Social Policy

Thomas Piketty’s Narrative of Increasing Inequality Is Debunked

Contrary to what inequality researcher Thomas Piketty and his colleagues claim, the gap between rich and poor in the USA has barely widened over the years. The tax data has been misinterpreted. Once again, ideology is pitted against facts.

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Global Demography, Fiscal Collapse, Government Spending and Debt

AUSTRIAN ACADEMY 2023: Demographic changes and increasing public sector over-indebtedness are making the welfare state increasingly unfinanceable. Can such fiscal overstretch be sustainable? A stocktaking from a British perspective.

A Society Living on Credit Creates Inflation and Financial Crises

A new financial crisis is on the horizon. The culprit is not a lack of regulation, but our monetary system that is based on credit, and a society that lives at the expense of the future.

Socially Unjust Inflation: Why Recessions Are Inevitable and Salutary

Inflation is profoundly socially unjust. Its causes lie above all in an expansionary monetary policy, and this must be stopped. If policymakers want to prevent the inevitable recession that will follow, they will only make the problems worse.

The Green (Self-)Deception: Neither Progressive nor Socially Minded

The Greens in Germany are masters at absolving themselves of responsibility for stagnation and failure to modernize. Yet it is primarily they who are responsible for this. They are neither socially minded nor progressive.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—The Best Social Program in the World

Economists and researchers in the U.S. agree: the Earned Income Tax Credit helps millions of households stand on their own two feet. Work is rewarded, and with the help of this program, one million children have escaped child poverty.

The Universal Destination of Goods and Private Property: Is the right to private property only a “second-tier” natural right?

Did the rich get rich by robbing the poor? Theology and Catholic social teaching have long known that wealth generation is not a zero-sum game, but a process from which everyone benefits.

European Infrastructure and Tech Policy: Failures, Breakdowns, and Empty Promises

Compared to the USA, Europe is lagging behind in terms of information and communications infrastructure. A reexamination reveals: For too long, billions of taxpayers’ money have been invested in technologies of the past.

How Climate Fears Can Rake in Billions

The decision of the German Constitutional Court on climate policy is presumptuous and far removed from reality. But conservatives and liberals alike are applauding it, because the fear of global catastrophe opens up an inexhaustible source of money.

Germany’s Poverty: Imported and Homemade

In Germany’s super-election year, the eternal debate about social justice is taking on even more teeth. One-sided interpretations are used by the Greens, SPD and Left Party to justify even more redistribution. The real causes are being concealed.

The Primacy of Politics and the “Other” Socialism

The “primacy of politics” over the logic of the economy is repeatedly and categorically demanded. Insofar as such efforts undermine the private property-based power of disposition over the means of production, it is the first step in the direction of the “other socialism.”

Thinking Economically: Only the Market and the Logic of Exchange Create Prosperity

Economics is not a zero-sum game. In exchange, both sides always benefit. Exchange is the soul of the market and creates added value, and does so in a way that benefits everyone involved. A plea for economic enlightenment.

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