Social market economy - still up to date?
Today, I once again looked at the origins of German economic policy. The social market economy that dominates German economic life today is based on the so-called "ordoliberalism". According to Walter Eucken (the most important founder of ordoliberalism), the state plays the following role:
"Whether little or more government activity - this question misses the point. It is not a quantitative but a qualitative problem. The state should neither try to control the economic process nor leave the economy to its own devices: state planning of forms - yes; state planning and control of the economic process - no. Recognizing the difference between form and process and acting accordingly is essential. Only in this way can the goal be achieved that not a small minority, but all citizens can direct the economy through the price mechanism. The only economic order in which this is possible is that of 'full competition'. It can only be realized if all market participants are deprived of the possibility of changing the rules of the market. The state must therefore prescribe the market form - i.e., the rules of the game in which business is conducted - by means of an appropriate legal framework."
My opinion on this:
If the state should only be there to prescribe rules of the game to be followed collectively, then we no longer need a state these days. Bitcoin shows us day by day how much people are willing to play by the rules without the coercion of a central authority. No one can change the rules of Bitcoin anymore. Bitcoin not only separates money from the state, it makes the state obsolete.
Further reading: