At present Karl Marx would have been wide off the mark. Today his theory that the economy is driven by the antagonism between capital and labour is null and void. As is evident in tiny Malta, the economy is driven by the accelerating tension between creditors and debtors whereby the state has mutated from a congenial cow to a greedy milkman by becoming a serial debtor.

The electorate’s message is for the Maltese government to subdue its greed for more revenue to fund its palaces and return to sustainable ventures in doing more with less. In the not so distant past the state dared widen the goal posts and reach deep into the pockets of its creditors (i.e. the citizens) in the form of an unprecedented utility hike. This would not be the last dig of this sort, we were told. To justify its appetite for credit, the state often declares that it is redistributing wealth among the needy. This in itself may be honourable but it does not justify the amount of debt incurred by the state.

Normal citizens are not only creditors of the state but have in many ways incurred debts of all sorts to finance their high standard of living. With every transaction between two citizens the state benefits as well and pockets an average of another one fifth of the volume at stake. As a result, the state generates revenues that total almost one half of the GDP.

Citizens do not bother about this when they get a fair share in return and perceive the other side as playing by the rules of the game. Apparently the government of the day has disregarded these two basic principles. It has given less in return and resorted to steep and unbearable utility hikes. In its despair, the state plays another deceptive card, borrowing from future generations hoping that it meets less opposition from this quarter.

For all these attempts, the current government has been given a stern warning by the electorate. But the bigger defeat may have been elsewhere. By siphoning huge amounts through the utility hike, the government has totally disrupted the economic activity. Thus the government has defeated itself because at the end it is collecting less revenue. This could in turn spur factions within the establishment to pamper their pockets with one last party at the expense of the taxpayer under the pretext of “necessary reforms”.