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Buying time

Summary/Abstract: In his 2013 book Gekaufte Zeit, the German sociologist and economist Wolfgang Streeck describes how the post-war social contract between the state, the business sector and the trade unions concerning employment, the functioning of the public sector and the social rights of citizens was dismantled. The book reveals the ways in which time has been “bought” over the last half a century, i.e. the maintaining of the appearance of a society of growth and prosperity for all. In the 1970s, inflationary monetary policy was applied to this end, in the 1980s it was maintained at the cost of state borrowing, and in the 1990s at the cost of household borrowing. The author opines that each of these approaches to creating the appearance of the unity of economic and social policy has reached its limits.

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