The aim of this paper is to attempt a re-reading of Keynes’ theoretical revolution, in the belief that only in so doing it becomes possible to answer a question which, as it were, goes about Europe as a ‘ghost’. That is to say, the question if the Welfare State has impoverished us, as they say, or has made us holders of a potential richness which we can’t turn to be effective because of our inability to cope with the problems engendered by its development.