Freedom instead of capitalism

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Freedom instead of capitalism is the title of a monograph by the politician Sahra Wagenknecht ( Die Linke ), which was published in May 2011 by Eichborn-Verlag . In 2012 an expanded and revised new edition of the work was published under the title Freedom Instead of Capitalism: About Forgotten Ideals, the Euro Crisis and Our Future at Campus Verlag . It gives more space to the euro crisis, its consequences and the question of overcoming it.

Wagenknecht analyzes Germany's economic policy at the time of the euro crisis and criticizes it on the basis of the ordoliberalism to which the Federal Republic of Germany had committed itself in accordance with its original self-image and its constitution. According to Wagenknecht, in contrast to the original economic model regulated by the welfare state, current capitalism will no longer be able to realize the promised “prosperity for all” in the future. This Anglo-Saxon financial capitalism no longer triggers investment incentives that could lead to an economic upswing and thus overcome the financial and debt crisis. As a solution, she proposes a reorientation of economic policy. The social market economy is to be renewed and completed. Wagenknecht also describes her model concept as “creative socialism”, since she is not concerned with the mere restoration of the past, but with a new and daring response to the development of modernity.

The title “Freedom instead of Capitalism” alludes to the CDU's slogan “ Freedom instead of Socialism ”, which became known in the 1976 Bundestag election campaign , to make it clear that economic and political freedom are not only endangered by state oversight (planned economy), but also by that opposite extreme, the anarchy of the irregular market economy.

content

Ludwig Erhard's promise was broken

The free market alone cannot ensure a distribution of goods in which individual and collective interests are coordinated. This view is not new, Wagenknecht finds and locates it in the market economy program of the ordoliberal economic politicians Walter Eucken , Alfred Müller-Armack and Ludwig Erhard , whose ideas were taken for granted and shaped the economic order of Germany after the Second World War . She finds further sources in the social policy of the SPD at the time of the Godesberg program , which was shaped by Oswald von Nell Breuning's social philosophy , and in the social encyclical  Quadragesimo anno , which the Christian parties counted as their programmatic basis when they were named.

Based on this tradition of thought, Wagenknecht believes that the social market economy is based on four foundations:

  1. Order instead of compassion: A market economy can only promote the common good if it is incorporated into strict rules and social laws. The social balance cannot therefore be left to the market, but must be the responsibility of the state. In accordance with these principles, a functioning statutory pension and health insurance and humane unemployment benefits were implemented politically in the 1950s and 60s. ( History of social security in Germany ).
  2. Prevention of “economic power ”: Only if the concentration of economic power is prevented will politics remain independent enough to impose a social framework on the economy, and only then can competition and the market fulfill a function useful for the common good. The laissez-faire -Liberalismus is so damaging because it large companies creates, whose enormous economic power prevents any directed against their interests policy.
  3. of "personal liability" - financial markets in which the actors strive for maximum profit without being liable for failure, trigger a "tendency towards central administration " according to Euken's ideas .
  4. the idea of ​​a " mixed economy" in which the state should also actively invest in order to protect certain areas from private monopolies . Examples of this are electricity networks and railway lines, where competition between alternative networks would be an immense waste of resources due to the high investment costs .

Wagenknecht diagnoses that in the early days of the Federal Republic's economic development, social networks for sickness, old age and unemployment had been successfully established. The post-war economy ensured full employment. Strong unions would have won wage increases as part of productivity gains. Medium -sized companies have been successfully promoted and so a broad medium-sized corporate sector has emerged. However, due to the economic power of large corporations and the banks linked to them, the economic order would never have fully followed the ordoliberal model.

With the emergence of the European internal market in the 1990s, cartel control was watered down to such an extent that dominant groups could emerge.

Wagenknecht is particularly critical of politicians who would criticize ordoliberalism for today. She tries to prove that they have not read anything from the representatives of this school or that they are doing disrespectful "corpse-hunting". She also refers to the fact that the principles outlined by her are contained in the welfare state law , in the basic social and human rights and in the social bond of property and should therefore not actually be made available as the ethical and constitutional basis of our social order. In addition to the Basic Law, the legally binding documents that guarantee these principles are the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights , the European Charter of Fundamental Rights , the European Social Charter and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Unproductive capitalism

In another chapter, Wagenknecht tries to determine the causes of the financial crisis in the years after 2007. In her opinion, the major German banks are also responsible for the crisis, especially Deutsche Bank , as they have entered into speculative business on a massive scale for high returns . In doing so, they would have neglected their role of raising funds for the real economy. She describes that as early as 2003 German banks asked Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in vain to be able to hand over problematic loans to a state “ bad bank ”. The bad loans in question amounting to between 50 and 100 billion euros were part of a real estate bubble as a result of reunification , but also the result of speculation in the “ New Market ”.

At the same time, banks in the United States began business in bundled corporate loans, credit card debt, student loans, and home mortgages. By trading in these packages, the banks received commissions and at the same time were able to reduce their equity risk by shedding problem loans, which allowed them to extend new loans. These bundled derivatives were accepted by hedge funds , pension funds and other banks. The legal basis for such a loan securitization has also been created in Germany . As a result, the total assets of the mortgage securitisations in the German banks grew to 800 billion euros by 2007/2008, at the same time financial bets by the securitizing banks against the intrinsic value of their own loan securitisations are said to have occurred again and again.

Within the interbank area, which securitized loans in bundles, around a dozen banks would operate and form an oligopoly in which there was no longer any price competition. Seven big banks would trade $ 200 trillion in derivatives and have a 90% share in that market. The $ 60 trillion credit default insurance market would be dominated by five major banks: JP Morgan , Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley , Barclays Group and Deutsche Bank . The credit default insurance would not be publicly traded, but controlled by the five banks. In the event of failure, companies and states would have to pay much higher interest rates, which could put states in this system into difficulties, such as Greece. Furthermore, because of its lack of external transparency and the few market participants operating, this market would almost invite insider trading .

An end to these business practices is not in sight. Loans would continue to be securitized. Further financial industry mergers and amalgamations are taking place with the support of central banks and governments. The somewhat “stricter rules” for banks under Basel III will not apply until 2018. According to Wagenknecht's calculations, these rules ultimately mean that only 2% of the banks' equity is deposited for loans issued.

The freely available capital would come from redistribution at the expense of wages and in favor of the owners of capital. A significant source of the resulting capital masses would lie in the mechanism of money creation of the globalized banks. By lowering or bypassing the minimum reserve , there would have been an almost unlimited possibility of credit creation. This would only have no inflationary effect because this money circulates in the area of ​​financial speculation and is not used to buy economic goods. With this deregulation that has lasted for decades , the global financial system has managed to generate theoretically infinite credit volumes without resorting to additional central bank money, because the minimum reserve is no longer a lever to limit credit volumes.

This credit creation generated gigantic financial assets that would not be offset by productive economic activity in the form of the production of goods and services. Furthermore, these values, for example of the stock exchange listings, are included in the calculations of the gross national products . The GNP therefore partly consists of "air bookings" which are not matched by any real real values.

But, according to Wagenknecht, not only banks inhibit the economic cycle, corporations would hardly use their resources for innovations, research and investments. They too would be geared to the short-term interests of shareholder value , paying high dividends and buying back their own shares. Internally, the corporate credo is "Cost reduction at the expense of personnel, product quality and suppliers."

Wagenknecht objects to the myth of the “ performance society ” that real wealth is no longer acquired through income from performance, as claimed, but is siphoned off through profit and property income without performance. Access to this income is in the hands of barely one percent of the population, who primarily inherited these assets.

There is no doubt that capitalism developed production technologies in several phases of its development and improved people's living conditions like no other form of society before it, according to Wagenknecht. But it tore up or destroyed people's livelihoods and the question was whether it was a short-term undesirable development or an irreparable structural error. In the post-war period, due to high investment rates, capitalism was able to develop mass production with strong demand, but demand declined as early as the 1970s. As a result, neoliberal economic programs started a redistribution at the expense of wages and salaries, the states and consumers, which led to the emergence of an asset bubble and a mountain of debt that blocked economic growth.

After the model of previous economic economic growth had obviously reached its limits ( growth critique ), Wagenknecht asked himself whether there could be a qualitative growth model with a positive development perspective. There is undoubtedly an investment backlog in the economy in environmentally friendly and sustainable production methods. This change would, however, firstly be blocked by the large corporations hostile to innovation, since new investments are only profitable when the old systems have been written off through wear and tear . In terms of technology, for example, climate-friendly vehicles have long been producible, but combustion engines are still being produced. Investing in the environment would usually not yield any additional profits. Even a model of a green “ecology for high earners” or “eco-dictatorship”, which would force a majority to accept a loss of prosperity, would not correspond to Wagenknecht's democratic ideas. It no longer expects future “long waves” and an extensive growth cycle of capitalism.

Creative Socialism: Simple, Productive, Just

Since not only developing countries, but developed industrialized countries have recently been threatened with national bankruptcy, Sahra Wagenknecht notes that the current public savings debates are not aimed at reducing debt, but rather public spending. She calculates that during the banking crisis, EUR 1 trillion of private debt was transferred to the public sector. The consequence of this will be that the ECB will have to raise interest rates further due to the debt situation, with the consequence that the debt burden will continue to rise. If a euro country goes bankrupt , there will be a run on the banks, which will drive them into insolvency until they collapse. This will lead to a devaluation of financial assets, which makes the rich a little poorer, but impoverishes the middle classes. She considers this variant to be the most likely and discusses seven approaches to crisis resolution below. In doing so, it shows their limits and possibilities and finally presents their alternative, which consists in the cancellation of all or part of the old debts of the euro countries, while at the same time protecting small investors and nationalizing the large financial groups whose debt does not pass to the state and has to be paid by taxpayers, a one-off levy on large fortunes, radical top-down redistribution, and the establishment of a system of stable state revenues. In their opinion, the contaminated sites of the past could be eliminated in this way.

In a detailed subsection, Wagenknecht shows that the pension, which is based on the pay-as-you-go system, has not withered, but has been politically smashed by three interest groups: the entrepreneurs who promised falling employer contributions, the financial industry, which generated billions in profits from it and the higher-wage earners, who do not need the Riester pension. The state pension was decoupled from the development of wages, the pension contributions of the unemployed "shrunk", the taxation of pensions was decided, the pensioners were forced to pay the long-term care insurance and the pension was introduced from the age of 67.

Years of negative statements from the Council of Experts, from banking associations and their lobbyists against the German savings bank system brought it into disrepute for being backward, and they wanted to get rid of it. Wagenknecht sticks to this banking model because, in their opinion, it is best suited to provide regional investment support for medium-sized companies. In this context, Wagenknecht also points out the role of the EU Commission, which changed the tasks of the Landesbanken and restricted their lending by orienting them towards profitability criteria and thereby forcing them to participate in investment banking. She considers the system of savings banks and Landesbanken to be necessary, and the recent negative development of the Landesbanken is no reason to destroy them. You would continue to have an important task of investment financing in a federal system of the Federal Republic. In their opinion, the entire financial sector would have to shrink in future so that it can fulfill its actual task of promoting the real economy.

Until the 1990s, the basic services: post, rail, water, energy, municipal services, hospitals, universities and schools were in public hands. This changed when the European Commission issued its guidelines for liberalizing the energy, postal and telecommunications markets. As part of these liberalization efforts, Europe changed and a few suppliers have dominated this market since then. Initially, many different providers appeared, which then disappeared from the market.

Wagenknecht explains in detail that the basic social and ecological requirements of the community must be fixed in a legal framework. In their eyes, they are a "natural monopoly" that must not be privatized, as it is a public mandate that is democratically controlled must be and must not be subjected to private return requirements. The money and credit creation of the banks would be controlled by capital requirements and minimum reserve rates and a prohibition on speculative transactions would be introduced.

Wagenknecht traces the post-war economic history of France, Great Britain, Italy, Austria and Germany in a subchapter, as well as the most recent developments in China. In doing so, she shows that public companies are not inefficient, do not squander resources or are not necessarily public utilities "worn-out politicians". Her portrayal of the post-war economic development is about showing the possibilities of state trade in the interests of the majority of the population. It also shows, however, that state initiatives should not be limited to rescuing companies in need of restructuring, but that the state is very much in a position to take over key industries and manage them effectively. What is significant for them is that, in contrast to private companies, state companies deliberately do not use their pricing power.

In the section “Outlines of a new property order”, Wagenknecht questions the meaning and purpose of an economy, particularly rejecting the way in which goods and services are manufactured and sold under today's conditions. For in the markets the economy is no longer guided by an invisible hand for the benefit of all through selfishness and profit, as Adam Smith assumed; because the dictate of shareholder value turns the profit drive into a company destroyer, because the real company results such as quality, innovation and productivity take a back seat in the pursuit of short-term profit realization. The corporations no longer discipline the market and competition, and this is what the ordoliberals have always warned about.

Wagenknecht does not speak out against globalization, considers the currently globally operating privately owned companies as carriers of the undesirable development, a "dead end of economic evolution", because a creative economic system does not have the task of supporting the unproductive heirs of the company founders.

Their proposals for the design of a “creative socialism” are: levying a wealth tax of 5–10% on assets above 1 million euros, which is transferred to inalienable employee property similar to a foundation; in companies over 100 million euros, municipalities or states should have a blocking minority of 25%, everyone should have the right to inherit up to 1 million euros tax-free. In the case of larger assets, the inheritance tax should be 100%, which should be passed on both to the state and to employee foundations. Dominant companies should generally not be privately owned. Creative socialism wants more market, it has said goodbye to planned economy socialism: "There is a market economy without capitalism and socialism without a planned economy".

Erhard reloaded: Prosperity for everyone, not sometime, but now!

Capitalism no longer keeps the promise of “prosperity for all”. Sahra Wagenknecht is concerned that there is not just a new distribution of income. Rather, prosperity should be placed on an improved basis. Consumer goods should be produced according to their shelf life and not according to consumption and wear and tear.

Plan and market are not opposed to one another and Wagenknecht cites numerous examples of operational planning. The previous planning instruments would have to be expanded to include the possibility of social control.

The great inequalities in income distribution would have to be leveled out because people can only meet their real needs if they have the right purchasing power. The unequal distribution of income leads to a kind of division in the markets into low-cost discounters and luxury goods providers. In a real performance society, the income and wealth differences are smaller. It is also shown in the companies examined that those companies where this income distribution is less divergent are more successful.

In addition, social problems increase with inequality. It creates mental illness, higher infant mortality, alcohol and drug addiction. Because the more unequal the circumstances, the greater the fear of a social crash.

For Sahra Wagenknecht, "capitalism has become the most important obstacle to freedom, democracy and prosperity, which is why the political demand of our time is: freedom instead of capitalism."

reception

For Frank Wiebke from Handelsblatt , the book comes with a "high theoretical claim that is met over long distances". Wagenknecht draws on the contents of her earlier books on today's capitalism and the financial crisis and shows, "despite a certainly one-sided point of view, a deeper understanding of economic relationships than many politicians from parties who are generally considered to be close to and competent in business." Wiebke regards Wagenknecht's practical proposals for more redistribution and socialization more as “socialist slow-moving”.

On May 18, 2011, Jörg Riemenschneider emphasized in a broadcast of the NDR -Info-Interview that Wagenknecht shows in her book "cleanly researched, factually rich, competent and in understandable language [...] their socio-economic principles of the modern age".

In a book presentation in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , Winfried Kretschmer praised the “knowledgeable chapter on 'the broken promise of Ludwig Erhard' and the precise analysis of modern financial capitalism”, but criticized “a blanket and one-dimensional interpretation of economic reality” and the “view through the red party glasses , garnished with the usual polarization rhetoric [...]: gamblers, rip-offs, locusts and financial sharks ”. Wagenknecht would only think of a "fundamental change in property relations" and "radical redistribution of income" for a change to creative socialism.

Roger Baettig of the International Business Times states that Wagenknecht wants to overcome capitalism, but does not want to destroy the markets and preserve small and medium-sized companies. He assumes that there also seems to be a learning process among communists with regard to maintaining the markets, because he believes that they also recognize the advantages of “performance” and “competition”.

In Deutschlandfunk , Arno Orzessek is of the opinion that Wagenknecht analyzes “with the terminology of the economy”. It shows that “the power of the financial industry and large corporations is not a natural law of the market, but rather its abolition”. As "brittle as Wagenknecht is described as a person, so brittle comes her new book - and yet has a hot core of anger". Overall, however, Wagenknecht gains seriousness with the book “Freedom instead of Capitalism”, she is betting on “creative socialism”, although it remains unclear who “could actually take the necessary international project into hand”.

Business economics professor Max Otte sees the book as an “excellent analysis” which could also come from the founders of the social market economy such as Ludwig Erhard . Wagenknecht unmask "the myths and weaknesses of global hypercapitalism". The book remains vague only when it comes to the proposed solutions.

Albrecht Müller says on the NachDenkSeiten that the book is an invitation to enter into a dialogue with liberal market economists, socialists and Marxists, since the book also contains "an abundance of material for the analysis of these processes and also for therapy" and he recommends them Reading.

In the journal Junge Welt discusses Georg Fülberth the book and concludes that it "nothing wrong and hardly new, but much reasonable" means. However, he does not believe in Wagenknecht's recourse to ordoliberalism, which he suspects as a “marketing idea”. Above all, he refers to the role that the ordoliberals named in the book played in the time of National Socialism and also in the post-war period, because "a few lines would have been enough" to show how the market worked. He suspects that their theses herald an attempt at reunification with the SPD, in the east the Left and in the west the SPD may take over the other party branches. This would be the result of going back to the center; However, this would only succeed if votes could be won from the middle in the elections in the distant future.

Joachim Bischoff and Christoph Lieber from the magazine Sozialismus locate Wagenknecht's contribution in a left-wing discussion about democratic socialism in the 21st century. For Bischoff / Lieber, the welfare state is not an original pillar of ordoliberalism, because this emerged as the result of long struggles for the distribution of wage labor and capital in Germany's post-war period. The bourgeois discourse sought by Wagenknecht is not discarded, but there is no conceptual designation in the book, the actors in the change it is aiming for and their development and organizational forms of changed ownership in transition processes remain almost completely hidden, and from Bischoff / Lieber's point of view, workforce shares alone are secured by no means the transition to creative socialism.

For Erhard Crome from New Germany , the title is “program” and “provocation” at the same time, because “in the Federal Republic of Germany people liked to campaign with the slogan:» Freedom instead of socialism «”. In his opinion, Wagenknecht resumed “an old socialist tradition” with her book, working theoretically and bringing these results into the public discussion, and this helped to give left-wing politics an independent theoretical foundation, whether one could use all of its arguments and conclusions shares or not.

The political scientist Klaus Schroeder diagnosed in Deutschlandradio Kultur that “Wagenknecht is sketching a transition from capitalism to socialism”, “which in many ways resembles the socialist upheaval in the Soviet occupation zone after the war”. Wagenknecht does address "some grievances in our economic and social order rightly", but "consistently hide the social reality of broad sections of the population" in order to present today's conditions as "nothing else to be expected from inveterate Marxists" as a misery scenario. In conclusion, he warns, “Your therapy will not lead to more freedom and prosperity, but to less prosperity and the restriction of individual freedoms”.

literature

  • Sahra Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. Eichborn, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8218-6546-1 .
  • Sahra Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. about forgotten ideals, the euro crisis and our future. Adult and updated new edition, Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-593-39731-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. With the term “ Prosperity for All ” she refers to a book by Ludwig Erhard about the social market economy from 1957.
  2. Justice, freedom and the burdens: The new book by Sahra Wagenknecht In: Neues Deutschland. May 20, 2011, accessed July 30, 2011.
  3. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2012, p. 50.
  4. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2012, pp. 51, 52.
  5. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 21.
  6. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 22.
  7. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2012, p. 59.
  8. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 27 f.
  9. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 43.
  10. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 42 ff.
  11. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 50 ff.
  12. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, pp. 56-58.
  13. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 70.
  14. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 67 ff.
  15. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, pp. 83-110.
  16. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, pp. 111-123.
  17. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 148.
  18. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, pp. 149–155.
  19. a b Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 230 ff.
  20. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 251.
  21. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 203 ff.
  22. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 205.
  23. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, pp. 250-251.
  24. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, pp. 277-303.
  25. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 306 f.
  26. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 343.
  27. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 344 f.
  28. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 345.
  29. ^ Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism. 2011, p. 357.
  30. handelsblatt.de : Frank Wiebke: Socialism, but liberal please! July 8, 2011, accessed July 15, 2011.
  31. sahra-wagenknecht.de : NDR info amount from Jörg Riemenschneider from May 18, 2011, accessed on May 19, 2011.
  32. sz.shop.sueddeutsche  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : SZ Review: Freedom Instead of Capitalism , accessed on July 19, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / sz-shop.sueddeutsche.de  
  33. de.ibtimes.com  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : Roger Baettig: Sahra Wagenknecht: Freedom instead of capitalism , from May 19, 2011, accessed on July 15, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / de.ibtimes.com  
  34. dradio.de : Arno Orzessek: No trace of clamor shouts , from May 12, 2011, accessed on July 15, 2011.
  35. dasinvestment.com : Max Otte: Praise to the left: Stock market star Max Otte values ​​Sahra Wagenknecht , from May 26, 2011, accessed on July 15, 2011.
  36. ^ Nachhaben.de : Albrecht Müller: Prosperity for All - A Review of Sahra Wagenknecht's book "Freedom Instead of Capitalism" , June 1, 2011, accessed on July 15, 2011.
  37. ^ Jungewelt.de : Georg Fülberth: From Ulbricht to Erhard: Book review. Sahra Wagenknecht's new plea for a different economic order , dated May 28, 2011, accessed on July 17, 2011.
  38. ^ Socialismus.de (PDF; 519 kB): Joachim Bischoff, Christoph Lieber: From unproductive capitalism to socialist market economy. Sahra Wagenknecht advocates creative socialism. Volume 38, Issue 7–8 / 2011, p. 38. Volume 7–8 / 2011, p. 39/40, accessed on July 15, 2011.
  39. ^ Socialismus.de (PDF; 519 kB): Joachim Bischoff, Christoph Lieber: From unproductive capitalism to socialist market economy. Sahra Wagenknecht advocates creative socialism. Volume 38, issue 7–8 / 2011, p. 47, accessed on July 15, 2011.
  40. ^ Socialismus.de (PDF; 519 kB): Joachim Bischoff, Christoph Lieber: From unproductive capitalism to socialist market economy. Sahra Wagenknecht advocates creative socialism. Volume 38, issue 7–8 / 2011. Volume 38, issue 7–8 / 2011, p. 40, accessed on July 15, 2011.
  41. ^ Socialismus.de (PDF; 519 kB): Joachim Bischoff, Christoph Lieber: From unproductive capitalism to socialist market economy. Sahra Wagenknecht advocates creative socialism. Volume 38, issue 7–8 / 2011. Volume 38, issue 7–8 / 2011, p. 44, accessed on July 15, 2011.
  42. ^ Socialismus.de (PDF; 519 kB): Joachim Bischoff, Christoph Lieber: From unproductive capitalism to socialist market economy. Sahra Wagenknecht advocates creative socialism. Volume 38, issue 7–8 / 2011, p. 42, accessed on July 15, 2011.
  43. sahra-wagenknecht.de : Erhard Crome: Justice, freedom and the burdens - The new book by Sahra Wagenknecht. Review. In: New Germany. May 20, 2011, accessed July 15, 2011.
  44. deutschlandfunkkultur.de : Klaus Schroeder in the program Lesart: Ein Kind der DDR. Sahra Wagenknecht: "Freedom instead of capitalism", July 10, 2011, accessed on October 25, 2017.