Bert Rürup: Der Markt ist stärker als ein politisch verordneter Tankrabatt
Der Tankrabatt ist ein leeres politisches Versprechen: Für kurze Zeit gehen Benzinpreise an den Zapfsäulen zurück – doch die gesamtwirtschaftlichen Kosten sind hoch.
In a market economy, prices serve as the link between supply and demand, bringing both parties to a compromise. Prices reveal shortages and coordinate the multitude of individual choices. Gold is not more expensive than water because it is more beautiful or essential, but because it is scarcer. If politics interferes with this mechanism, it risks distortions, as seen in the former DDR or today in Cuba.
A government-set price that is too low leaves the shelves empty; if it is too high, the goods remain unsold. However, fluctuating prices in a market economy are not a defect, but a sign of a functioning market. Higher prices signal increasing scarcity, a point often overlooked in political debates. Currently, public attention is focused on one price: that for fuel.
Although fuel prices account for only about three percent in the Harmonized Consumer Price Index (HVPI), they dominate the debate, as if Germany's fate would be determined at the pump.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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