Book Tip No. 36 (2019): Thomas Straubhaar: The Hour of the Optimists

Hamburg 2019.

When Thomas Straubhaar turns to a topic, he does so very thoroughly and fundamentally. The subtitle reveals the high claim: “This is how the economy of the future works.” So you can be curious.

Digitization, data and demography are the challenges that Straubhaar puts at the center and in which he sees the cause of the observable disruption. He discusses the consequences for human work, for data capitalism and for the dwindling chances of finding a social consensus and ensuring the necessary social cohesion. In his estimation, a new economic and social policy is needed that does justice to the disruptive developments and does not make gross domestic product the measure of all things.

Straubhaar devotes a lot of space to the difficulties that arise from the predominant taxation of human work and the burden of social contributions alone in the face of digitization and robotization. He sees the need to realign the social system and – as he calls it – to create a resilient welfare state. Despite all disruptive changes, Straubhaar sees no empirical basis for social pessimism, he points to the societal innovative power that has been proven time and again since time immemorial.

Most of his conceptual considerations are very understandable, but they have not yet found their way into concrete (party) political programs. A broader social discussion of these fundamental issues would certainly be necessary and desirable.

It would also be desirable if Straubhaar were to turn to other central societal challenges in his next book, without which resilience as a guiding concept is unimaginable: the quality, speed and effectiveness of our legislation, the interlocking of ecological and economic rationality in our actions and the actual value contribution and the side effects of the global financial markets.

Dr. Hans-Christian Riekhof