Linus Westheuser

@lwestheuser.bsky.social

Senior Researcher @ Max Planck Institute for Political and Social Science・Political sociology of class, morality, political divides・🔗 linuswestheuser.com ・Views my own

Book: Trigger Points. Inequality and Political Polarization (BUP) tinyurl.com/3db3rwhy

@tabouchadi.bsky.social Oct 11, 2026, 1:10 PMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

"Dann verspreche ich der fragwürdigen Sippschaft dahinten, dann brechen für euch andere Zeiten an." - mann muss sich mal einen Moment Zeit nehmen für diesen Satz. Und dann darüber nachdenken wie diese Leute gerade politisch ermächtigt und diskursiv verharmlost und verklärt werden.

Julian Schmitz@jschmitzleipzig.bsky.socialOct 11, 2026, 10:23 AM

Der Vizepräsident des Landtags von Sachsen-Anhalt hat den Sound der 30er Jahre für sich entdeckt. 🤮

@benbraun.social Oct 10, 2026, 7:05 PMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

The definitive piece on this “debate”. Major public service contribution to global GDP by @newlefteviews.bsky.social.

tl;dr: As anyone who’s spent time in both places knows, Europe has not fallen behind in any way that matters for actual welfare.

@lwestheuser.bsky.social Oct 10, 2026, 6:04 PM

oh ja.. Ich hab als Kind in einer Seitenstraße der Sonnenallee gelebt und fand diese opulenten Schaufenster damals schon so faszinierend. Das Brautkleidergeschäft an der Erkstraße ist auch gefühlt das einzige in der ganzen Gegend, das dreißig Jahre später noch das gleiche ist

@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 4:57 PMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

A real welfare state and universal health care require broad taxation, including the middle class. But high end wealth taxation is the kind of tax that protects democracy and the rule of law, and prevents aristocratic dynasties. It keeps us human.

@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 4:54 PMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment.

www.nber.org/papers/w35854

Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from
Norway, 2021-2025
Marius A. K. Ring
WORKING PAPER 35854|
DOl 10.3386/w35854
ISSUE DATE October 2026
Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021-2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an "exodus" of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times,
2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners' firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners' savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms.
Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms,…

@lwestheuser.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 4:23 PM

stellenweise

@lwestheuser.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 4:22 PM

(Großartiges Buch)

@lwestheuser.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 4:21 PM

Das gibt es schon! "Die letzte Versuchung" von Kazantzakis. :)

@wsiinstitut.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 8:10 AMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

Die Folgen der Aushöhlung der #Tarifautonomie zeigen sich vor allem in un- und angelernter Beschäftigung, der sog. #Basisarbeit. Was Politik und Gewerkschaften tun könnten, analysieren @marabuch.bsky.social @johannasiebert.bsky.social @dpzberlin.bsky.social ➡️ www.wsi.de/de/blog-1785...

Großküche im Krankenhaus. Das Mittagessen wird am Fließband auf Tabletts verteilt.

@lwestheuser.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 2:52 PM

Ahah deal! :D

@sethcotlar.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 6:15 AMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

This is how historian Robert Paxton defined a certain word that begins with F in his 2004 book.

Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.

@lwestheuser.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 2:38 PM

Or both! :)

@lwestheuser.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 1:39 PM

Thanks, yes, it's not a policy designed for building, but neither one that will obstruct it very much. On the compensation, I found this helpful: dezernatzukunft.org/publikatione... The main benefit is longer-term public control over rent levels, which I think would merit a mention in your table.

@lwestheuser.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 12:44 PM

Thanks for this informative thread! On your negative evaluation of the policy, this study comes to very different conclusions, as you probably know (I would add that the large housing corp.s largely don't build and that tenants not moving is already a reality): www.imk-boeckler.de/de/pressemit...

@vheddesheimer.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 11:48 AMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

Anti-investor frames work beyond the left and in other countries: measured support ranges from 37% to 59%, depending on who asks and how. Similarly, in the more "pro-market / pro-capital" US, 37% back 'housing expropriation'.

Dot chart of support for expropriation: Berlin referendum 2021 59%; German survey 2023, control 56%, after reading about investors 66%; Vonovia-commissioned poll 2026 56%; infratest Aug 2026 37%; infratest after the election 37%. Below a separator line: US survey 2025 37%.

@alexandergallas.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 8:26 AMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

Auch Kollege Tretbar vom Tagesspiegel stellt fest, dass die Linke Minderheiten diskriminiert:

"Es sei ja auch eine 'gewisse Einschränkung von Vielfalt', dass es den Linken beim Wohnungsbau vor allem um bezahlbare Wohnungen (...) ginge."

taz.de/Berichtersta...

@iandunt.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 8:14 AMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

America right now is the maddest place on earth. Like watching a David Lynch film.

@scilove.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 9:30 AMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

🔥 Trending on SciLove today 🔥

🔬 Why do Public Debates Escalate? Trigger Points and the Moral Dynamics of “Hot Politics”
👤 Westheuser et al., 2026
📖 British Journal of Sociology @bjsociology.bsky.social

🔗 https://www.scilove.app/article/10.1111/1468-4446.70115

#AnthroSky #AcademicSky

@jacobedenhofer.bsky.social Sep 27, 2026, 12:30 PMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

@carnes.bsky.social Oct 6, 2026, 4:39 PMReposted by @lwestheuser.bsky.social

It's finally publication day for this decade-in-the-making book. @noamlupu.bsky.social and I explain why working-class jobs make up 70% of the average democracy's labor force, but only 2% of the average democracy's national lawmakers had working-class jobs when they got into politics.

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