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Can Germany Be Saved?
Book

Can Germany Be Saved?

The Malaise of the World's First Welfare State

Hans-Werner Sinn
MIT Press, 2007

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

This pointed, hard-hitting and incisive analysis of Germany’s economic malaise is hardly calculated to win popular applause in Germany. Hans-Werner Sinn finds that Germany’s dearest child, the welfare state, is the cause of its economic problems. Many Germans rely on transfer payments, so it is politically unfeasible for politicians to reduce the scope of government spending and correct the distortions it causes. However, the author argues quite convincingly that the welfare state is simply unsustainable in its current form. getAbstract recommends this book to anyone interested in the future of Germany and, for that matter, in the future of the modern welfare state.

Take-Aways

  • The German welfare state cannot survive in its present form.
  • East Germany’s population is paying a severe price for reunification, which did not introduce market principles to that part of the country.
  • The adjustment of wages to the Western level deprived East Germans of a strong competitive advantage – lower labor costs.

About the Author

Hans-Werner Sinn is professor of Economics and Public Finance at the University of Munich. He is the president of the Institute for Economic Research and director of the Center for Economic Studies at the University of Munich.

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