Werbungskosten oder Subvention? Zur Rechtfertigung der Entfernungspauschale und Perspektiven ihrer Ausgestaltung

Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker holds the view that the trouble with the energy- environment debate is that it typically circles around different modes of supplies with their respective environmental drawbacks. Rising demand for energy tends to be seen as an indisputable given. The fact hidden behind this assumption is the low price of energy (fig. 2). He is proposing a strategy of slowly but steadily rising energy prices (if necessary rising by state intervention). The slope of the rise should be equivalent to the slope of rising energy productivity, thus avoiding social hardship. In view of that trajectory of steadily rising energy prices, investors, infrastructure planners, and consumers will strategically move into energy efficiency and productivity gains, thus accelerating the process. The historical twenty-fold rise of labour productivity, in parallel with labour cost (fig. 3), may serve as a model for the proposed trajectory.