[lbo-talk] European welfare state

[James Heartfield]

'The question is German performance on economic inequality, poverty rates, and social spending indices versus the United States. '

Really? That's the question? If so, it's a bad question.

The conditions of welfare are dependent upon the dynamism of accumulation, not the dynamism of accumulation dependent on welfare.

Germany has a lower gini coefficient because it has high growth rates, higher wages (and also can spend more on welfare).
(It also has a very exclusive labour market, dependent on stricter controls on inward migration, but that's another point)