When Associate Professor Švihlíková is in the mainstream media, they usually emphasize that she is a “left-wing economist” as something quaint. However, if the same Ilona Švihlíková had lived in, say, West Germany in 1975, and had expressed her views there today, she would have been considered a typical right-wing economist. The mainstream left at that time advocated things that we do not find today even among communists. And if one advocated then what today’s right wing does, one would be considered a common fool.
How much the Western world has moved on since then! Taxation that was considered normal then would be called terror by economists today. The level of state intervention that was seen as minimal would now be described as completely insane and unbearable. According to our economists today, the Western European economies of the time could not function. But they achieved a performance and stability that we can only dream of today. And they fostered a degree of solidarity and a growth in human capabilities that today we may not even believe could have existed.
When someone tells you that the West is moving towards socialism, don’t take them seriously. And the second interesting observation by Associate Professor Švihlíková. The industrial economy itself leads to less inequality. Of course, an engineer earns more than a worker, and a manufacturing manager earns more than an engineer. But they are commensurable salaries and they all sort of belong together. That’s very different than a banker or a stockbroker versus a chauffeur or a sales clerk. Wouldn’t the renewal of industry be a better remedy for inequality than all sorts of regulation?