Grants, donations, subsidies, subventions

A lot of Europeans believe that maybe this European Union is not the best but at least it let's many people develop their businesses thanks to various grants, donations, subsidies or subventions (naming is a secondary thing here) which an enterprising individual can get after his state joined the Eurosojuz. Before the referendums deciding about accession to the EU took place, in most "new" EU states the grants topic was raised as a huge argument in favour of voting 'yes' to the EU accession.

In average citizen's mentality the European grants were and still are considered as something positive and unique. One can complain at many aspects of the European integration but all the donations and subsidies are holy. However, such approach does not carry any weight. Why? I'll explain below.



Europe for sell

In wider context, all the grants and co. were created to buy the Europeans. A very successful propaganda convinced them that once your state joins the EU, you will have a chance to get a lot of money. Tricky plan which worked really well. However, let's get back to the main topic..

First of all, everyone seems to forget that the EU does not own money. To be more precise, they do have money and they do give it via various grants, donations and subsidies. However, before they can give it, they have to take it. And no, there is no magic source where the EU could take the money from. They take it from my, yours and everyone's pockets. Before they give us, they have to rob us. And, of course, it would be naive to think that they give us as much as they robbed - big parts of the robbery remains in their pockets forever.

There are no statistics showing how much does robbing us and giving us back through grants a small part of previously taken money cost us. There are no researches saying how much money has to be spent in order to give Mr. Smith his 1,000 Euros donation. There are no calculations presenting how many new bureaucrats found a well paid job focused on giving/not giving grants only. Before you get your dream grant, your application has to be reviewed by many specialists, or rather 'specialists' since their knowledge is useless, hired only in order to work in grants and subsidies area. Can you imagine how much money has to be spent on them? Not the EU money - your money and mine.

I've heard that only enterprising people have a chance to get grants. What does 'enterprising' term stand for then? Acording to new meaning, it stands for being able to fill all the papers in the way so that all the idiotic requirements created by Eurobureaucrats are met. Yes, that's what it really means nowadays. If you're able to get grants, you're an enterprising individual. As I previously wrote, with the EU taking the throne a new God was presented - relativism.

Let's take a closer look at the businesses aiming to be granted a subsidy. Are these businesses aimed at market expectations? Are they focused on people's needs? Are the most basic economical aspects taken into consideration when creating a business plan? The answer has to be 'no'. The only aim of all business plans wanting to turn into success, is to meet the requirements of the subsidy they apply for. Just don't think that these requirements have anything in common with any logic and sense. After all they are prepared in Brussels, so what do you expect? Lately hundreds of dumb business plans from IT area were accepted and received grants in Poland only because they met all the required conditions - means the papers were filled well. Nowadays, in the system introduced by the EU, grants, donations, subsidies and subventions create a huge field for the financial abuses of all kinds. People don't try to get donations in order to develop their business but to get as much money (public money so yours and mine, remember) as possible, survive with their company for a year and then close it down.

European alms

Last but not least, a few years ago it was a shame to be granted a subsidy, this was considered as a kind of alms. There was a general consensus that the enterprising ones don't need help from public money - only clumsy fellows need it. After all there are hundreds of other ways to get private money and I'm not talking about robbing a bank for sure. You can borrow money from someone; if you have a good idea but don't have the money, you can always become a business partner to someone who has that money. List of possible options is very long.

No matter how liberal, in American meaning, you are, the fact is that money given for free depraves and corrupts. Why am I saying 'for free'? Because I don't consider filling the grant applications according to bureaucrats requirements as something that could be worth anything. You just get paid for filling papers, you don't think that it will help you on any strategical, tactical or operational fields of your company, do you? You don't think that filling papers will help you in being more innovative, do you? It will only help you in filling these papers better in future. What weight does such knowledge carry? Answer yourself.