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Lately my girlfriend and I have been camping at a lake in a different city. On a paid camping ground of course. No wild camping in Germany. Sorry, but your po
by woodpanel 14y ago
Lately my girlfriend and I have been camping at a lake in a different city. On a paid camping ground of course. No wild camping in Germany.
Sorry, but your post to me seems to be at least a bit of a personal rant.
A lot of neocapitalistic concepts have been implemented during the last decade and have crippled our social security system and eroded workers rights. The dreaded subcontracted labour is on the rise. Welfare/social subsidy levels have been ruled inhumane by our courts. Our highest court has ruled that our voting system is against our contitution. Twice. What an embarrassment.
Well I think it rather depends on your point of view.
The social security system was crippled 5 decades ago, when chancellor Konrad Adenauer, for political gains, transformed it from a capital-backed insurance-system into todays system where ever fewer workers have to pay for more benificiaries.
The workers in Germany till this day enjoy one of the most protective rights in the world. So protective, that it almost proved to be disastrous when Germany was Europes "sick-man" in the late 90s and it's labor market deemed to be inflexible to compete with Eastern-Europe and Asia.
Both, the workers rights and the social security system are examples of what the author might has in mind when writing about "the German model": That the German society is able to reach a consensus were the parties involved agree to pain. Don't forget that it were the unions and the lefties (Social-Democrats and Greens) who worked on and implemented the needed reforms.
- cschwarm 14y ago> The social security system was crippled 5 decades ago, … Check the history of the Rentenversicherung: It was basically ruined by inflation caused by the First World War. [1] [1] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesetzliche_Rentenversicherung_%28Deutschland%29#Geschichte http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesetzliche_Rentenversicherung_...
- woodpanel 14y agoSorry, but I have to disagree. WW1 was rather one of the many causes that made social-security not working after WW2. The other big one being, well, WW2. However, changing the financial scheme of social security away from a capital-backed one towards a "generational accounting" one IS what makes it not working today (unless the working population keeps it's proportional size in relation to the retirees).
- wazoox 14y ago> capital-backed insurance-system into today's system where ever fewer workers have to pay for more beneficiaries. There is a common misconception which is that capital-based system for some reason magically relieve the current workers from feeding the elderly. Unfortunately, it can't be true; even with a capital-backed system, retired workers live on the wealth that active workers now produce, thus the capital value necessarily varies accordingly to reflect the available spare added value. So when there are lots of pensioners and few workers, the supply and demand both for capital (coming from the pension funds) and goods (coming from the workers) will equilibrate in a predictable way towards less purchasing power for the pensioners.