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To offer a bit of context, the same government just voted to raise current pensions at the expense of steep taxation hikes for current workers, made massive cut

• venturecruelty 11mo ago
  Classic move: make the kids struggle, then offer them a lifeline if they just put on a uniform. The GI bill is great, but you shouldn't have to step on an IED to go to college.
  • Garlef 11mo ago
    Nah... That's a cute idea but here's some actual data: https://www.bundeswehrkarriere.de/downloads/mannschaften/936 https://www.bundeswehrkarriere.de/downloads/mannschaften/936 tl;dr: Okay but it's not golden by any means.
    • flohofwoe 11mo ago
      FWIW for a lot of East German youths born into poor families that's pretty good money at 18 years age.
    • PeterStuer 11mo ago
      Got to love how they camo their letterhead.
  • throw310822 11mo ago
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    • citrin_ru 11mo ago
      Hypersonic missiles is a distraction, the real danger currently comes from mass produced drones (both Shahed and FPV ones) and I’m afraid EU has no good defence against them.
      • monerozcash 11mo ago
        The part about shaheds is such a ridiculous take, they're an economic inconvenience not a serious military threat. FPV drones? You don't need good defense against them, it'd be nice to have, but EU military doctrines broadly assume aerial superiority enabling effective combined arms operations and maneuver warfare. Hostile operators of fiber optic drones aren't going to have a great time in such an environment. But sure, EU would have a bad time without US support given that EU ammunition stocks probably aren't deep enough for proper DEAD.
    • victorbjorklund 11mo ago
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      • trvketime 11mo ago
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        • flohofwoe 11mo ago
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      • nsoqm 11mo ago
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      • vasac 11mo ago
        Any ideas why blackouts are widespread in Ukraine but not throughout Russia?
      • lenkite 11mo ago
        The S400 seems to do a good job of shooting down drones despite what CNN/MSN says. It has defended against several thousand drones in the last year. It also successfully used by India in the latest spat and India is placing more orders after its proven success in Operation Sindoor. Also, Ukrainian drones vary the gamut from cheap, but modern FPV drones for easy mass production to state-of-art naval drones, rivaling anything produced in the world.
        • monerozcash 11mo ago
          > It has defended against several thousand drones in the last year. The idea of shooting down thousands of cheap drones using the S400 sounds ... interesting, to put it mildly. > It also successfully used by India in the latest spat and India is placing more orders after its proven success in Operation Sindoor There's not exactly many options available to India if they want to have any kind of air defense. The S400 certainly isn't terrible, but India also has every reason to exaggerate it's performance. Not only that, but it's not like both sides of that particular conflict haven't already been caught in many blatant lies regarding their performance. 5 or so months after the war Indian Air Force started repeatedly falsely claiming that they downed at least five Pakistani fighter jets, and one AWACS aircraft. This claim is patently absurd and completely unsupported by any evidence, but propaganda is very important to the Modi government. If India had evidence of them destroying a single Pakistani fighter, they'd absolutely be displaying that all over the place. They don't, because they likely did not hit any.
    • kakacik 11mo ago
      > Europa wants to go to war against Russia's hypersonic missiles. Not true, Europe (as in EU or Schengen or similar group) wants to be left alone by some hyper aggressive undeveloped dictatorship in the east with massive inferiority complex. But if we keep hearing every week how we will be annihilated in nuclear holocaust or just murdered in millions in conventional warfare, at one point you stop ignoring a mad dog barking at our door. We wanted peaceful mutually beneficial economical cooperation but Ukraine's huge gas&oil fields in the east plus all the heavy industry from soviet era also there was I guess too much to ignore for them, greed is always a strong emotion. Lets not forget who started the war in 2014 and massively escalated in 2022 in their brilliant 3-day 'special operation'. But its fine I guess, russian incompetence created the strongest army in Europe since WWII, extremely motivated personnel literally defending their homes and loved ones from mass murder, theft, subjugation and erasure of identity (all this is provably happening on conquered territories so there is 0 room for doubts). They will bleed dry their economy and military there and real problems and misery for russia will start then. Self-harm in front of whole world, no tear will be shed for what was once pretty advanced society (at least compared to now, comparison with say US was always rather to be avoided due to inevitable hurt feelings and egos).
    • ahartmetz 11mo ago
      Hypersonic missiles are a distraction. They have too few to make much of a difference.
    • monerozcash 11mo ago
      This is ridiculous, the whole point of European militarization is that they don't want to go to war.
  • flohofwoe 11mo ago
    FYI, higher education is practically free in Germany.
• qball 11mo ago
  The old, the prime beneficiaries, can fight for themselves. Elbows up!
• throwawaypath 11mo ago
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  • bulbar 11mo ago
    Not sure about refugees, but we are for sure in dire need of migration from skilled workers - health care sector is an example. It's still too complicated to migrate and on the other hand it's to still to difficult to remove criminals. The former government improved the situation, but did not fully solve the problem.
    • Bombthecat 11mo ago
      No skilled worker in their right mind will go to Europe/ Germany
      • LoFiSamurai 11mo ago
        Why?
        • Bombthecat 11mo ago
          High taxes, low salary and the future will have even higher taxes to finance the pensions. But even before that, everyone I know didn't even consider Germany as a potential place. It's either UK, USA, china or even Malaysia.
          • watwut 11mo ago
            Lol.
    • throwaway_dang 11mo ago
      What percentage of immigrants coming from those regions would you consider to be skilled migrants? Many parts of Africa have below 80% literacy rates[1] and that's in their respective language; coming to Europe would likely mean learning a new language as well as learning a completely foreign country. If we're speaking about Germany specifically, Germany didn't colonize as many places as the British, Dutch or French so they are unlikely to speak German. If you want skilled workers, why not simply train those workers locally? [1]: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/literacy-rate-by-country https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/literacy-...
• riedel 11mo ago
  The mix is the centrist way of populism: I large number of people affected are not allowed to vote. At the same time the current government consists of the 2 parties that were mostly backed by already retired people or baby-boomers, soon to be retired. We have state elections coming again and the government is largely unpopular and has not delivered on other things, with economic prospects not looking good either. After seeing years of partially misguided 'rational' governments, Germany is clearly shifting towards a more populist path (unclear which political direction, but we all know who are the best at this game, particularly if the generation 'never-again' won't vote anymore)
• sunshine-o 11mo ago
  Yes and the question is who does the German state really target to enroll in their "new" army. Because "This generation" has a lot of clearly distinct groups. So it could be: - the native young population who are now flocking in the AfD - the people fighting the AfD in the street - the second generation immigrants born there - the very recent immigrants - a mix of all Because the alchemy of creating a working army and "esprit de corps" is much harder than in a corporation. You cannot just take a modern managerial approach to creating an army. A mix of all will end up obviously in a disaster but selecting on any group will end up in a civil war or coup.
  • jasonvorhe 11mo ago
    Once the economy starts to collapse even more due to rising energy prices/cost of living they'll find enough people for the front. This would be the first war ever where no one showed up. Not going to happen. Bundeswehr has been whitewashed and propped up for years already in spite of being completely incapable of even providing Germany with defense for a prolonged time. Many IT projects for freelancers in Germany are Bundeswehr/NATO related because they're among the few who hire people right now because of the economic situation. Once we reach the point where people have to decide if they enlist in order to to keep on feeding their families, that'll sort itself out.
  • nicbou 11mo ago
    I'm in the "recent" immigrants group. I qualify for citizenship since a few years, but this Wehrpflicht nonsense is why I haven't sent my application yet. I don't think that the social situation is as bad as you describe. I just think that people generally don't feel keen to put their life on the line for Germany.
    • sunshine-o 11mo ago
      > I just think that people generally don't feel keen to put their life on the line for Germany. Yes this what I am sincerely wondering: which group (however you want to define it) of relatively young people, do they believe they can leverage "to put their life on the line for Germany"?
• deleted 11mo ago
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• StopDisinfo910 11mo ago
  Exploiting the south via the imbalanced currency union doesn't work anymore now that their economies can't swallow more debts to buy German stuff, China and the USA are not buying anymore and decades of underinvestments have caught up. It wouldn't be surprising therefore to see the German government fall backs to the only trick they know: constraining wages and limiting consumption. If I was particularly cynical, I could even argue that this youth conscription is fundamentally yet another form of wage suppression but I genuinely think it's a political coup to please the old voters who want something done for defence, preferably with no impact to them and their savings and don't care at all about the young. At least, the current government tried relaxing the debt brake a little and investing but I fear it's too little, too late. Germany is hooked to competitiveness shortcuts at the expense of their neighbors. The cure would be harsh. Add the quasi-religious adherence to a completely broken economic model turned into an absurd moral system and I personally have very little hope to ever see the situation improves. Then again, I have too moderate my cynicism. I thought for a long time that the eurozone creation, a currency union without transfers, was so stupid it would never be toppled as the worst political decision but then Germany passed the Schuldenbremse. They might manage to outdo themselves once again. I'm convinced the status quo will prevail. The German public will prefer slow death to any kind of transfers and common investments. They have already blocked the interesting parts of the Draghi plan. Japanification here we come. Let's enjoy becoming Disneyland while we slowly lose any kind of international relevance. I mean at least there most likely will be catering to the elderly and maybe crafting luxury goods as an alternative to tourism. At least, our brightest should be able to leave to places where innovation still happen. Such an exciting future Karlsruhe is leading us to. I'm just sad my country is tied to the sinking ship.
• black_13 11mo ago
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• dzhiurgis 11mo ago
  Classic FAFO for decel movement. Aging population and no growth to pay for it (while growing bureaucracy).