8 ms·

What do Germans fear the most?

imtringued 5y ago
>For years, there was no new public debt in Germany. This gave citizens the reassuring feeling of living in a fiscally sound country — until the coronavirus pandemic came rolling over our world like a tsunami. Ah yes, the ability to win a pointless money war with other nations lets us sleep soundly at night. We let other nations finance our government spending and then complain that they are the reckless ones. Let's say globalization is dead and countries no longer trade with each other. If Germany wants to do an investment that has a future benefit it has to spend money today. When the government goes into debt it simply promises to pay later. By going into debt it has the ability to obtain future benefits. The opposite position is also true. A government that does not go into debt has no ability to obtain future benefits. When you consider that a growing economy needs growing infrastructure investments by the public government then what the government is doing is simply slowing down the private sector for the sake of bean counting. Fearing debt while simultaneously saving money is absurd. Money is debt, holding onto money keeps others in debt. The insistence that saving is morally good is simply wrong. It's just an investment like any other. The risk isn't gone, it's merely being managed for you. The fact that governments insure deposits is a huge distortion.
formerly_proven 5y ago
Genuinely surprised "radiation" didn't make the list.
- DocTomoe 5y ago
  Nah, like all "fears", these are linked to current topics for the larger part of the population. Radiation fears are so 1980s, with a short revival post-Fukushima. These days is all about the next hard-to-grasp concept that has little chance of ever actually happening (like the earth literally catching fire because of 2 or even 10 degrees celsius of rising temperatures, something even otherwise sane people do bring up from time to time.)
  - indigo945 5y ago
    Climate change will increase the rate and extent of wildfires. I don't think anyone is seriously proposing that the entire planet will catch fire.
- jansan 5y ago
  That was on top of the list right after Fukushima (also because the average German thinks that all the casualties from the Tsunami were killed by radiation). Now, nuclear power plants are being switched off, nulear energy is basically off the table, so why should they worry about the "Atom".
AniseAbyss 5y ago
Tax hikes due to EU debt is an interesting one. It was apparent by 1960 that Germany had actually won WW2, their economic victory had defeated and humiliated the ancient enemies of France and Poland. But like a man who wins the euro lottery the whole village wants it's share.
- flohofwoe 5y ago
  Western Germany maybe because of the Marshal Plan and a general interest of the US to build up an economic and military stronghold against the Soviet Union in Central Europe. Eastern Germany on the other hand...
dna_polymerase 5y ago
Interesting that the three idiots presented as successors to Merkel aren't a prominent topic on the list. Unless of course that is captured under the "Politicians Overwhelmed" point which, however, doesn't capture the whole breadth of the issue the three candidates for the job as chancellor present.
- wolframhempel 5y ago
  As a German, I'll have to agree. The younger generation's view of the three candidates is very much what I imagined the US population felt when looking at the Trump vs Biden choice: "really - don't we have anyone else?" The problem - unfortunately - is that German politics and parties disproportionally cater to the older generations. They vote at a much higher percentage, so it's opportune for the parties to tailor their offerings to them. This in turn disenfranchises younger voters which thus turn up in lower numbers to vote thus giving even more weight to the elderly vote and so on. As a result we're stuck with an ever growing pension system, little appetite for innovation and three potential candidates that couldn't be any less inspiring, but are just non-threatening enough to be acceptable by the post-war generations...
  - soco 5y ago
    Well Annalena could have been The candidate of choice exactly for those reasons, then ver(Baer)bock-ed it with all those unrelated stories... To your pensions point: there's a Swiss TV show called Arena where big politician names come into a debate with selected public as well. After the usual elderly senator bragged about saving the pension system for the next years, he was challenged by a young guy from the public "we're happy that you saved your own pension but how about ours in a few decades?" to which he had no answer, of course...
- atlasunshrugged 5y ago
  My guess is that was under "Politicians Overwhelmed" but with Merkel's retirement so close at hand and her outsized role in politics for so long I am surprised it didn't rank higher.
- 5y ago
santiagobasulto 5y ago
Tax hikes (1st, 3rd), Care for the elderly and Refugees are all related. I recently moved to Italy. I was extremely surprised with the contradiction of thought of the average (+50y/o) Italian. Newborns in Europe are in a decline (specially in rich countries like Germany) while life expectancy is on the rise (old people live longer). How are you supposed to fund that? There are less young people working and creating value for the society and you have more old people to feed, cure and maintain. In this scheme, the only "solution" that the state has is to raise taxes. Refugees (and african/muslim) migration seem to be a good "solution" to this. There are a lot of africans coming for work, generally very hardworking people. They will create value, consume and pay taxes and eventually complement the lowest-layers of the demographic pyramid (young active people). Yet, the average Italian (specially +50) is extremely racist. They want them out of their country. I've met some africans and they're all great people. YES, they are different (culturally) and they have a hard time learning the language, but that doesn't mean they can't integrate into society. Anyways, I'm surprised by the contradiction. They want to pay lower taxes (who doesn't, right?), but they don't want to accept younger people to work. baffled --- EDIT: I'm speaking about MY experience in Italy. I've heard Germany is a lot friendlier with immigrants and it's one of the least racists countries. STILL, the "refugees" fear is N4 in that survey.
- disneygibson 5y ago
  Is this really so hard to understand? Italy is a country whose identity is entirely built on its cultural history. It is not surprising at all that older people dislike the idea of foreigners coming in that have little relation to them, don’t speak their language, and aren’t really interested in maintaining heavily Catholic, traditional Italian society. The same exact thing happens in Korea, Japan, China, Eastern Europe, Norway, and pretty much any other country that isn’t explicitly built on the idea of immigration and assimilation.
  - atlasunshrugged 5y ago
    It's hard to understand if you believe that not embracing it will basically destroy the economic fundamentals of the country and the social benefits which so many people depend on. What's better, accepting some immigrants (many of whom will assimilate; maybe not totally but somewhat) or having the state become insolvent and not provide pensions?
Razengan 5y ago
Archaeologists with fedoras and whips?

>For years, there was no new public debt in Germany. This gave citizens the reassuring feeling of living in a fiscally sound country — until the coronavirus pandemic came rolling over our world like a tsunami. Ah yes, the ability to win a pointless money war with other nations lets us sleep soundly at night. We let other nations finance our government spending and then complain that they are the reckless ones. Let's say globalization is dead and countries no longer trade with each other. If Germany wants to do an investment that has a future benefit it has to spend money today. When the government goes into debt it simply promises to pay later. By going into debt it has the ability to obtain future benefits. The opposite position is also true. A government that does not go into debt has no ability to obtain future benefits. When you consider that a growing economy needs growing infrastructure investments by the public government then what the government is doing is simply slowing down the private sector for the sake of bean counting. Fearing debt while simultaneously saving money is absurd. Money is debt, holding onto money keeps others in debt. The insistence that saving is morally good is simply wrong. It's just an investment like any other. The risk isn't gone, it's merely being managed for you. The fact that governments insure deposits is a huge distortion.

formerly_proven 5y ago

Genuinely surprised "radiation" didn't make the list.

DocTomoe 5y ago
Nah, like all "fears", these are linked to current topics for the larger part of the population. Radiation fears are so 1980s, with a short revival post-Fukushima. These days is all about the next hard-to-grasp concept that has little chance of ever actually happening (like the earth literally catching fire because of 2 or even 10 degrees celsius of rising temperatures, something even otherwise sane people do bring up from time to time.)
- indigo945 5y ago
  Climate change will increase the rate and extent of wildfires. I don't think anyone is seriously proposing that the entire planet will catch fire.
jansan 5y ago
That was on top of the list right after Fukushima (also because the average German thinks that all the casualties from the Tsunami were killed by radiation). Now, nuclear power plants are being switched off, nulear energy is basically off the table, so why should they worry about the "Atom".

AniseAbyss 5y ago

Tax hikes due to EU debt is an interesting one. It was apparent by 1960 that Germany had actually won WW2, their economic victory had defeated and humiliated the ancient enemies of France and Poland. But like a man who wins the euro lottery the whole village wants it's share.

flohofwoe 5y ago
Western Germany maybe because of the Marshal Plan and a general interest of the US to build up an economic and military stronghold against the Soviet Union in Central Europe. Eastern Germany on the other hand...

dna_polymerase 5y ago

Interesting that the three idiots presented as successors to Merkel aren't a prominent topic on the list. Unless of course that is captured under the "Politicians Overwhelmed" point which, however, doesn't capture the whole breadth of the issue the three candidates for the job as chancellor present.

wolframhempel 5y ago
As a German, I'll have to agree. The younger generation's view of the three candidates is very much what I imagined the US population felt when looking at the Trump vs Biden choice: "really - don't we have anyone else?" The problem - unfortunately - is that German politics and parties disproportionally cater to the older generations. They vote at a much higher percentage, so it's opportune for the parties to tailor their offerings to them. This in turn disenfranchises younger voters which thus turn up in lower numbers to vote thus giving even more weight to the elderly vote and so on. As a result we're stuck with an ever growing pension system, little appetite for innovation and three potential candidates that couldn't be any less inspiring, but are just non-threatening enough to be acceptable by the post-war generations...
- soco 5y ago
  Well Annalena could have been The candidate of choice exactly for those reasons, then ver(Baer)bock-ed it with all those unrelated stories... To your pensions point: there's a Swiss TV show called Arena where big politician names come into a debate with selected public as well. After the usual elderly senator bragged about saving the pension system for the next years, he was challenged by a young guy from the public "we're happy that you saved your own pension but how about ours in a few decades?" to which he had no answer, of course...
atlasunshrugged 5y ago
My guess is that was under "Politicians Overwhelmed" but with Merkel's retirement so close at hand and her outsized role in politics for so long I am surprised it didn't rank higher.
5y ago

santiagobasulto 5y ago

Tax hikes (1st, 3rd), Care for the elderly and Refugees are all related. I recently moved to Italy. I was extremely surprised with the contradiction of thought of the average (+50y/o) Italian. Newborns in Europe are in a decline (specially in rich countries like Germany) while life expectancy is on the rise (old people live longer). How are you supposed to fund that? There are less young people working and creating value for the society and you have more old people to feed, cure and maintain. In this scheme, the only "solution" that the state has is to raise taxes. Refugees (and african/muslim) migration seem to be a good "solution" to this. There are a lot of africans coming for work, generally very hardworking people. They will create value, consume and pay taxes and eventually complement the lowest-layers of the demographic pyramid (young active people). Yet, the average Italian (specially +50) is extremely racist. They want them out of their country. I've met some africans and they're all great people. YES, they are different (culturally) and they have a hard time learning the language, but that doesn't mean they can't integrate into society. Anyways, I'm surprised by the contradiction. They want to pay lower taxes (who doesn't, right?), but they don't want to accept younger people to work. baffled --- EDIT: I'm speaking about MY experience in Italy. I've heard Germany is a lot friendlier with immigrants and it's one of the least racists countries. STILL, the "refugees" fear is N4 in that survey.

disneygibson 5y ago
Is this really so hard to understand? Italy is a country whose identity is entirely built on its cultural history. It is not surprising at all that older people dislike the idea of foreigners coming in that have little relation to them, don’t speak their language, and aren’t really interested in maintaining heavily Catholic, traditional Italian society. The same exact thing happens in Korea, Japan, China, Eastern Europe, Norway, and pretty much any other country that isn’t explicitly built on the idea of immigration and assimilation.
- atlasunshrugged 5y ago
  It's hard to understand if you believe that not embracing it will basically destroy the economic fundamentals of the country and the social benefits which so many people depend on. What's better, accepting some immigrants (many of whom will assimilate; maybe not totally but somewhat) or having the state become insolvent and not provide pensions?

Razengan 5y ago

Archaeologists with fedoras and whips?