How fair is our tax system? The cover story “Can We Still Afford the Rich?” with Minister of Finance Christian Lindner on the cover of the star No. 24 met with great approval from readers. Here is a summary of the reactions:
In theory, all people contribute to the success of the community – and to the financing of our state. Of course, within the scope of your own financial possibilities. That’s the theory. Of the star illuminates real life in its current issue (and here at stern+): does everyone give what they can? The editors Benedikt Becker and Jan Rosenkranz, together with their colleague Monika Dunkel, dealt with this question for the cover story. Conclusion: While the vast majority of average earners bear the heaviest burden, the rich get off comparatively lightly. In the same issue, stern author Walter Wüllenweber calls for an end to the never-ending tax cuts for this group.
“Once again you take up one of the essential questions for the urgently needed further development of our society and give a public voice to many people who also think like this, thank you very much. That is encouraging, and that’s exactly how good journalism should be,” praises Reader Heike Effertz basically.
And specifically? The reaction of the readers is surprisingly clear – especially when it comes to the politics of the FDP and Finance Minister Christian Lindner.
“Anyone who makes Lindner Finance Minister should no longer be surprised”
“Anyone who makes Christian Lindner finance minister shouldn’t be surprised anymore,” says reader Uwe Knoll on Facebook. “Markets, high finance and lobbying have been the focus of this man and his party for years, and I fear the ‘tank discount’ is just the beginning of a series of decisions that will drive the majority of the population insane.”
Reader Volker Grahn also writes about the Federal Minister of Finance on Facebook: “If only he had remembered his own words: better not than to govern wrongly. Then we would have been saved a lot. And a red-green government would have implemented many good projects.”
Accusation of clientele politics
“Lindner has obviously not yet arrived in his office as Federal Minister of Finance and is pursuing FDP clientele politics,” says reader Dieter Obst from Wiesbaden. And reader Christine Goller from Ingolstadt adds: “The fact that a small clientele party decisively determines politics in this country makes me doubt our democratic system.”
She already has a suggestion as to how the political system could be fundamentally changed: “We urgently need more direct citizen participation, for example through referendums at federal level, in order to create an effective counterweight to the powerful lobby of the rich. That would also curb disenchantment with politics. “
Reader Lili Schlumberger-Dogu from Munich, who describes herself as a leftist, also has fundamental thoughts: “We leftists, not only in Germany, have been demanding for a long time that excessive wealth must be taxed more heavily. Dilapidated schools, bridges, roads, railways and More and more people who work in the low-wage sector and can no longer get by at the end of the month are already the result of years of wrong neoliberal politics. It is also affecting more and more the middle class.”
As a 72-year-old woman, she sees more and more pensioners in her hometown of Munich rummaging through the garbage for bottles – after a busy life. “We finally need a redistribution from top to bottom and not the other way around,” demands Schlumberger-Dogu.
Reader Uwe Werner from Renningen-Malmsheim doesn’t just see the FDP as responsible. He continues the topic of social justice: “The ECB policy alone has (not alone) expropriated German savers by around 150 billion euros since the beginning. The goal was not price stability, but support for the debt policy of the euro countries. And This policy of expropriation continues, to the detriment of housing construction, tenants, small and large fortunes.” Real wages in Germany rose by just 12.3 percent between 1991 and 2019. In contrast, government spending increased by 135 percent over the same period. Werner’s conclusion: “The policy of the state must be described as unjust and wrong.”
heirs of neoliberalism
Why is it that the gap between rich and poor is widening and that the burdens are being shared more and more unfairly? Ultimately, it is the neoliberalism of the times of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher – says stern author Walter Wüllenweber. This ideology can still be found in the German tax system today. “Out-of-the-box thinkers are in charge,” Wüllenweber writes in his article “The Big Mistake” that is part of the cover story, with a view to German tax policy in recent years. The belief that tax cuts for the rich would lead to greater prosperity for the middle class and ultimately also for those on lower incomes has long since turned out to be a misconception.
“Dear Mr. Wüllenweber, every word you say is true and correct,” agrees reader Stefanie Kiwitt-Benöhr from Ammersbek. In turn, she sees the FDP as the decisive force that maintains a wrong system. “The FDP completely thwarts all sensible approaches to fair taxation. The naive dream of becoming rich one day probably carries more weight with the voters than the real conditions for employees. You don’t get rich by working with your own hands, and the FDP has no interest in doing politics for ‘poor bastards’. Neither does the CDU, especially under Merz, by the way.”
Party programs are one thing, but focusing on life and people’s real needs is another – according to reader Wolfgang Fuhr from Remscheid. “In principle it is good to have good principles and not to deviate from them so easily. But it is wrong to stick to them even when they are clearly being exploited to the detriment of others. Especially now that we are a war-affected party and every citizen is in fact makes financial sacrifices, it is unacceptable for a few to increase these sacrifices and shamelessly enrich themselves. Whoever does not recognize this should at least be relieved of his position as a politician.”
Reader Wolfgang Kessler from Beckenried in Switzerland is also calling for political consequences with regard to the FDP: “Anyone who does not bring more than three billion euros as an energy tax rebate for motorists to those affected should be voted out. With this sum you would have a lot in Ahr and Erft can fix.”
What would Ludwig Erhard say?
Reader Wolfgang Adamek tries to look back into the past: “The lobby-driven politicians have so far not been able to bring themselves to raise the top tax rate, nor to introduce a wealth tax for millionaires and billionaires, nor even a minimal tax on all financial transactions. On the other hand, many low-income earners know and pensioners no longer know how they can still cover the cost of living at all.” For Adamek, such a policy is a clear break with the principles of the founding fathers of the Federal Republic: “For me, all of this no longer fits in with the theses of a social market economy, as described by Ludwig Erhard in his 1957 book ‘Prosperity for All’, and Neither does Article 14 of the Basic Law, which states that property is an obligation and that its use should also serve the public good. Anyone who refers to the slogan of the social market economy must be measured by Ludwig Erhard’s book.”
Can we still afford the rich? Reader Ute Büchner from Lage takes up the question of the star cover photo and has a clear opinion: “I would answer that with a clear no. The rich clearly live at the expense of the entire world population.” With a view to the super-rich, who fly around the world with their kind in private jets and leave a considerable carbon footprint, Büchner says: “It just makes me sick.”
And the moral of the story? The tax system is blatantly unfair. A reform would be overdue. Whether she will ever come is anyone’s guess. With gallows humor, reader Harald Ley from Saarlouis recalls the French writer and humorist Alphonse Allais (1854-1905) and his galling quote: “You have to take money from where it is, that is, from the poor. Well, yes sure, they don’t have a lot of money, but there are a lot of poor people.”
Source: Stern
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