DAt the turn of the year, Christian Lindner, FDP Chairwoman and Federal Minister of Finance, gave a positive assessment of the work of the traffic light coalition to date. Germany had “comparatively got through this year of complex crises,” said Lindner:
Who would deny that the ongoing “stack crisis” (war, corona, inflation) does not make governing easy, even though the geopolitical world situation also offers a welcome excuse for the fact that too trial always too error belong. Free!
I take the liberty of contradicting Lindner. In the slipstream of the great world crises, the German traffic light completed a U-turn in social and economic policy, which only did not lead to major public discourse unrest because it was overshadowed by other topics. It is a second, a quiet turning point, mainly operated by the SPD. It is nothing short of a complete departure from the reforms undertaken by a red-green coalition in the years after 2000 under the heading “Agenda 2010”.
They have helped Germany achieve comparatively stable economic growth and a sustained recovery in the labor market. Anyone who wants to (and can) work in this country will find a job that pays more or less properly. This is (also) a success of the reforms of SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, which followed the principle of regulatory policy: Every citizen has to take responsibility for his own life. Anyone who finds themselves in need – through their fault or through no fault of their own – is entitled to help from the welfare state. “Promote and challenge” is the principle of solidarity.
Redistribution comes at a high cost
What has passed the traffic light under the tempting label of “citizen money” is the almost complete departure from this principle. The balance practiced since the Hartz reforms between the generosity of state benefits and demands on the transfer recipients is beginning to falter. With the citizens’ income, a “unconditional” basic income is created, as the economist Holger Schäfer put it; the way to the “unconditional basic income” is mapped out. The philosophy that the welfare state is unconditional is becoming more and more established in our society, writes the Würzburg economist Norbert Berthold on his blog “wirtschaftsfreiheit.de”. This comes at a high price: redistribution is becoming ever more efficiency-consuming, and therefore expensive and inefficient. Norbert Berthold certifies that the traffic light is “regulatory nonsense”.
This socio-political turning point has decreed the traffic light of society without need. In view of the real employment policy hardship of many companies that are desperately looking for workers, one could rather think about increasing the “demanding”. Because, as I said, reasonable work abounds. Companies are chasing people. It is not even necessary for the community of solidarity to take over the further training of job seekers – an innovation of the “citizen’s allowance”, for which the traffic light pats itself on the back. She can confidently leave that to the companies, which will finance further training for their new employees out of sheer self-interest.
