What do the German soccer league, unemployment, and the price for ice cream have in common? They, among assorted other topics, have been causes of grave concern in Germany over the past few weeks. And the solution suggested for all three usually is: let government take care of it! In the case of soccer, the league’s travails are caused by the
For those who like to entertain themselves with the workings of the “political process,” these are fascinating times in Germany. In the country which is one of the last survivors of the classic European welfare state and, arguably, the one with the most encompassing public redistribution machine in the name of “social justice,” some legal reforms
In Germany these days, “s-words” are held in high currency. Any public or private action has to be “ sozialverträglich “ (roughly translatable as socially compatible), everything from labor relations to health care to the pension system to the special tax levied for the reconstruction of the former East Germany—ironically wrecked by decades of
For a few years now I have been awaiting the “German Winter of Discontent,” akin to the situation in the UK prior to the ‘Thatcher Revolution’ when household waste piled up in the streets of London because the garbage men were on strike and people finally got fed up with the Labour Government (incidentally, back then the Tories came up with the
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.