UNEARNED INEQUALITY – How to Escape the Inheritance Society

  • On how untaxed wealth drives dissatisfaction and threatens democracy.

Will we cement inequality and jeopardize our democracy, or will we take action? Martyna Linartas advocates for a radical tax reform.

In few Western countries is wealth as unevenly distributed as in Germany. The gap continues to widen due to rising rents and food prices, the fact that delivery workers contribute a larger percentage of their income in taxes than billionaires, and the continuous reduction in wealth taxes while the rich keep getting richer. This injustice is societal dynamite. Wealth through hard work? Almost impossible. The idea that everyone is the architect of their own fortune? Only in fairy tales. Germany has become a society where wealth remains within families.

In her insightful and well-founded analysis, Martyna Linartas tackles the political taboo of our time: our failure to tax the rich jeopardizes our prosperity, environment, and democracy. Drawing from exclusive interviews with powerful economic elites about inequality and the interplay between economics and politics, she outlines how taxing the ultra-wealthy could work and provides all the arguments we need to take action now.

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  • Publisher: Rowohlt Hardcover
  • Release: 15.04.2025
  • ISBN: 978-3-498-00735-5
  • 320 Pages
  • Author: Martyna Linartas

Awards

  • 2026: Martyna Linartas, «Unverdiente Ungleichheit» für Das politische Buch
  • 2025: Martyna Linartas mit «Unverdiente Ungleichheit» auf der Longlist für den NDR-Sachbuchpreis
  • 2025: Martyna Linartas mit «Unverdiente Ungleichheit» auf der Sachbuch-Bestenliste im Mai

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Buchcover von UNEARNED INEQUALITY – How to Escape the Inheritance Society: Wie der Weg aus der Erbengesellschaft gelingen kann
Martyna LinartasUNEARNED INEQUALITY – How to Escape the Inheritance Society
Portrait von Martyna Linartas
© Tim Kraehnke
Martyna Linartas

Martyna Berenika Linartas is a political scientist and trained press officer. She completed her press officer training with the Green Party during the 2017 German federal election campaign and earned her PhD with summa cum laude in 2023. She founded and leads the knowledge platform ungleichheit.info and is a member of the Inequality Steering Group at Forum New Economy. Martyna Linartas is currently working on her habilitation thesis on wealth reproduction in Germany and teaches at Freie Universität Berlin and at the University of Social Design in Koblenz.