Die Pathologisierung des Wohlstands

This passage discusses the pathologization of saving money and accumulating wealth, particularly in the context of economic policy and decision-making. The author highlights a speech by Gertjan Vlieghe, a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, in which he discusses the challenges posed by low interest rates and offers potential remedies. These remedies include negative interest rates, higher inflation targets, and policies to address wealth and income inequality.

The author critiques Vlieghe’s suggestions, arguing that they prioritize the interests of banks and the state over individual savers and wealth creators. The author also raises concerns about the implications of policies that devalue saving and inheritance, suggesting that they could lead to a future where the state exerts greater control over wealth distribution.

Overall, the passage raises important questions about the role of saving and wealth accumulation in economic policy, and the potential consequences of policies that prioritize central bank power and income redistribution over individual prosperity

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The Pathologisation of Prosperity

Our age has become characterised by a growing if inchoate sense that there is something undesirable and even illegitimate per se about ordinary people wanting to be more prosperous. Of course this is not stated openly and is generally an unconscious reflex. But it is there all the same: a kind of intellectual ambience, if I can put it in those terms, which holds that the nation’s wealth is not its own, and is rather a state-owned resource which Government apportions and manipulates as it sees fit in order to achieve policy objectives of whatever kind. Since this is the case, the accumulation of assets by individuals, households, families and so on – particularly the educated working and lower-middle classes – is

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