral judgment, fair systems and looked at the bigger picture to carry most people forward. They also based all their decision in facts, truth and science. They learn't their trades (economics & politics) over time and weren't afraid to adapt as times changed.

Their slow and steady presence did more for equality and fairness than many others. We will need to find these values again after the current times have played out.

[thi2]

That has to be about a different Angela Merkel, the one I know had one priority: preserving status quo.

[btilly]

She also was for making Germany economically dependent on gas pipelines to Russia, even though she knew that she was funding Russia's war in Ukraine.

I am not inclined to give her a free pass on that.

[FirmwareBurner]

Which recent German politician in power wasn't about preserving the status quo? The entire country and culture is all about the status quo.

[Aeolun]

> slow and steady presence

> preserving status quo

That sounds like the same thing to me?

[newbie578]

I cannot believe that there are people praising Merkel with a straight face. She is literally a laughing stock in Europe, I put her as the poster boy for immigration crisis together with the energy crisis. The only thing she did was shove problems further in the future not caring about the consequences.

[riehwvfbk]

I think you have a strange definition of "laughingstock". Germany went from an economic powerhouse of Europe to factory shutdowns and a bunch of bumbling sniveling elites who are afraid of the people they are leading and want to ban them from having a say.

[sofixa]

Buffet was "carrying most people forward" how exactly? Squeezing companies he had shares in to be as efficient as possible, leading to poorer quality and outright dangerous working conditions isn't bettering anyone other than shareholders, which aren't most people.

[HeadsUpHigh]

>the bigger picture to carry most people forward

The bigger picture of getting germany dependent on russian gas while screwing eu allies.

[huijzer]

> They stood clearly and simply for good moral judgment

Merkel has severely underestimated Putin. She played a role in the continuous betting on Russian oil. Merkel has called the internet “neuland” and wasn’t her government also the one starting with hydrogen subsidies. I donno about you but to this day I only hear lots of talk about hydrogen but near zero results. So all the wrong bets.

Also I don’t know whether you noticed but Germany is expected to be in a recession for three years in a row now.

About equity and fairness okay I guess you are right. Everybody in Germany will be poor if things continue like this.

[ponector]

Silent approval of Putin's invasions to Georgia and Ukraine doesn't look like "good moral judgment, fair systems"

[bergheim]

> They also based all their decision in facts, truth and science

What? She shut down nuclear power plants to ramp up coal and Russian dependence.

Idolizing people is rarely helpful.

[JimmyBiscuit]

She shut down nuclear power because of extreme pressure from the population. Tens of thousands protested around her office. Nuclear is complicated (and mostly fear driven) in Germany. Oddly enough the first exit was done under Schröder who is a russian asset. Makes you think.

[neom]

Measured governance. I feel the same, although I'm sure the Europeans and Germans not at all, but they also talked Angela out of nuclear, so one might argue the Germans are a bit too measured compared to their Chancellor.

[fifilura]

It is ok, I understand how you are thinking.

But unfortunately I think Merkels legacy will be "Wandel durch handel".

Trying to pacify Russia and Putin through increasing trade. Did not work.

[jnwatson]

Don't forget the climate-change-decision-accelerating decision to mothball all their nuclear reactors. This was a monumentally poor strategic decision from multiple angles.

[impossiblefork]

It doesn't have to have been totally wrong always, but it's certainly been wrong at least since the invasion of Georgia in 2008.

[Aeolun]

Yes. But that wasn’t a rational outcome. By any measure Russia is momumentally worse off after basically anything it’s done in the past three years.

[FiniteField]

"The current times" are a direct result of decisions like that of Merkel to throw open the borders of Germany to a million unchecked foreign men. If there's one reason that the AfD is the largest party in Germany today, it's because of that decision Merkel made a whole decade ago. How was that "based in facts, truth and science", or "slow and steady"?

[Aeolun]

The million unchecked foreign men (and women) are presumably propping up the German economy as we speak.

There will always be people that dislike change, but it may ultimately be better to start integrating them earlier rather than later. If you make it through the bad times (e.g. now), at the other end is the outcome you desire.