Recently, numerous relief measures have been initiated.
(Photo: Reuters)
Politicians of all persuasions are calling for “targeted support” from citizens in the face of inflation and the explosion in energy prices. Not all citizens should be relieved, but only those who need it from the point of view of politics. For months we have been confronted with a flood of more or less sensible measures: fuel discounts, nine-euro tickets, energy bills and more.
What we are actually witnessing is an unbridled growth of state paternalism and control. Even the existing system of redistribution is anything but “targeted”. The state is taking more and more money from citizens through taxes and social security contributions in order to give it back to them in other ways, depending on their politically defined “need”.
An increasing part of the redistribution is no longer from “top” to “bottom”, but within the middle. Another well-known side effect of this action: especially for people in the lower income bracket, it is not very attractive to work.
Even before Corona, the welfare state had reached the greatest extent ever measured despite record employment, but it has continued to rise significantly in the last two years. The government quota, the ratio of government spending to total economic output, rose to a historic high of 51.6 percent – and there is little to suggest that politics is withdrawing from the lives of citizens. More and more “targeted” transfers are intended to reward certain behavior, for example in climate protection.
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Daniel Stelter is the founder of the discussion forum beyond the obvious, which specializes in strategy and macroeconomics, as well as a management consultant and author. Every Sunday his podcast goes online at www.think-bto.com.
(Photo: Robert Recker/ Berlin)
At the same time, the ever-growing redistribution bureaucracy is financed. Around 17 percent of employees in the public sector are already concerned with “social security”. Increasing redistribution is helping to increase the number of people in need.
Rapid inflation does the rest. Up to 60 percent of Germans no longer have enough money to save. More and more formerly autonomous citizens are becoming dependent on state benefits – and the practice of politics to go for votes is well practiced.
Reflection on the tasks of the state
This has nothing to do with the social market economy, since its essential core is the self-determined citizen. So instead of hoping for further “targeted” relief, we should demand that the state return to its actual tasks – and at the same time adapt the entire tax, levy and social system to the significant devaluation, i.e. higher standard rates and earnings limits with Harz IV, a higher mini-job limit and a higher basic allowance, everything.
A law is sufficient for this. As a second step, we then have to start reforming our entire tax and levy system so that it works efficiently and effectively.
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