“Let’s get rid of Bismarck!!!”

Fudación Rafael del Pino, a spectacular venue in the heart of Madrid, hosted the Free Market Road Show visit to the Spanish capital.

More than two hundred attendees enjoyed a first class program with a variety of local and international speakers.

The presentations about the pension system raised particular interest. Juan Ramón Rallo, from Instituto Juan de Mariana, criticized the Spanish retirement system. “The Spanish people”, according to the economist, “have no say regarding a third of their income. That is, the amount that goes to pensions”.

In turn, José Pinera, the architect of the successful Chilean pension reform, explained the key features of the capitalization model. Unlike the one size fits all European schemes, “capitalization pension system gives room to individual choice because the payroll tax of the worker goes to an individual account”. However, Pinera lamented the irony that “everybody congratulates me on my pension reform but then says: ‘But in my country it can’t be done’”.

The Chilean reformer explained that the public retirement institutions have their origin in policies firstly introduced by Bismarck. His advice: “Let’s get rid of Bismarck!!!”.

Finally, Pedro Schwartz, gave his key note speech on the future of the state and future of the European Union. “The solution for the EU is not federalism or even more regulations. The only solution is to lower significantly public expenditures”, said Schwartz.

The Austrian Economics Center (AEC), in cooperation with the local partner Instituto Juan de Mariana, and in association with international partners such as the Liberty Fund, Global Philanthropic Trust, European Students for Liberty, Ruefa and the F.A. v. Hayek Institut, proudly organized this event in Madrid. This was the seventh stop of the 7th Annual Free Market Road Show® which tours from March 26th to May 12th. 30 cities, hundreds of speakers, thousands of attendees and one message: Freedom.

More photos from Free Market Road Shows 2014