In Germany, one of the richest countries in the world, poverty is steadily increasing. Around one in five children is now affected by poverty. Despite rising gross domestic product and persistent trade surpluses, people are getting less and less of what they have earned themselves.
Inhalt / Content
Child poverty is always parental poverty
Rising poverty is no coincidence
Poverty in one of the richest countries on earth continues to grow. Around one in five children is now affected by the growing poverty. However, the term “child poverty” appears to be a trick anyway, since there are hardly any impoverished children with wealthy parents in Germany. So when child poverty is mentioned, then impoverished families are automatically meant, regardless of whether they are single parents or in large families.
With the new study “Factsheet Child and Youth Poverty” the Bertelsmann Foundation has put current figures on the table. According to this, almost 2.9 million children and young people in Germany are affected by poverty. Among young adults between the ages of 18 and 25, there are around 1.55 million. Children are considered poor if their parents have less than 60 percent of the median income or receive basic social security benefits.
In view of these figures, the “Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband” (welfare organisation in Germany) is now demanding an immediate increase in basic security benefits by at least 200 euros per month. The association speaks of a scandal “that in a country with the world’s fourth strongest economic power, more than every fifth child lives in poverty”. Child poverty was not fate, but the result of political omissions over decades.
Rich country – poor people (?)
In fact, it is always amazing that in a country that is the economic hub of Europe and has for many years held the title of “World Export Champion”, poverty assumes such proportions. This not only affects young people, but the entire age spectrum. People of retirement age in particular can “sing a song about it”. After a life of around 40 years of productivity and value creation, these are fobbed off in the form of starvation pensions. The generation contract no longer worked as originally intended, and more and more pensioners for fewer and fewer depositors, so the mantra tenor.
The capital generated by the productive migrates
In fact, the so-called social policy carried out radical cuts, especially about 20 years ago the political decisions on the keywords Hartz IV (since the beginning of 2023 “citizen’s benefit”) and pension reform. But were they really only the political decisions visible to the (forgetful) electorate, or could there be a completely different quality behind them? For decades, more goods and services were exported than imported, and one of the most effective productivity levels in the world. More was produced than consumed. As a result, the workers actually lived below their means, even if some motivated politicians and economists claimed the exact opposite.
Added value is exported directly
If the generated wealth didn’t end up with the children, parents and pensioners, then it must have found somewhere to stay. A suitable keyword for this is “foreign assets”. Here one is less inclined to agree with the parity association’s accusation of “political omission” but rather with the accusation of “political intent”.
The crises offer few a chance
The price developments for food and energy in 2022 and probably also in 2023 are a prime example of the transfer of money from poor to rich. While more and more households are barely able to make ends meet due to the high costs, the food and energy companies drove in lonely record profits. More than 80 percent of this was distributed to the respective shareholders. This is also a very effective way of capital export.
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