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How can I live a fulfilling life in which I feel comfortable?

To answer this question, I choose the analogy of a house, thereby providing a concrete model for numerous previous blog posts.

For me, a “house of abundance and well-being” has three essential components:

The foundation

The foundation is important for stability. Don’t build your house on sand, but on beliefs and values that will carry you well through all phases of life, even in your subconscious.

To do this, it makes sense to become aware of “What is my attitude towards life?” „What do I believe in? What am I convinced of? What is the meaning of life for me? Which are my values (principles/goals that guide me)?“

Which beliefs — unconsciously adopted from my environment — hinder my personal development and should I replace them with more sustainable ones?

Here are a few examples of my beliefs (you don’t have to copy them, but you can if you want):

Attitude: “Everyone has their own burdens to bear” (=> comparing yourself to others is pointless)

Belief: “Life consists of solving problems” (Karl Popper) or “Learning and enjoying life are the secrets to a fulfilling life, as are meaningful work and deep human relationships” (I heard this on the radio once and found it convincing).

Values: “Community & balance.” This alone gives rise to new convictions such as “Giving & taking is possible,” “Those who work alone add, those who work together multiply.” Or living in harmony with nature/the universe.

The walls

In order to achieve inner fulfillment and well-being, stable walls are important. You are already familiar with the four areas of “commitment,” “meaning,” “health,” and “positive relationships” from the blog posts on personal balance and what constitutes a successfull life. They form a very stable framework for your needs and strengths.

Think about what you want to work on in these four areas this year/decade.

Here are a few examples from me to illustrate this:

In the area of health, I am placing a stronger focus on healthy eating this year. Within the area of meaning, I have decided to set aside time each week to read interesting articles and reflect, in addition to my volunteer work. In the area of positive relationships, I want to spend quality time with my loved ones again this year. And in the area of commitment, I am looking forward to continuing to develop the technical department of the city of Weinheim as part of a team this year in order to achieve the greatest possible effectiveness.

The roof

And to prevent rain from entering your house and abundance and well-being from escaping, you need a roof: Choose a motto for life that will guide you through life like a North Star.

“What is worth living for?” is a fitting question in this context, and one that can be divided into vision and mission (see blog post http://dads-philosophy-blog.com/uncategorized/what-is-meaningful-life/?).

People are diverse, and so are their mottos for life. However, when choosing your motto, it is important to ensure that it does not harm your fellow human beings — regardless of their age, gender, skin color, etc .— because all people, from the equator to the poles, have similar needs and a corresponding (equal) interest in satisfying them. In this context, I like to think of the quote by former US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.“

Example: As you can easily see from my previous blog posts, I have chosen “A world of justice and balance” as my vision. I see my mission as contributing to creating an environment of well-being, promoting the common good, and preserving creation.

Here is my Instagram reel for the blog post: https://www.instagram.com/fabelosophie/reel/DTpgmU9CCve/

Translated from German with DeepL.com (free version)

Autumn is my favorite season. I associate it particularly strongly with coziness.

Nature displays a magnificent blaze of color. I like it when dewdrops still cling to the grass in the morning and the morning mist slowly lifts from our castles as I walk to the office. The forest around the castles slowly changes color.

What are the key findings here?

Psychologists and doctors would write about the importance of regeneration and resilience at this point, but for the Danes, coziness is an attitude, a feeling.

Not only are the Danes often the happiest people in research surveys, they are also the “world champions of coziness” and have their own word for it: “hygge”.

In the book Hygge¹ – a way of life that simply makes you happy, Danish author Meik Wiking lists ten aspects that make up this attitude to life: atmosphere (no wonder Denmark has the highest consumption of candles), presence (just put your cell phone away😉), pleasure (the Danes relate this to culinary delights), equality (the opposite of selfishness), gratitude (enjoying the moment), harmony (life is not a competition), comfort (physical and mental resilience needs breaks), peace (Danes have a high level of trust in their government and therefore don’t always have to complain about politics😉), togetherness (building and maintaining relationships), and protection.

What do I do with it, when do I feel cozy?

On the one hand, external factors play a role in the experience of coziness.

My starting point here is ideal: I live in Weinheim, a city that is described by tourism as “excitingly cozy”😉https://lebendiges-weinheim.de/weinheim-aufregend-gemuetlich/

I can associate coziness with beautiful corners and places in my hometown and consciously seek them out. Alternatively/in addition, I can also create a cozy atmosphere at home.

If you are constantly stressed, worried, or have negative thoughts, you will hardly be able to relax even in the most beautiful living room. The ten aspects mentioned above therefore also attach great importance to inner attitude and help me to reflect and sort things out from time to time:

Lowering my own expectations, consciously planning time for friends and family, not chasing after every appointment – that’s a good start for me.

Reminding myself again and again that “faster, higher, further” is not what makes you happy. Lottery winners – just like people who have been paralyzed in an accident – feel the same level of happiness three years after their win/accident as they did before.

Investing a lot of time in positive relationships is important, because community and comfort also have a lot in common. In a convivial atmosphere, when eating raclette together or doing activities, a feeling of security often arises, supported by mutual appreciation and mindfulness.

And last but not least, I can also feel cozy on my own when I read the newspaper in front of the window with a cup of coffee in my hand or when I go for a walk in nature. It is therefore often the “simple” things that trigger feelings of coziness, inner balance (see https://dads-philosophy-blog.com/uncategorized/deep-dive-personal-balance/), and a sense of “being at one with the world” in me.

Translated from German with DeepL.com (free version)

¹ https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Hygge-Danish-Secrets/dp/0062658808

Today’s impulse provides you with food for thought and insights into personal balance and how you can pass it on to your child/children.

What do I find interesting about personal balance?

Maintaining inner balance is essential for health and resilience in the face of environmental influences.

In a complex, constantly changing, and unpredictable world, finding your personal balance requires concentration and attention. However, precisely because the „VUCA world“ offers so many distractions, inner peace is a desirable state for me.

The tension/relaxation amplitudes and frequencies may vary from person to person, but knowing my own center („zero line“) helps me maintain balance.

What are the key insights for me?

According to Chinese philosophy, yin and yang are two opposing yet complementary forces. This philosophy teaches us that everything in life consists of a balance between these two forces, and that an imbalance can lead to problems.

Scandinavian philosophy also emphasizes balance, characterized by simplicity, coziness, closeness to nature, and a strong sense of community. It’s no coincidence that people in these countries have a high level of life satisfaction.

The neurologist, psychiatrist, and physiotherapist Nossrat Peseschkian developed a holistic approach. According to his balance-model, four areas of life — body (health and fitness), performance (e.g., professional fulfillment/commitment), meaning (mental-spiritual sphere), and contact (social relationships) — must be balanced.

What am I supposed to do with this?

I learned about this balance model from a chapter in a book[i] by time management expert Lothar J. Seiwert. He recommends finding time-balance in these four areas of life.

Between Christmas and New Year’s, I consciously consider what I want to work on in each of the four areas of life in the coming year and what I want to achieve in each area. Then, I devise appropriate strategies.

I take it a step further by setting aside sufficient time slots for each area of life each week. This allows me to apply the model to my daily life and avoid setting priorities in a one-sided manner. In doing so, I activate the power of habit through routines and the subconscious. For years, I have felt myself becoming more fulfilled and balanced.

Lastly, I assigned a color to each area of life and bought four matching bracelets to remind me of my personal balance (see the opening photo).

[i] vgl. Seiwert, Lothar J. Life-Leadership, in Scherer, Hermann (Hrsg.), Von den Besten profitieren, GABAL-Verlag, Offenbach, 4. Auflage 2001: S. 256

Food for thought for children on personal balance

Children would prefer if every day were a holiday or birthday. I explain to my son that the best part about special occasions is the joy they bring. However, he would no longer feel this way if it were „everyday life.“

I tell him that plants need sun and rain to grow and that, after periods of effort, we need periods of rest. I try to set the best possible example for him in terms of this balance, setting aside time for family and friends, sports, and healthy eating.

The Scandinavian philosophy of life emphasizes abundance and balance in life, which is important to me.

I want my son to spend time in nature regardless of the weather to experience it and feel it. And I a cozy and relaxed atmosphere at home, e.g., by eating together (which is not so easy in the morning when the school bus sets the pace).

I also try to incorporate the Swedish concept of „lagom“ (not too much, not too little, just right) into my parenting. It teaches children to find balance in life, avoid stress, and value equilibrium. For instance, I don’t plan all of his free time. I pay attention to his wishes and listen when he wants a change to achieve balance. I also support him in finding compromises with others that take everyone’s interests into account equally.

Personal balance can be experienced physically. Here you will find balance exercises for children: https://www.spielundlern.de/wissen/balance-bei-kindern/

We live in uncertain times: Can climate change be stopped? Can global violence be stopped? Do young people have a future? The questions go on and on.

Why is this topic important to me?

Not only humanity lives in uncertainty, but also each individual. We humans all have similar worries:

Is what I’m doing right, is it good? Can I fulfill my wishes, satisfy my needs? Will I find friends who are good for me (and vice versa😉) and the „right“ life partner? Can I achieve my education, my career goal? Have I made the right decision? Have I chosen the right career, the right goals?

I am afraid. What if I have an accident, if I or my loved ones fall ill, if my life changes from one day to the next due to a stroke of fate?

The security I long for in life doesn’t seem to exist – neither through preventive medical check-ups nor through insurance or unexpected wealth.

What are the important basic insights for me?

In the decades of my life, I have been able to feel that there is a „law of provision“ (as the American pastor Norman Vincent Peale once called it) when I simply try to do my best.

My management coach Jörg Radl from Freising (who sadly passed away far too early) put it in a similar way: „The path is built for the walker.“

These are helpful signposts for me:

• Follow your heart – live your passions, it doesn’t matter if you have several and some days they seem incompatible.
• Work on something that is bigger than you. Something that you think is meaningful. It doesn’t matter if you are sometimes unsure, your gut feeling will tell you the way.
• What matters is your attitude „Do you want to be the passenger or the pilot of your life?“ and the tactics you use to pursue your goals and values.

Allow me to say a few words about point three: you can’t control everything in life, but you can sense balance. Like in the water, for example: you won’t be able to stop the waves, but you can feel balance.

Food for thougt for children

As many paths lead to the same goal, I can only give my son tips that are based on the findings of many smart people and that I share based on my own experience:

• Cooperate with others. Use this super power of the human race, as our Minister President Winfried Kretschmann recently put it so beautifully. This proves the African proverb „When many small people, in many small places, do many small things, they can change the face of the world.“
• If you don’t know how to behave in uncertain situations, use tried and tested principles of action as a guide: Goals should be generalizable (because all people/living beings want to feel good), consider whether you could harm someone with your action (including future generations).
• Take care of your health, pay attention to good relationships and personal growth – this is more important for your long-term well-being than, for example, the accumulation of „likes“ from people who don’t know you or the accumulation of material things.

Then you will flourish and be able to live with uncertainty!

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

“Even behind a cloudy sky there is a bright sun” I once read on a postcard – what an apt image for confidence.

I took a month break to write about something fundamental today.

A topic that particularly highlights the interactions in human life, because I am convinced that everything is somehow interconnected, that humans/humanity/nature is a living organism.

Why is this topic important to me?

Instilling confidence in your child is fundamental. My parents and those around me have succeeded in instilling in me a “basic trust” – as a Christian I call it “trust in God” – and I want to do the same.

When I read in the newspaper that “Oshada sometimes cried from hunger and Udeni sent him to bed early”[1], it affects me personally, even if the story takes place in distant Sri Lanka. The same applies to human violence and the destruction of nature near and far.

I am human and as such I have compassion. I can

• Feel anger – not being able to prevent it;
• Feel shame – living in a “golden” bubble;
• feel despondency – not being up to the challenges.

But I can also ask myself how I can make my contribution to a world worth living in, how I can live up to my responsibility.

Poverty, violence and the destruction of nature are mostly man-made. The world does not have a problem. Man has/is the problem.

I don’t consider myself to be “remote-controlled”, but sane. Or as my former university lecturer Julian Nida-Rümelin puts it: “Humans are free, rational and responsible”.

Perhaps I am sometimes remote-controlled when I relinquish my responsibility, when organizational goals are not congruent with my own,… . But I have it in my own hands to be the pilot or passenger of my life.

[1] DER SPIEGEL Nr. 12 16.3.2024, S. 46 „Dhanush und die Staatspleite“ von Stefan Schultz

What does that mean for me?

Three aspects help me to take on my responsibility with confidence:

1. Observance of the penguin principle

Eckhart von Hirschhausen explained it really well on YouTube: “Everyone has strengths and it is so much more efficient to strengthen strengths than to work on your weaknesses.” What are my strengths and do I use them to be effective?

Excursus: There is a good strengths finder on the University of Pennsylvania website in numerous languages.

2. Orientation towards meaningful action maxims and goals

The categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant, for example, can serve as a yardstick for meaningfulness, i.e. checking for generalizability for all people, for example

to live in a way that does not harm anyone (see blog post on responsibility),

for example, to be guided by the SDGs (see blog post Sustainability).

As this develops (self-)efficacy.

3. Collaboration

“Those who work alone add up, those who work together multiply:” I am not alone.

We humans can cooperate and work on tasks that are bigger than us. “Many small steps in the right direction lead to the desired change.” Cooperation, the “superpower of the human race”, as our Minister President Winfried Kretschmann once put it so beautifully.

Food for thought for children

I therefore try to support my son in gaining confidence in himself “through play”:

• Let him try out sports => awaken his curiosity
• Listen to music and look at art with him => feel beauty
• Encourage friendships => Feel the power of relationships
• …          

Doing things together, spending as much time together as possible, taking him seriously, respecting him, treating him with appreciation. Being there when he needs me.

Above all, love him unconditionally, take his fears seriously – talk about them/listen to them and trust him!

The question „Why is life finite“ is one that pretty much all of us ask ourselves. Often, even those who believe in life after death feel a bit of melancholy. Not least because no one can predict the day they or their loved ones will die.

„The fact that we can exist at all is a great, galactic stroke of luck.“ I once heard this in a Blinkist in connection with the creation of the universe. There is something positive in this statement, even if I can no longer assign it to an exact book title.

And because humans have an enormous potential for damage, I sometimes think that limiting our lifespan can also be understood as a kind of „life insurance“: That each generation has a chance to do better than the previous one.

What are the important basic insights for me?

If we are spared from strokes of fate („negative lottery wins“ such as serious accidents or similar), we can preserve and prolong our lives if we take care of our mental and physical health. But at some point, even with the best genetic conditions, a healthy diet, sport and a life filled with love, the biological limit is reached (according to health experts, the theoretical limit is currently between 120 and 130 years). The anti-ageing industry is working on overturning this limit in the medium term through cell rejuvenation.

At some point, we will all be „stardust“, but until then we humans are – as I described in my blog post „What is responsibility„, according to Nida-Rümelin – „free, rational and responsible“.

What does that mean for me?

At the #Wethefuture Summit 2023, I heard an inspiring sentence from mental coach Jim Kwik: „Life is C between B (Birth) and D (Death)“. The C stands for Choice. We have a lot of choices between birth and death: We can live passively and let others determine our lives or we can live it actively, develop ourselves and shape our lives.

I think there is something focusing about the limitation of life. When something is limited, you deal with it more mindfully. I regularly ask myself „What is important to me“ and my activities and attitude support this.

Of course, I also have „passive“ days, that’s part of it. However, the passive days remain in the minority if I focus and trust myself, true to the motto „the path is built under the feet of the walker“.

Food for thought for children

I once heard a beautiful story in which life was compared to a train journey. People get on and off at the various stations. The traveler can’t choose his passengers and he doesn’t know how long they will travel alongside him or how long he himself will be on the train.

I like this image of the journey of life because it conveys serenity and shows what I can and cannot influence.

Life is fleeting. No one knows when the „journey“ will end. For some people, the journey ends when they are children, which are particularly sad moments. For some people, the journey ends too late in their own opinion, when they are lonely, physically and mentally deteriorated and marked by serious illness.

Ideally, it is the right time for you and you can say like Sir Baden-Powell, the founder of the scout movement, „I have fulfilled my mission and gone home“.

I want to give my son this image of the journey and encourage him to live actively, that he is the „pilot“ and not the „passenger“ of his life.

To do this, I want to encourage my son’s creativity, because I believe it is at least as important as a positive attitude. Because creative people find solutions where others only see problems.

Today I would like to dedicate myself to passion, as I keep seeing people throw in the towel prematurely because they believe that their current job is not a „calling“. In the same way, I know people who have inwardly „resigned“ and are only „present“ in their job and only look to others for the reasons for this state of affairs.

Is passion a permanent state and do you only feel passion in a single area? I don’t think so.

When do I feel passion?

When I’m working with great intensity. When I enjoy doing something because I am highly interested in it, and ideally I am also good at it. When I see added value because the topic is important to me, because it makes sense…

When I am at one with myself, when I am in the flow.

I like to remember the example of the Pike Place fish market in Seattle: the fishmongers had decided to give their customers a unique shopping experience and every visitor can feel how much they enjoy their work. About their four maxims[i]

• Choose your attitude („… as someone who is world famous, you will act very differently“)

• Play (How can we have more fun and get energized?)

• Make others happy (Who are our customers and how can we make their day? How can we make each other’s day?) and

• Be present (the fishmongers are at work with all their heart and attention)

even wrote the management bestseller Fish!

This example shows that it doesn’t matter what job you do, you can decide for yourself how you want to do it and how you want to feel about it (the fishmongers wanted to have fun doing their job).

Similarly, the careers advice service matchrs impressively describes four stages on its website of how to move from interest to passion and that there is a long road in between and that perseverance is worthwhile. Not even the interest has to be firmly anchored in the person, as research shows.

Where are the challanges for me and how do I deal with them?

My biggest challenge is that – apart from my family – I have several interests that I would like to pursue passionately.

I’ve had a soft spot for real estate since I was a little boy visiting my uncle and aunt in Chicago with my family and I was able to look down from the Sears Tower – the tallest building in the world at the time – and see the sea of skyscrapers below me.

I also have a soft spot for successful teamwork, ever since I experienced in the Scouts what you can achieve together with teamwork that an individual can only dream of.

So there are (at least) two hearts beating in my chest, which I always try to unite in my job, including my current role as First Mayor of my home town of Weinheim. It works particularly well here, but I have also combined my social passion with my technical passion in my previous jobs.

Food for thought for children

While I loved to build and paint skyscrapers as a child, my son loves to build and paint airplanes and ships and dreams of becoming a pilot or aircraft builder. We try to encourage these interests, be it through visits to the technology museum, the airport or the water, so that they can develop into passions.

My wife and me don’t care whether our son does an apprenticeship or goes to university, the main thing is that he finds his passion(s), and we want to support him in this.

We encourage his autonomy in pursuing his interests and at the same time show him places where he can feel the enthusiasm of other people who are passionate about their interests. When the spark is ignited, new interests arise for him.

[i] Fish! Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul and Hohn Christensen (2003, 15th edition) Mosaik bei Goldmann

After psychology, sociology, economics and politics, today I would like to round off my series of blog posts with an introduction to ethics, an exciting branch of philosophy.

What do I find so interesting about ethics?

The lesson of „good“ in times of war in Ukraine. How do you explain to a six-year-old that his former au pair’s home is being reduced to rubble?

I try with the hope of peace. „What you take by force, you can only keep by force.“ Gandhi’s words exude humanity’s desire for freedom, showing the fragility of oppression. As horrific as the moment is, it will not last. I’ll try the story of David versus Goliath, even if I would prefer a non-violent one.

We immediately come to the big questions of humanity. Why is there violence, why are there wars, why is there oppression? Are people bad? I explain to my son that people are neither good nor bad by nature, that good and bad are human judgments. That we are social beings who need other people. That wherever people live together, there are always disputes and that it is better to resolve disputes through discussion.

That it is about balancing interests. That violence must be the last resort when defending yourself. Words can hurt the soul, physical violence can kill.

What are important basic insights of ethics for me?

Ethics as a branch of philosophy deals with the universal justification of morality (morality in the sense of morally good behavior)

An example of morally good behavior (morality) is the Golden Rule „Do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself“, while the Categorical Imperative „Act as if the maxim of your action should become a general law of nature through your will“ is therefore an example of an (ethical) justification of morality.

According to my former philosophy lecturers at LMU[i], ethics is about practice-oriented questions about a happy and successful life, for example:

• How can we determine the right life in the face of the divergence of cultures?

• How can we act correctly in the face of the divergence of concepts of „good“?

These leave room for answers, depending on which ethical position one is guided by.

Examples of ethical positions are Virtue ethics, natural law ethics, utilitarianism, deontological ethics, ethical nihilism, value ethics and metaethics.

I will go into this in more detail in the course of my blog.

[i] This is what I learned in the introduction to ethics at LMU from Prof. Dr. Mayer and Prof. Dr. Vossenkuhl😉

What do I do with it?

The individual ethical positions offer me good guidance on the question „How do I become a good person“ in a VUCA world[i]😉

According to Aristotle’s virtue ethics, the good life consists in choosing a suitable way of life, in developing virtues that enable the best behavior in certain types of situations and in concrete actions corresponding to the virtues (see blog post „What is good life?„)

According to utilitarianism, for example, one should choose actions with the greatest possible benefit for all.

[i] VUKA stands for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambivalent

(Further) food for thought for children

You can find good tips on philosophizing with children on the following page: https://www.scoyo.de/magazin/familie/freizeit/philosophieren-mit-kindern-tipps/

I hope you enjoyed this introduction to ethics!

After an entry into the economy last month, in today’s October blog post, I’m dedicating myself to a discipline again, and I’m striving for a maximum 3-minute introduction to politics:

What do I find interesting about politics?

Compared to my classmates, I was not very interested in politics when I was young. I took a functioning state for granted. My family and my immediate environment were socially, but – except for the ballots – not politically engaged.

This changed over time. On the one hand, I am increasingly interested in

• how political opinion-forming (and its implementation) works:

• How can successful coexistence / cooperation be organized?

• How can security, health, education, infrastructure, resource distribution („commons“) best be organized?

• What characterizes a resilient society and

• where the optimum lies between federalism (with its understanding of local experience) and centralization (with its standardization of rules).

On the other hand, it concerns me to see how other societies are falling apart. I would therefore like to contribute to the cohesion of my own society.

What are important basic policy insights for me?

The task of politics is to bring about collectively binding decisions. Since the framework conditions change over time, this is a continuous process. The rights and duties of the individual must be constantly rebalanced – for the benefit of all.

Separation of powers („checks and balances“) is important for the preservation of democracy.

People long for simplicity; political reality is usually more complicated.

In this context, I well remember the words of Anette Schavan, the former Federal Minister of Education and Research, at a lecture of the Wirtschaftsgilde in Sils Maria 2022:

• „Politics does not mean going through the wall with your head.“
• „Solidarity and mercy are important components of politics.“

What do I do with it?

Politics develops and enacts the most important framework conditions. Due to the multitude of individual interests and the resulting compromises, these can only be framework conditions that leave us individual room for maneuver.

From there, live „convinced“ of one’s values and contribute to enabling an environment for well-being, promoting the common good and preserving nature („We don’t have a Planet B“).

Do not „delegate“ the responsibility for a functioning democracy and go to the polls (and also get actively involved in politics, there are many possibilities).

Food for thought for children

With my six-year-old son, I can already talk well about distribution issues („everyone should have a roof over their head“) and rule compliance („Dad you’re driving too fast…“).

I successfully ran for first mayor in my hometown of Weinheim. During the city council election between the three finalists, my son was present and I was able to explain to him how political decisions are made and that a term in office is term-limited.

I’m excited to have daily discussions with him about day-to-day politics when I take office in October😉 .

I myself am a fan of the Wahl-O-Mat to find out which party best represents my interests in federal and state elections and have gratefully discovered at u18.org that there are also initial approaches to this for children and young people.

What do I find so interesting about economics?

Its presence, economic activity shapes us: „Today, almost every aspect of our daily lives is linked in some way by an economic relationship. „¹

Its purpose: Economics is not an end in itself, but is meant to serve us: The goal of economics has long been to eliminate scarcities of certain goods (food, housing, clothing, services…). It is about using the available resources (capital, labor, material) as efficiently as possible in order to produce a maximum of goods.² At least here in Germany, there is no scarcity of many goods anymore, many (not all) rather feel an abundance of offers.

Last but not least, I am interested in their mechanisms: Who determines the rules in the economic/financial system? Do the rules have to be adjusted from time to time?

What are important insights for me?

For the efficient satisfaction of the population’s needs with goods, the economy uses certain „tools“ (currencies, markets, …), methods (division of labor & specialization, …) as well as organizational forms (producing companies, service providers, …).

Prosperity of western market economies is based on competition. In a market economy, companies have the task of providing society with good, inexpensive, innovative goods and services. ³

The market and competition, private property and the pursuit of profit find their ethical justification solely in the beneficial systemic effects they have on all people. They are – under the condition of a suitable framework order – the most efficient means for the realization of freedom and solidarity of all people known so far. ⁴

In order to avoid the negative consequences for society of too much inequality (keyword „distribution blindness“), to take into account the consumption of resources in economic activity (keyword „future blindness“) and to ensure the provision of collective goods (public infrastructure, security, …), the framework order of the market economy must thereby necessarily contain social and ecological components.⁵

What do I do with it?

On the one hand, that I always make clear to myself that progress and quality of life are not solely dependent on annual growth in per capita income.⁶ On the other hand, that it is crucially a matter of the framework order to reduce possible disadvantages of economic activity. „One thing is clear: Growth without solving the environmental problem will end in collapse. Growth without solving the distributional question on this planet carries within itself the special danger of radicalization. „⁷

The framework is not set in stone. I can take my knowledge of the interrelationships into account in my purchasing, investing, and voting decisions. And I can get involved politically to advocate for appropriate growth models that are not based on wasting resources but on fairness to nature and fellow humans.

After an introduction to psychology and sociology, I hope this blog post, „What do I find so interesting about economics?“ has piqued your interest! For more in-depth reading, I can recommend the works of the authors cited:

¹ Rifkin, Jeremy (2014). Die Null Grenzkosten Gesellschaft. Frankfurt, New York, Campus Verlag: S. 11

² Vgl. Picot, A. / Dietl, H. et al. (2008). Organisation – Eine ökonomische Perspektive. Stuttgart, Schäffer-Poeschl: S. 1ff

³ Vgl. Homann, Karl (2007). Ethik in der Marktwirtschaft. München, Roman Herzog Institut, S. 31

⁴ Vgl. Homann, Karl / Lütge, Christoph (2005). Einführung in die Wirtschaftsethik. Münster, LIT, Kap. 2.1.4

⁵ Vgl. Nida-Rümelin, J.; Vortrag i.R. der Zeugnisverleihung PPW in München Februar 2013

⁶ Vgl. Eichhorn, Wolfgang / Sollte, Dirk (2010). Das Kartenhaus Weltfinanzsystem. Frankfurt a.M., Fischer Taschenbuch: S. 17

⁷ Eichhorn, Wolfgang / Sollte, Dirk (2010). Das Kartenhaus Weltfinanzsystem. Frankfurt a.M., Fischer Taschenbuch: S. 184

⁸ Vgl. Eichhorn, Wolfgang / Sollte, Dirk (2010). Das Kartenhaus Weltfinanzsystem. Frankfurt a.M., Fischer Taschenbuch: S. 17