The Free Market Road Show in Thessaloniki had two panels. The first panel, which was held in English, was opened by Larry Reed who gave a short lecture on the importance of character for making not only an open and prosperous society found in freedom but also for keeping that society alive. Because, as Larry powerfully says, when you delve deep into history, you cannot find a country, no nation, no matter how powerful or materially wealthy it was at the time, that managed to move forward once it has lost its character.
After Larry’s short opening, Nikos Sotirakopoulos, Cris Lingle, and Simon Sarevski chimed in, expending on what Larry said with their own views on the role that character plays. Soon enough, the discussion left the historic context and moved into the problems we are facing today and how they are connected to character. After all, we learn history, if nothing else, why and how not to make the same mistakes that our ancestors did.

Living in times of COVID, which became important once the war in Ukraine started, we must not forget what has been done to “save us” in the past two years. If we look at all the measures taken by both democratic and non-democratic governments of the world we can clearly see the ruinous path that character has taken on. The war in Ukraine is another reminder of how far humanity has not come and that although we have been only gullible to think that major wars are behind us. After all, character is more than just about living your own life better, having a strong and virtuous nation, but also about making friends with others (nations).

Before the lively discussion that followed, it only came naturally to the speakers to discuss the inflation crisis that is slowly but surely brewing everywhere around the globe. A few years ago, many would have said that inflation is nothing else than a ghost from the past, but it turns out, that inflation is still “pretty simple:” print money and spend massive amounts and money that you don’t have and inflation will follow. And the easy answer is always to blame the politicians (and their faltering character), which is closer to the truth than anything else. But in the democratic world, those same politicians have had the “consent of the governed” to fall back. Thus, if it is the politicians faltering character that is to blame, so is the faltering character of the governed, who choose “easy fixes” for their problems, letting fear guide their lives and public policy.

Call it fate or call it coincidence, but from a broad topic on character the discussion followed the inflation route exactly in Thessaloniki, Greece, the country that ushered in the sovereign debt crisis in the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2007-08.