Why Germany is Rich But Germans are Poor

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Despite its reputation, Germany is one of the most unequal countries in the developed world when considering the wealth of its citizens. So how did it get bad? In this video, we'll explain this issue and how it interacts with Germany's wider economy.
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[@kmjgsdkmjgsd]

This is what happens when you treat 70+ year olds like moral compasses and geniuses, and everyone else like utter trash.

[@sebastiangruenfeld141]

1/4 of the German population is pensioners. no politician would dare doing anything that isnt in the boomers interest

[@MrBurnsExcellent]

Rich and powerful 70+ year olds*

[@juanchoja]

@@sebastiangruenfeld141 What about the other 3/4 majority?

[@sitthe5598]

Same happend in your neighbour country Niederlande. We need to boycot boomers voting/politics

[@Your_President_Kanye_East]

@@juanchoja Is "not-being-a-pensioner" enough of a defined characteristic to make politicians pay attention to their interests and to tell politicians how to address those interests? I think not. Meanwhile, being a pensioner means that you are specifically interested in government transfers to pensioners and laws which protect your pension fund -- very specific, easy to identify and address.

[@TurboAutist-sg7lo]

I know Sweden has rich families but having our top 5% own more than 60% of the wealth and being the worst in the EU at that is insane

[@danguee1]

That is mad. But don't forget: as the Netherlands has found out - as long as people can own their own homes or have reasonable rent, then all you need is a good pensions payout to live comfortable to the ends of your days. Here in the UK, the State Pension is very low so people need wealth to have comfortable retirements. Sweden has good pensions?

[@azpont7275]

A large portion of German extra wealthy families are literal unpersecuted n4zis. It honestly doesn’t make it much worse than already is, just to paint the picture more whole.

[@paul1979uk2000]

I think that's the case for almost all modern countries, the idea that such a small percentage of people own most of the wealth in a country, really shows how the current system we are living under isn't working, and maybe what we've been seeing over the last few years are the cracks starting to open up with people getting angry, protest voting and such, and personally, I think it's only going to get worse until governments start clamping down on the rich elites and big corporations. What I mean by that, immigration and all the other complaining is really a sideshow to what the real problem is in society, from cost of living, inequality, housing being so expensive and so many other things like that, yet with all that, I get the impression that governments are blind to what's going on in western countries, so I expect things to get worse before the wake-up call kicks in, and the irony is, things getting worse will ironically hit the rich elites and corporations much harder in the long run, so if they are smart, they'll nip it in the bud and come back down to earth before the public gets really angry at how things are going, until then, enjoy the show and the potential revolution that could be on its way if they don't wake up. Also, if you really want to thank anyone for why this is happening, you can thank the internet, as that is opening peoples eyes and exposing how screwed up the system is in favour of the rich elites and big corporations.

[@gtjus]

​A percentage of our salary goes to pensions, but its not very much and almost nothing from the state. It's mostly private pensions. Our public pensions system is tied to inflation. ​@@danguee1

[@pascalausensi9592]

It honestly doesn't mean all that much. Indicators of wealth inequality are almost always inherently flawed because they consider debt as negative wealth. As most persons either don't have any assets or have a negative balance (more debt than assets, think of very poor people like Donald Trump or someone who has just bought their first house with a mortgage), by construction only a small fraction of the population will show up as having any wealth. With the end result that that small fraction will appear to own a very large fraction of the country's total wealth. As an example of the ways in which this is broken, if suddenly houses became more affordable in country X such that more people were able to buy them with mortgages, country x's wealth inequality would actually increase.

[@MartinNew14]

Because the cost of living is high, even with a high salary, it's not enough; in other words, purchasing power is very low.

[@Stellmacher716]

Food is nowhere as cheap as in Germany

[@raphaelokoye6459]

@@Stellmacher716 This is not true we literally have the highest food prices out all our neighbours minus Switzerland and Luxemburg

[@RafaelCosta-je8vn]

I’m from Portugal, and currently in my girlfriend’s town in Turkey. I live in Germany and it’s by far the cheapest country I’ve been to except for Eastern European countries. Funny you say that but I drive to work everyday in my working class neighborhood in Thüringen and I always see brand new cars, you rarely see old cars in Germany.

[@alvaroschindler1025]

Bro, in Austria we pay more than you. France and Spain the same. Australia and Canada are way more expensive

[@br0L1x]

@@RafaelCosta-je8vn there you go. its because you live in thuringia.

[@WooCash95]

I live in Germany and my rent is 60% of my wage, and that's still reasonable compared to my friends who send about 70-75% of their wages to a multinational corporations like Vonovia for a rent. We are beyond fucked.

[@maritaschweizer1117]

Thats pretty normal. In Russia you pay at least 60% and most have less than $150 per month for living.

[@dannydenison6253]

Insane. I feel like I am just hearing this from everyone everywhere lately. That however is still an outlier. Luckily in my area its only about 50%, less with roommates and what now, which is fine until we start looking at having a family, which feels impossible.

[@hornsteinhof7592]

And the requirements and applications for getting a building permit will depending on your local autority cost you your sanity and requiere a seemingly endless number of opinions of certified experts on several subjects. As if building a house or an appartment isn't hard enough already, its as if the government wants to keep people from building appartments. Germany is over regulated. I'm not allowed to repair the roof of my house because the local autority has rejected my application for changing some shingles and pieces of wood in my roof. There's water running in, they don't give a shit. They say my roof repair is substantial for them to justify needing a building permit, which I won't get because I can't afford to set up a pond for the fireguards to take water from to extinguish a fire on my property because the community built the fire hydrant like 8 m too far from my property

[@thelusogerman3021]

Wait till you hear about Portugal☠️☠️☠️☠️

[@mdarrenu]

Really, I would not have thought it was that bad. Is the problem on the salary side? or both? How much do you pay for what size and where?

[@BenchFox_]

Like in the rest of europe, everyone forgot they needed to spend money to maintain good infrastructure and public services

[@Dohlenblick]

Not everyone, but, I would say, those who promote neoliberal policies are rarely touched by their longterm-consequences. I think what we're bad at, though, is voting based on strategic interests rather than group-affiliation.

[@S3Cs4uN8]

I wouldn't even say the rest of europe, neglect of infrastructure seems to be a nigh-global issue.

[@cwpv2477]

problem is the ideology that drives politics rn and the phenomena that laws to not vanish but accumulate and at the same time competence and decision making is crippled

[@joesmith3590]

Not even close. Like the rest of Europe they forgot that innovation drives the economy. Germany was putting out worse cars every year while Tesla was leading the EV revolution. Every India like that an old Europeans company lost the lead to an American or Asian company. Also to work hard has value is totally forgotten. Europes biggest pride is how little it works these days. Great for days off but bad for an economy.

[@joesmith3590]

Like the rest of Europe they forgot that innovations drive the economy. When the pride of your country is your government benefits and days off instead of the accomplishment you got from working hard it is over

[@NightSt0rm]

I'd say, Germans often consider stocks too risky GIVEN THAT for most of us, there's not so much extra money left at the end of the month. If you have a lot of money left, it's less of a problem to partially use it for risky things.

[@christianr4769]

Buying the market is basically guaranteed returns in the long-term, so I'd argue it isn't very risky.

[@NightSt0rm]

@@christianr4769 if you invest in the MSCI world and you know for sure, you won't need that money in the near future for at least 10 years or so, you're basically guaranteed a profit, yes. But that connects back to the fact that most people don't have that much money left over at the end of the month as I said.. and hence aren't ready to put their money somewhere where they can't access it instantly without the risk of loss.

[@val-schaeffer1117]

So basically on PPP scale, Germans are paid abysmally low. E.g. if a testing engineer is paid 2200 Euro in Frankfurt, where CoL is 2000 Euro, he is basically on a SLAVE WAGE, as he is paid barely enough for an existence.

[@dudu28r81]

​​@@val-schaeffer1117CoL isnt 2000 in Frankfurt tho lmao

[@val-schaeffer1117]

@@dudu28r81 Or yes it is. Maybe not in your ghetto WG in Höchst or Offenbach.

[@Aaron_We]

One special case Germany has is that after reunification people in former GDR had a lot less personal wealth than people from West Germany and the public wealth from the GDR was largely sold to people or companies private wealth from the west. Because there weren't any measures taken to redistribute wealth and wealth largely builds up over long periods of time that effect still plays a large role

[@GeorgKallenbach]

Simply and beautifully explained :)

[@TheNurahh]

People from the GDR didn't pay any taxes, but still received retirement pensions after the reunification.

[@GeorgKallenbach]

@@TheNurahh Yes, after quite some paperwork proving that you actually worked in the east at that time, getting (by comparison) less of a pension from it, even though since the unification, eastern german workers paid their taxes, in any kind, just as anybody else to the "western" state.

[@mx338]

They sold the east to the west, instead of giving the east to easteners. Privatisation is Russia also was bad, but at least people got the houses and apartments they lived in for free, and got some money for state companies being sould.

[@johnl.7754]

Yeah would be interesting to see the rankings just from former West Germany

[@teekanne15]

What bugs me the most is that people confuse correlation with causation. Economics that correlate with poltics most often have the cause years in advance. A countries economy is like a containershit. Steering it takes ages.

[@drdewott9154]

Yup. So many people are completely unaware and will blame the current government for issues caused by the previous one or even the one before that. It is extremely annoying seeing people vote for the very same people who have caused the issues they complain about time and time again.

[@dragonlord1225]

"containershit" 💩

[@louisaparker]

containershit 😆

[@Dottore-b4l]

@@drdewott9154 Exactly. We now have to support asylum seekers and event their kids who came 2015. They are still here, do not work, but live, eat, sh..., go to school... We cannot get rid of them, they are the burden from the past...

[@CyAn-S]

Besides, having no wealth does not mean you are poor.... this whole video is not great

[@TippedBalance]

Are you telling me that an economy solely geared towards the top 5% doesn't last nor does it serve the majority of a country? I'M SHOCKED!!!

[@HaydenCyclist]

Liberalism is a secularised form of Calvinism and Protestantism. All money and wealth must go to the church elders. All of it.

[@tbk2010]

Did you even watch the video?

[@richymoto]

I live there and neither me or my friends are millionairs or billionaires. But we are all doing pretty well. I bet, that most countries would like to trade their problems with ours. This video is like most ... just fokusing on the points, that fit the agenada. There are poor in Germany, but Germans are not poor in general, as the headline suggests. At least you will not go bancrupt here, because you have to go to hospital and you will not go bancrupt, because your kids want to go to university.

[@TippedBalance]

@@tbk2010 Nah it was too long, can you give me the TLDR?

[@HaydenCyclist]

@@richymoto they're trying to console the British by pretending Germany is in the same kleptocratic mess we are in.

[@bababababababa6124]

Crazy how even after 34 years of reunification, East Germany is still much poorer than the west, that gives me no hope for North and South Korea

[@fungo6631]

North Korea has far better demographics and also mineral resources, so that might not be as problematic.

[@magivkmeister6166]

Italy has been unified for more than 150 years, and the South is still poorer than the North. Some divides may never be bridged.

[@fungo6631]

@@magivkmeister6166 But the divide isn't related to that, from what I understand. The divide started much later.

[@Felix0587]

​@@magivkmeister6166 I did a bus tour through Italy 15 years ago. The north-south devide was like night and day. The moment you went south of Rome, it was like being in a totally different country.

[@gromotion933]

Not crazy...Back than when the wall came down in a discussion about reunification my whole class predicted that..and we where 14 years old.

[@Mystic_Edge]

That's peak corruption in germany

[@Novusod]

Germany is very much a society where people prefer to "own nothing and be happy." In election after election they vote to uphold social safety nets over the freedom to build wealth. They also suffer from a bad case of climate hysteria where the people voted to get rid of their nuclear power plants. It is not corruption. They voted for this. Germany made its bed and now they have to lay in it.

[@aboomination897]

@@Novusod getting rid of old nuclear power plants (that needed massive investments to keep them running safely) and to go for more sustainable energy sources had nothing to do with climate change. and yeah, climate change is the most important challenge.

[@aceman0000099]

​@@aboomination897 Coal isn't a more sustainable energy source 😂 they had to start up multiple lignite plants last winter to cope with the demand previously covered by clean, safe nuclear energy... Not to mention the amount of natural gas you are reliant on

[@natecar1]

My guess is it's probably for the same reason Ireland, the UK and everywhere else is...

[@bazinga-tt9pj]

GNI vs GDP?

[@m0o0n0i0r]

Dont tell that to those in the UK that blame BREXIT you might hurt their feelings.

[@slcainehmierz7681]

taxes and migrants which get most of the money for decades and the whole world in a kickback scam.

[@marcux83]

​@@slcainehmierz7681yes it's the migrants for sure.. not the rich and powerful siphoning off all the surplus 🙄

[@magivkmeister6166]

Europeans are just not as industrious as Americans and Asians. Those that are ambitious move to the USA to earn more and then move back to retire. You just can't make money in Europe with all the taxes and insane bureaucracy.

[@MegaNacin]

As a German this topic makes me very sad. This problem has been known for a long time but strangely there is no political support from the larger voting population in Germany to reform the wealth or the inheritance tax. It's totally right what was stated in the video about the "Mittelstand" argument. Parties opposing these reforms just throw in the argument and people fear that Germany will loose it's economic power because of reforms. Funny enough people start to vote far right parties cause of inequality reasons although these parties don't have any plan to reform these taxes either. I still hope that in the next two years the problem will become so persistent as reforms will be inevitable... but let's see 😬

[@RedXlV]

No only do the right-wing parties have no plans to fix inequality, they think inequality is a good thing. That's inherent to conservatism, after all.

[@hammerth1421]

The issue is that Mittelstand is often intentionally confused with family-owned. The Quandt-Klatten family owns 46.7% of BMW, but BMW is not the Mittelstand, it is a multinational gigacorporation and its owners by merit of inheritance are hoarding wealth like Smaug sitting on a mountain of gold. Conservative politicians argue in bad faith to protect that kind of people.

[@gelber_kaktus]

@@hammerth1421 thy even have their own lobby organisation named "family-owned companies trust", funded mostly big companies like Henkel, Merck (EMD) oder Conrad Electronics, telling everyone that taxing the rich or raising wealth taxes or fixing common tax loopholes (and so on) will hurt family owned companies. Sadly they are very influential.

[@alexlehrersh9951]

bs

[@anonymousanonym450]

cant wait for more taxes to go to refugees

[@daniil9263]

Fund the rich, tax the poor Fund the wealthy, tax the worker - germany 😅

[@vadergrd]

and every other country on the globe ,work taxes should be lower , capital taxes should be higer!

[@leostabauer5930]

Capitalism *

[@TR4R]

To declare wealth a secrete information and part of privacy is fine to me, as well as not taxing savings... but, c'mon, when it comes to income and property, they should be taxed accordingly.

[@brainrottedindividual]

exactly. also, if you are a rich banker, you can just commit fraud and financial crimes as much as you want. chances are slim that anyone is going to do anything about it. maybe even the chancellor will put in a good word for you... just don't do it if you are a small business owner. the finanzamt will destroy your life.

[@L_back]

Tell me you’re a left wing populist without telling me that

[@Misterlikeseverythin]

Germany - if you own a house that's probably the same price as a private jet.

[@apc9714]

I was shocked by the prices in Frankfurt. Normal homes selling for 3mln euros. An Indian fried was going back to Delhi, and we calculated that instead of buying that house you could have lived in a 5 stars hotel there for over 100 years

[@dudu28r81]

​@@apc9714I'm gonna guess they were in fact NOT normal homes considering i just looked and found a great one for 500k in less than 2 pages. Sure thats still a lot but i dont know why you felt the need to lie about it

[@12max44]

Very high rent in germany and near impossible to buy anything. 50-70% of wages going only towards rent is not unusual at all. The Boomers fucked us.

[@effexon]

US boomers? are those rent conglomerates foreign or domestic? some of those have spread all over world, at least western world. Pension funds commonly also buy housing which ironically raises rents but promises to pay you pension 50 years from now.

[@billcarson818]

Its the reason that is the reason all over the world. Its a system that is designed/working in favor for a small group of rich people. This wont significantly change until the system is changed.

[@roundthoughts4644]

I sadly don’t think we will ever see criticism of the wider economic system on this channel, it seems to be decidedly pro capitalist.

[@kenseitakesi4521]

That is called capitalism

[@aenorist2431]

*until the physiology of the politicians perpetuating this system is changed in an irreversible way.

[@magivkmeister6166]

​​@@roundthoughts4644The European welfare states are sustained by the capitalist system. Without capitalism, Europe would not be able to survive, especially considering its reliance on exports and dependence on energy imports. The problem is idiotic, short-sighted energy policy, economic mismanagement and bungling of the migrant crisis by European leaders.

[@roundthoughts4644]

@@aenorist2431 I don’t think it’s about the politicians, depending on the leadership some of the issues of capitalism like economic crisis, unequalness and waste might be temporarly fought back, but in the end they always re-emerge, they are simply inherent to the capitalist system at large, and the logic that comes with it.

[@francesco3588]

Everythings way too expensive these days. I'm a young guy but sill remember times when the prices of essential stuff like food were way lower, sometimes even half the cost of now

[@afjo972]

Saying Germany is expensive is hilarious when you’ve been to countries like the U.S., Canada, Australia, Switzerland or even the UK

[@fallenhonor4988]

@@afjo972 We earn less in germany and have less purchasing power, please inform yourself.

[@zjeee]

@@afjo972 You can't compare - different living costs, taxes, salaries and so on.

[@tancreddehauteville764]

Germany is like a grumpy old man who refuses to spend despite being quite rich.

[@vonmusel6158]

lol

[@here_we_go_again2571]

The grumpy old man got rich by working hard, saving his money and on a personal level living frugally

[@funfungerman8401]

Our Pension is a damn snowball System xD Germany has this stupid „Schwarze Null“ (Black Zero) Which means dont have a Surplus or minus at the end of the year so our Schools, public buildings, Infrastructure etc are degrading cause there is no Money at German didnt take Any Loan at the Low interest rate time…. Stupidity

[@MrTohawk]

@@here_we_go_again2571 and being bailed out by enemies turned friends after a bunch of really bad decisions

[@TheWebstaff]

​@@MrTohawkdon't mention the ***! Either of them.

[@PaulStephenRudd-u7b]

Our economy is like a flailing fish, fighting for its life. The normal state of the U.S. economy is actually very bad. Because of this it goes into convulsive spasms fighting to grow any way it can out of desperation. Tricks, gimmicks, rule changes try to stimulate the economy and prevent it from falling but they only bring temporary relief to people since, when you factor in inflation we are declining.

[@Joegolberg1]

People believe their currency has the worth it does because they have no other option. Even in a hyper inflationary environment, individuals must continue to use their hyper-inflationary currency since they likely have minimal access to other currencies or gold/silver coins.

[@Benjaminarmstrong684]

Inflation is gradually going to become part of us and due to that fact any money you keep in cash or in a low-interest account declines in value each year. Investing is the only way to make your money grow and unless you have an exceptionally high income, investing is the only way most people will ever have enough money to retire.

[@PaulStephenRudd-u7b]

How can i get started when it comes to investing and passive income?

[@Benjaminarmstrong684]

Zachery M Demers is the licensed FA I work with, I can't speak much about him you should make a search with his name, you'd find the necessary details to schedule an appointment.

[@jaymzx0]

Only 111 upvotes? This is some Poundland-grade scam bot work.

[@rufioh]

Isn’t the whole populist movement a result of the working class being squeezed economically? And didn’t the working class having absolutely zero economic power contribute to the rise of fascism an populism in the 1930s?

[@rearea260]

the biggest single factor which caused the rise of fascism was the austerity politic in reaction to the great depression, which hurt lower incomes most and economic stagnation or even downfall is what leads people to vote for extreme options with easy solutions, be it left or right add some populists who point at immigrants/jews/unemployed/minorities and you have history reapting itself again and again and again

[@krb5z]

@@rearea260 we have fiscal studies for germany, netherlands and denmark, immigration as it is now costs us way more then we benefit from it. Also migrants from afghanistan are 0,46% of the population yet they make up 12% of gang r*pes, they defintley cause alot of trouble, you just don t want to hear something which doesnt fits your narrative

[@LarthV]

Not sure if it is actually _working class_ in the classical definition (people with jobs in factories / producing industry) vs. lower middle class people that are afraid of loosing out: Postworkers, Tellers, Cashiers, Backoffice people, Small business owners /struggling self-employed people (hairdressers etc.). And interestingly, these people actually had a lot to do with what happened in the 1930s, whereas the _by definition_ working class was comparably staunchly communist/social democrat until the bitter end...

[@PeterPeter-pr2hi]

Lower-level service workers are working class, though, even if they don’t perform manual labor in the traditional sense. So cashiers, postworkers and stuff like that would be working class, whereas small business owners and self-employed people are more likely to be lower middle class. I think lower middle class refers to those with a higher education, yet lower pay compared to upper middle class people.

[@barbaral.5980]

​@@LarthVUsually the scare of the Communist Revolution spreading to Germany is left out of the picture. Especially small business owners and farmers feared the worst as rumors about what happened to their Russian counterparts were spreading.

[@ZondyYT]

This is wrong question. The correct one is: "Why are ALL so-called developed and democratic countries rich but their inhabitants so poor???"

[@zesky6654]

Because the population is not poor, it just think that having a living standard far higher that anywhere in the world is not good enough for them.

[@FAL87]

@@zesky6654 thats not right. in germany as example one percent of germanys people owning one third of its wealth.

[@thechosenonenumber]

@@FAL87 Genie coefficients are 10% of population owning genie value rather than 1%. I am presuming you are talking about the genie values gited in the video tho.

[@josiavantroyen4215]

A friend of mine recently told me that his 102 year old uncle just died and him and his family each inherited 20.000 Euros each, which was in total 120.000 Euros. His uncle had this money just laying around because he didn't know what to do with it. Didn't invest it, didn't buy anything, just let it be in the bank. German mentality in a nutshell. It hurts to hear it.

[@nerostile333]

I wouldnt say its true. As a 102 years old you shouldve got more money than that. He pretty much spent his money in his life and 120k was probably forgotten because he was over 100 years old.

[@OrangeNash]

I'm surprised those who inherited it told you about it. People often go strangely silent on their own unearned income, after they've spent years complaining about pensioners earned income!

[@duncan.o-vic]

Not really, the guy was 102 year old, for him it was easy to save as much as he wanted and 120.000 is pocket money. Young Germans can only dream about having any savings. It's not about mentality but impoverishment.

[@DavidWilliams-DSW558]

One of the main reasons for this is probably because home ownership is so low and so many Germans rent rather than owning their own home.

[@Stellmacher716]

Because building ist so expensive. Too many regulations

[@br0L1x]

That is simply not true. 84 percent of people wish to have his or her own real estate. We are simply forced to rent instead of owning our houses and flats due to astronomic high housing prices. Bigger cities have even reached a scenario where one whole minimim wage salary can not afford to rent a normal flat of the size for a family of 3.

[@ArturoSubutex]

Meanwhile here in France with a minimum wage you can’t afford a flat for a family of 1.

[@roundthoughts4644]

Of course you could argue that from both sides, home ownership is low because many Germans have so little wealth, and are unable to buy. Probably self reinforcing

[@br0L1x]

@@ArturoSubutex I agree with that 100%. There are places in Germany where it‘s exactly the same, like in Berlin Munich Frankfurt or Cologne. I was just talking about bigger cities in general, in Germany that is every city above the population of 100 000 inhabitants.

[@MichaelAMVM]

Ever since Germany's industry has become the no.1 in Europe (around 1900) this has been the case. Germany had a less developed consumer economy than Britain and France despite having a larger industry. Mass production only became a thing after WWII.

[@desinihilist5916]

No vote for people under 18 and no vote for people who have retired.

[@rawacademy5450]

Yes you tell them joe

[@AhmedSamy87]

No vote for who doesn't pay tax is simpler

[@rawacademy5450]

@@AhmedSamy87 no vote for muslims in Europe period

[@asozialesnetzwerk]

Hell no. We've fought to abolish the Prussian 3 class voting system! ​@@AhmedSamy87

[@Maximum_Swag_Engaged]

If we compare EU vs US post 2008 the largest difference is the stability pact limiting government spending. US just does what it takes to make the economy grow. It's counterintuitive, but to save Europe we need to spend significantly. You're not gonna get in front of this by saving money. Just my 2 cents, thanks for the vid.

[@fungo6631]

Europe is already spending a shitton of money on Poland and Hungary and losing tens of billions of Euro every year on them.

[@alvaroschindler1025]

It depends what kind of spending. Investing in renewable energies, infrastructure, and R&D yes. But giving money away with no clear porpoise not.

[@sciencefliestothemoon2305]

@@fungo6631 Not on Poland. That county is catching up fast. And Hungary's money is cut everytime they get fined again.

[@the_mosfets]

@@fungo6631 The investment in Poland is working out though. And their investment in their own military is a good thing for all of Europe.

[@the_mosfets]

I've tried having this conversation with my friend who works at the EU. There is a total fear of debt and debt sharing here in the Netherlands. If i'm being honest, I don't understand it.

[@StevenCovey-ct3sx]

Germans don’t own their homes unlike their Anglo Saxon cousins. Even lower middle class people in Anglo Saxon countries own a home. They have real wealth.

[@RickJaeger]

"Anglo-Saxon countries"

[@ryguy5436]

@@RickJaeger Anglo settler countries

[@georgeaird4637]

@@RickJaegerbeing called Anglo-Saxon sounds really weird to us, but that’s what a lot of continental Europeans say when they want to group us together.

[@RickJaeger]

@@georgeaird4637 Can you give me an example of a language where that's how they refer to us?

[@TWE_2000]

​@@georgeaird4637I think Anglo-American sounds better and is more appropriate

[@johnberesford9906]

You could change the name of this video to any major economy in Europe, especially the UK

[@joshuaalexander8866]

Its less relevant for the uk because even though wealth inequality is still high between the bottom 10% and top 10%, median brits have around 2.3x the wealth ($163k vs c.$71k) of median germans so the issue is less relevant for brits than say income poverty in the bottom 10% which is quite high in Britain ... and actually its pretty much the same story for france, italy etc which all do quite well on median wealth despite much lower pre-tax incomes

[@Ganjor420]

Why Germany has a huge Wealth in total but most people are only left with Breadcrumbs? The short answer is: Late Stage Capitalism.

[@Joker-no1uh]

Communism is gay

[@00Platypus00]

​@@Joker-no1uhDon't threaten people with good things

[@shauncameron8390]

No. The answer is standard socialist fare.

[@zjeee]

It's not about Capitalism it's about tax rates, if anything Germany pretty socialist compared to countries like the US.

[@00Platypus00]

@@zjeee There is no such thing as "pretty socialist". Germany operates under capitalism. "Socialism is when taxes" is bs.

[@RAPHAEL-di8hz]

If half of german adults don't own property, they most likely pay a rent to another one. If they both earn 4 000 € per month from working and the rent is 1 000 €, the one who owns property have in total 5000 € per month and the other 3000 €, which is already a wealth inequality of 40% between two germans who have the same salary. But a lot of germans prefer to pay a rent all their life and have a 80 K€ car

[@zjeee]

To be fair a large amount of people that "own property" really don't. They took a loan for that property and the bank is the true owner of the home until it's paid for which is usually around when it is time to retire. You can't say the person owning property have 1000 more because they have to pay off that loan too. Even if you rent an apartment out your monthly loan payment will be higher than the rent you get for someone living there.

[@RAPHAEL-di8hz]

@@zjeee Even if you become owner with the money of the bank, you will still be able to get your loan spendings back if you decide to sell your house at the same price you bought it, which means that housing hasn't cost your anying appart from the interest rate of the loan. Here is where wealth become to stack up but for that you need to have a stable job and a pretty good faith into future which is not the case in germany since they are woke-ecologic-pessimistic for the most part

[@JoaoSantos-ur1gg]

Assuming landlords work lol

[@toniderdon]

I'm German, we have 3 problems: Our salaries are high, but our deductions (not taxes, but "social contributions") are too high. If your employer pays you 6000€, you take home 3000€ - that's 50% deductions. The first problem is our pension insurance, which is extremely inefficient and can't cope with an ageing population. This eats up around 18% of your salary - soon 22%. The second problem is our health insurance, which is also extremely inefficient and can't cope with an ageing population. This eats up another 15% of your salary. The third problem is income tax. As Germany only has a very low property tax - unlike the US and most other nations - it needs to have a crazy high income tax to make up for it. This eats up another 20% of your salary on average, but up to 45%. One can clearly see how that cant work out. You are basically not working for yourself, you are working to subsidize old people.

[@dhidhi1000]

your numbers are not correct for every tax bracket. What salary are you basing this on? For someone making 60K+ this should be like 12% pension insurance and more taxes. Deductions always eat 40 to 50% though.

[@toniderdon]

@@dhidhi1000 Pension insurance is always fixed at 18% of your total wage (total wage is NOT brutto, brutto is a bit lower than total wage, netto is what you get after all deductions). Income tax is the only thing that varies. Pension insurance is always 18% and health insurance is always 15%

[@aymaneelassali1656]

it's called modern slavery

[@shauncameron8390]

@@aymaneelassali1656 In Germany's case, the people are slaves to the state.

[@chrislouis7913]

Yep it’s really sad. And the old people aren’t even grateful for it. Calling us nazis because unlike them we are somewhat patriotic. Or having nothing else to do the whole day except to stare at your apartment and find ways of critiquing your lifestyles

[@theconqueringram5295]

When the rich get richer, we all know what happens to the poor...

[@Master-il1sk]

everythings too expensive

[@kenseitakesi4521]

Because of capitalism

[@magivkmeister6166]

What?! The entire German model that allowed it to become an industrial powerhouse is based on capitalism. Germany was built on capitalism, which also fuels its(and much of the EU's) welfare states. @@kenseitakesi4521

[@drscopeify]

@@kenseitakesi4521 what are you a communist? LOL

[@rikuvakevainen6157]

Why every person who critizies capitalism is called communist? Communist countries do not exist anymore. China is very capitalist and in North Korea Kim family is on the dame level as god while communism should be atheist.

[@Jonas-x4v]

@@kenseitakesi4521nope

[@algorithm6360]

GrüneSpdFdpCduCsuAfD every party is neoliberal… that s the real problem since the 80s.

[@br0L1x]

@@algorithm6360 since the dissolution of the ussr to be exact. before that you had to treat the working class well to avoid any kind of soviet sympathy. now you dont even have to look like you care for workers.

[@itsciver]

This

[@lemmyboy4107]

Real problem is people voting right not left. Then surprised pickachu face right is gibing the elites more money

[@rex70121]

No every mainstream party in Germany likes to tax and spend on Pensioners and immigrants who have children in other countries.and send our tax welfare money home (for example to Turkey) We need AFD and BSW to take over and save this country from a economic death.

[@janina9789]

They're all socialist with the exception of the AfD and maybe the FDP . Socialism is Germany's biggest problem, actually they invented socialism. Even when they tried nationalism they called it national-SOCIALISM.

[@HELLFIRE0239]

TLDR: Every Euro you earn, 75% of that goes to the government. This is basically the only reason why the middle class doesn't feel like living in the fourth richest country of the world.

[@asozialesnetzwerk]

FACT CHECK: This is just not true.

[@zjeee]

​@@asozialesnetzwerk To be fair that's around the number for Sweden more or less - would not be surprised if Germany's numbers are somewhere in that area. You have to remember it is not 75% income tax it's in total. You pay income tax in Sweden that is anywhere between 35-55% then you pay 25% VAT on everything you buy. Don't get me started on Alcohol and fuel. You even pay tax on your pension. All in all at the end of the day a large part of what you earned goes to the government, my parents in Sweden pay half their salary to the government already so adding VAT and all that I am sure they would reach around the 70% mark easily. Well why don't you invest? Yeah good idea ooh right 30% tax rate on any profits made on your investment, nice! That's one of the reasons I moved to Asia when I had the chance, used to pay 40% income tax in Sweden now I get the same salary with a tax rate of 8%, half of that I get back in tax reductions for having children and so on.

[@HELLFIRE0239]

It depends on your income & tax class but my calculation is correct for the majority of the middle class: 1. Employee pays you 60k gross income yearly 2. Government takes away about 20k from that gross income to fund the social system 3. Government takes another 15k for taxes 4. On the remaining 25k net income, you pay taxes on every purchase or service. After all those taxes, your 60k gross income is only about 15-20k net income.

[@asozialesnetzwerk]

@@zjeee OK. I don't disagree with everything you mentioned but what people get wrong with income tax all the time is that basically everywhere it works with marginal rates of tax. Meaning every euro, dollar or whatever ever you make above a certain amount will be taxed with this or that tax rate. So there's almost no-one who will pay 50 percent or above *on average* when it comes to income tax. I agree with you and the video that VAT and taxes on fuel can be a burden on households. Especially due to their regressive nature on low to lower middle income households, as they tend to spend relatively more of their earned income. I just don't like it when people put VAT and fuel tax in the same category as alcohol or tobacco taxes. As people generally have to buy stuff and can't avoid paying VAT. (Fuel tax might also be difficult if you're not living in a big city) Alcohol, coffee, tobacco and so on the other hand are basically (unhealthy) live style choices. And most of the time these are merely "sin taxes" as they usually do really raise that much money for the government in the first place. The exception being the tobacco tax (at least in Germany).

[@randomjin9392]

From Germany here: not sure where did you get that "it easy to conserve/build wealth" thingy. In Germany there's a capital gain tax which amounts to about 27%. Most of the highest paying jobs are those which offer stock options, something up to 50% of the salary. And those high incomes are taxed at up to 46% (because of the progressive scale). You say "few Germans get into stocks" - duh. If your earnings are low, you have other problems to care about. And if you earn high, you will pay 46% on that and THEN another 27% when you trade stocks. You're left with 39%(!!) of your money after that. The real inequality is multi-generational but that's no surprise. TL;DR: you ain't getting rich from salary. Only from business.

[@dandare1001]

I thought that if you keep stocks for more than a year, there is no tax to pay.

[@brainrottedindividual]

income tax needs to be capped at 30% for anything that could still be considered middle class, and taxes need to be even lower for low incomes. instead, we need to tax the filthy rich, like, a lot! other countries do it, and we used to do it, too. it's especially dumb to pay this much taxes when there's nothing happening with them. they are building schools out of mfing containers now, wtf... why would i want to pay any tax if the state is unwilling to use the money for things like fixing up our kids schools, fixing the bahn. the bahn needs to be de-privatized as well. same with deutsche post.

[@sex0trone]

This is inaccurate, if your income is from trading stocks you would ONLY pay the 25% capital gains tax (the 1.5% witholding tax can be returned to you on a tax return), meaning you keep 75% of your money from trading, this is not considered as income for income tax, which can be up to 46% which is absolutely insane. So if you can either get your money from income or from investing, it's almost 100% more efficient to invest in stocks - tax wise

[@TheUchi1991]

@@dandare1001 this rule has been demolished after 2008.

[@dandare1001]

@@brainrottedindividual I was with you until the Bahn and Post bits. Why do you think they should be privatised? Have you never looked at what privatisations usually accomplish? Take a look at our British privatised national businesses. It rarely works, if ever.

[@Critizens]

The main problem is that people are voting against their own interests. Lower income taxes, higher (any) wealth taxes, higher financial transaction taxes (FTT), higher inheritance taxes... are usually center-left policies - but people vote for conservative or right-wing parties.

[@attila4545]

Because if you vote center left you get a whole lgbtqi+ and open borders package plus you are a nazi if you think streets should be clean and safe. So yeah...

[@warcrimeconnoisseur5238]

Yeah because the left wing parties all come with the rotten policy of immigration or atleast low worth immigration

[@brainrottedindividual]

true, our education system isn't the best either, it's antiquated and classist. it's crazy how little my fellow germans know about taxes and stuff, how the state gets money. we aren't told in school. we only learn crap in school. i went to school 20 years ago, did my abitur, and most of the stuff i learned was pretty useless. they randomly infodump on you for 12/13 years, after which you are left to navigate the neoliberal hellscape by yourself. therefore, it's hard for a lot of germans to make informed political decisions. germans aren't smarter than say americans when it comes to politics. and even tho everyone seems obsessed about what happens with their taxes, they have no problem with the fact that a lot of rich people simply don't pay their share. they would rather s**t on the weak or unemployed and blame them for everything, as if it would start raining money if these people wouldn't exist.

[@shauncameron8390]

@@warcrimeconnoisseur5238 With debt, inflation, higher crime, etc. as side-effects.

[@AECH_CH]

It's actually the opposite... Germanys aggressive tax policies make it almost impossible to build wealth, while they literally have a working example in Switzerland on how to do it. Lower income taxes MASSIVELY, cut them in half frankly and abolish capital gains tax. Incentivize investments and re-introduce the wealth tax but cap it at like 0.5% at 10M or something.

[@samad4895]

Thank you, it is funny how the experts tend to ignore the obvious. I tried investing the tax and other charges on the profit I made was 30% and they are wondering why people dont invest.

[@BennyDeeDev]

Switzerland is what Germany should have been

[@rsjeyt]

what's really messed up about this is that people and families that were already rich stay rich and anyone with ambitions to be rich is cut off at the legs.

[@deutscherrapblog7014]

Morning: Getting Ready (Utilities) Electricity, Water, Heating: Utilities in Germany are subject to a value-added tax (VAT) of 19%. Whether you're turning on the lights, heating water for a shower, or using the internet, part of your bill is taxes. Buying Breakfast (Grocery Store) Food: Basic foodstuffs VAT rate of 7% - 19%. Commuting (Public Transport, Car) Fuel (Gasoline): If you drive to work, taxes play a big role in your fuel costs. The price of gasoline or diesel includes not only VAT (19%) but also energy taxes and eco-taxes. Car Insurance: Car insurance is taxed at 19%. Public Transport: If you use the bus or train VAT rate of 7%. During the Day: At Work (Income Tax, Social Security) Income Tax (Einkommensteuer) and Social Security Contributions: 14% to 45%,depending on your income level. I dont get a great Salary and still pay 38% (its very fast to get the high tax rates) Church Tax (Kirchensteuer): you can leave the church so its on you i guess lol Lunch Break: Eating Out (Restaurants) Restaurants: If you grab lunch at a restaurant or café, you'll pay 19% VAT on your meal. Some takeaways or ready-to-eat items might be taxed at the reduced rate of 7% (depending on how they are consumed lol). Afternoon Activities: Shopping (Clothes, Electronics, etc.) Consumer Goods: Whether you buy clothes, electronics, or household items, they are taxed at the full 19% VAT rate. Insurance: If you pay for health, life, or property insurance, those premiums often include a specific tax depending on the type of insurance. Entertainment (Cinema, Gym, etc.) Leisure Activities: Going to the cinema, joining a gym, or buying concert tickets is subject to VAT at 19%. Some cultural services might have a reduced rate (like museums or books at 7%). Evening: Grocery Shopping (Supermarket) Alcohol, Tobacco: If you buy beer, wine, cigarettes, or spirits, these products are heavily taxed. Alcohol is subject to VAT (19%) and alcohol excise taxes. Cigarettes and other tobacco products face high excise duties. End of the Day: Rent or Mortgage (Property-Related Taxes) Property Taxes (Grundsteuer): If you own property, you pay an annual property tax, based on the value of the land. Rental Payments: If you're renting, the landlord's property tax is often factored into the rental price. Television/Radio (GEZ Fee) Every household in Germany must pay the broadcasting fee (Rundfunkbeitrag), which is a flat monthly fee (currently around €18 or smth) to fund public broadcasters like ARD and ZDF. This is a fixed charge unrelated to how much you use these services. It also makes "Entertainment" Stuff that only a few thousand people watch but costs millions per episode. It build a new headquater with chairs that alone cost 2.000€ each. And you guessed it: they´re comlaining about having no money. They alone got 9 billion Euros last year from taxpayers... There are countrys with a smaller gdp than what they get. Some people just have no shame So in conclusion: You get to work they tax you You work and they take up to half your salary. You eat bread and drink water they tax you You rent because you can't afford to buy a house so they tax you You buy a house they tax you you own it they tax you you sell it they tax you you give it to your kids they tax you You save money in stocks they tax the dividents (from money you already paid taxes on when earning it hellooooo) All of this while germanys retirement plan (which you pay like 300 - 400€ a month for) is collapsing and young generations know they are getting scammed out of a liveable income when they retire. Bridges literally collapse (carolabridge a few days ago) No School works properly, No public Transport works properly. There is just no way to build wealth in this country as a normal worker. When you buy a House, you get taxed less when being the countrys biggest Real Estate holder than a normal worker. Its insane. And the Government is fighting for month now where they can get even more money from because german efficiency is a joke now. All while they saying "this is the best germany of all times" in our faces and laughing at us. Yes there are good things coming out of these taxes like almost free university and going to the doctor without thinking about money but the negatives just get bigger year by year and they call you right wing for criticizing everything now. I just want my money better spent man...

[@charivnick]

Saving money equals wealth, not wealth inequality

[@RollerCoaster-ok7qw]

Germany imports poor people. These people rarely have skills that are needed in the German employment market. And then Germany taxes employees very heavily. It is hardly possible to achieve a certain level of wealth through work alone. That's why the German state is rich, but the citizens are not.

[@Wertzuio]

and then for no reason at all... people voted afd

[@moneyobsessed]

Good bugz

[@MoLauer]

I think your confusing the problem with the solution

[@here_we_go_again2571]

@ RollerCoaster-ok7qw "The Bell Curve" in action Importing "poor" (uneducated and unskilled) people only works if: 1.) There are low-skill jobs for them that also contribute to the tax base (i.e. low-skill factory jobs) -- Not owning a business that contributes to an underground economy or living on the dole and spending one's stipend to support that underground economy) 2.) The social welfare state is non-existent or very limited 3.) Personal taxation rates are low (because there is no social welfare state) *In other words: Integrate,* [1] *work hard, contribute to the* *tax base or leave!* (In other words, the USA in the late 1800's/early 1900's.) _______________________________ 1.) INTEGRATE Learn the language and integrate in other ways such as learning about the laws, etc.

[@vadergrd]

@@Wertzuio what is afd platform in this regard. taxation and such?

[@memeJoestar]

It's so baffling to me a 7 or so minute video explains the core problems of german politics, yet the german politcs cant seem to get their head around it

[@marcpourecio]

“Criris” on the thumbnail

[@Ceasar178]

Because there were no Problems before?

[@MountainGermz]

@@Ceasar178Yeah exactly, this socialist doesn't know what hes talking about.

[@marcpourecio]

@@Ceasar178 my man I just pointed out a spelling mistake they had on their previous thumbnail, relax

[@marneus]

And they wonder why people vote for AfD. BTW, anyone who has been in Germany knows there is nothing to envy.

[@SingularityZ3ro1]

The problem is, that the systems are designed to hold people in their place, instead of letting them move up. And I do not speak about the education system, that it where it starts, though. It's like everywhere, retirees are catered too to the maximum, since they have the votes. The "working class" is protected, as long as they accept that they will barely, or moderately getting by, and will likely have severe problems when they retire - since what they pay into the systems now, is used up by the current retirees. King are as always the people who's main "job" is to be someone who has inherited wealth. Especially since you pay much less taxes, if you let your invested money work, instead of working yourself. And most people pay these taxes anyway, because it is easy to avoid that, if you do not have inherited a real value producing business / company. In that case, you get taxed to death with the rest. And then we have the people with high capabilities, and ambitions, who are stifled by bureaucracy, and are supposed to pay for most of the "tax party" with ridiculous rates, even if starting out. They are supposed to innovate, and build businesses. But under these conditions, they just leave the country, and build somewhere else, where they actually have a chance for a fair risk / reward ratio in what they are doing. And why wouldn't they, especially in the many digital occupations that would be needed badly to make Germany competitive again, but have no need to sit in Germany and to endure the system for that.

[@Sol2189-]

yes exactly, you said everything what i couldn't put in words. Germany is stuck for decades now and I see no initiative from anyone to at least try to change the system. I think especially young people are desperate and make questionable voting choices because of that. It's so sad to see because while I do not agree with this voiting choices myself, I understand why people may be inclined to vote the way they do. The truth is no matter who you will vote for in Germany, there is nothing that will change fundamentally and the parties that say they want things to change are just using populistic rhetoric but have no realistic plans...

[@RedMoon4Star]

You can remove "Germany" and put more or less any "rich" country in the titel.

[@micaeloliveira2727]

Germany is an old country, ruled by old people that don't want to spend and take risks 😢😢 is a shame that the head of Euro is called Germany 😢😢 all Euro loses with this inability

[@napoleonfeanor]

France is if any country. We had to agree to the Euro in order to be allowed to reunify

[@davidcooks2379]

Actually it's expected that young people have nothing, work hard and by the time they reach the pension age they are millionaires. So inequality is a sign of working economy. Rich young or poor old is a sign of unhealthy economy.

[@YC-bk3fl]

Very vile ideology.

[@realKarlFranz]

nonense

[@TrevelyanOO6]

Let’s have the government seize all that wealth, and then spend or redistribute it. That has worked so well for all the other countries that tried it.

[@jf3457]

lets go full Venezuela!

[@Roel93]

Ikr! TLDR propagating full communism now lmao!

[@nrm224]

TLDR’s answer to everything

[@YC-bk3fl]

Very dim comment.

[@brainrottedindividual]

the german government already seizes the money and distributes it to the rich. during corona they spend millions of taxpayer euros on useless masks, and again, the minister ordering the masks and the guy selling the masks are good buddies. and then these were the wrong masks. not the first or last time millions of german taxpayer euros were wasted on nothing, except making a rich friend richer.

[@pieterjan29]

People with Social backgrounds are never rich.

[@zedtrek]

You can apply the same to the UK and Italy, probably all the world at this point.

[@marcoac-sx6lq]

I think the average Italian is richer than the average German. Home ownership also is very high in Italy and very low in Germany.

[@sdgfsdfagsdfgdsfhsdfghd]

You can't grow an economy when you overtax workers and then use the money to bribe pensioners for votes

Well yes, but as mentioned in the video Germany is nearly last place in the OECD and less than 50% of Germans own houses(a lot of them still pay off their houses), while in Spain or Italy for instance something like 80 or 90% of ppl own their own houses. If you look on some statistics Germans are not in the richest but poorest of Europeans, as mentioned in the Video like 40% of Germans have basically 0€ in total whealty or in other words have loans or break even (in other countrys this class probably still owns housing, but in Germany housing is way too expensive or in regions without jobs).

[@zjeee]

Yes home ownership is a poor metric, Chinese home ownership is more than 90% but what people don't realize is YOU don't own your home if you are still paying off that loan, the bank does. The minute you cannot afford the loan payments anymore that home goes to the bank to be sold.

[@marcoac-sx6lq]

@@zjeee the problem is that Germans have also a much higher private debt than for example people in Italy. So the difference in home ownership is not associated to less private debt.

[@peterjohnson1091]

Home ownership is overwhelmingly about culture.

[@angelic8632002]

Not sure why anyone would be surprised by this, considering conservative politics have been the go to for many decades now. Its a pattern you see almost everywhere. Conservatism and/or right wing politics almost inevitably widen the wealth gap.

[@crinklecut3790]

LMAO the Germans are conservative now? 🤣🤣🤣 Does that mean the Greens are conservative too?

[@user-co7fo]

Why has the wealth inequality decreased under Thatcher and DeGaulle, but increased under more leftist governments in the same countries in the 80s and 90s?

[@xxvxxv5588]

​@@crinklecut3790 In this context conservative politics is politics which conserve privileges of elites, it's not about religious conservatism or something like this.

[@shauncameron8390]

Actually no. Wealth gaps widen under left-wing liberal leadership along with inflation and debt.

[@moshpic]

It's capitalism and lobbyists supporting the rich.

[@ycasto1063]

True. It's often overlooked how insanely powerful lobbyists of the car industry, housing industry and pharmaceutical industry are here. I remember a friend asking a local Bundestag representative of the CDU why there are so few busses running in the city and he openly admitted that he couldnt propose that because it would take less than 24 hours for BMW/Mercedes/VW lobbyists to show up at his office and demand that he retracts the peoposal.

[@nettcologne9186]

Brits simply don't understand the German system and draw completely wrong conclusions.

[@ryandanngetich2524]

Then tell us pooky,, we are calling a spade a spade, you are known to be anti-British that you are blind to your own problems. Don't take the avg Indian route and grow up

[@AM2K2]

Enlighten us

[@ma271]

Yet still sustainability remains one of the main topics

[@deutscherrapblog7014]

I got a payrise of 300€ a mont more last year. After taxes i had 50€ less than before. I love it here

[@bissigerwachhund4407]

wie soll das gehen?

[@the_biggest_chungus7508]

​@@bissigerwachhund4407 sind Steuern nicht ab nen gewissen Wert gestaffelt?

[@bissigerwachhund4407]

@@the_biggest_chungus7508 das schon, es gibt halt ein progressives steuersystem. aber das es weniger wird wäre mir neu

[@zjeee]

Hah not sure how that works out but I used to live and work in Sweden and worked my ass of one month - lots of overtime. When I saw the salary slip I realized I worked myself into a higher tax bracket. There literally was no point doing overtime I just increased my tax rate making each hour worth less.

[@MrSkillfish]

Germany has become like Azerbaijan Rich country but poor people

[@reynanhenry612]

Because the Spitzenverdiener or top income begins at relatively low start. From 66.671 Euro the tax is 42%.

[@golem5809]

"Kalte Progression"

[@rearea260]

thats for taxable income, which is more like 80k income depending on family status

[@Jompabompa]

I was gonna laugh at Germany, then i saw my country being even more inequal..

[@apooru241]

which country ?

[@AlphaHorst]

another thing to note. There is an insane amount of tax on inheritance, especially for houses and land. So less wealthy families with just a house or plot of land often times can barely afford the taxes when inheriting which leads to less people owning land. People who own more land often times can also afford to circumvent the taxes by "selling" the land to younger family members thereby avoiding the tax on inhereting and paying the lower sales taxes. Or the land is leased to others cutting down the iheritance taxes for that land.

[@assvp-l7z]

Simply, too much taxes on income instead of wealth making it impossible to create wealth if you are part of the working class.

[@shauncameron8390]

This is what is meant by "tax the rich."

[@zjeee]

@@shauncameron8390 And then what will happen? The rich will just take their money and move elsewhere. Just look at New York losing their wealthy residents to states like Florida due to their policies. I would just prefer smaller government and less government spending = less money needed = lower taxes. Stop sending foreign aid, stop all these social programs, shrink the military, shrink government employees. Less money needed to run government, less need to overtax your citizens. Do we really need to send all that aid money to foreign conflicts all over the world? Gaza, Israel, Ukraine etc.

[@robtyman4281]

Nowhere in Europe is the wealth inequality so painfully evident to see than in the UK. So any other Brits crowing about how things are bad in Germany, need to look closer to home first. The wealth inequality in the UK is appalling, and symptomatic of a country where what class you are, STILL heavily determines your life chances of prosperity. It's almost as bad as in Victorian times.

[@xeth6558]

exactly. its a joke when people blame it solely on immigration. its these fuckers at the top making us fight against each other.

[@hanielcavalcante6048]

Yeah sure tax the rich, that will totally work.

[@napoleonfeanor]

That is some really really selective reading. He even complains about tobacco tax, which he wouldn't for other countries.

[@piotrwojdelko1150]

I don't agree or not entiery sure but for me worse is in the UK,they invested in costly green transformation

[@EnisMehmeti-ji2yy]

Germans are poor? Unemployment benefit is 900 €. In my country top politicians earning 500 - 1000 € and they are doing very well. My country is not over-indebted.

[@bishal-max]

Ireland is Rich but Irish are poor

[@MarianneExJohnson]

Capitalism systematically favors the rich. You need progressive taxation, redistribution, and strong unions to counterbalance that and keep inequality from spiraling out of control. Once the countries of the West started dismantling their social safety nets and labor protections, the current situation was inevitable, and it will keep getting worse until we restore the "social" in "social democracy." But, alas, we seem to be steadily moving toward fascism instead, or fake-labor like in the UK.

[@br0L1x]

@@MarianneExJohnson Be careful, calling for strong unions and a counterbalance to capital owners can be considered as dangerous bolshevik rhetoric nowadays.

[@panter82]

literally almost every country in Europe (i would say all in western Europe) has progressive taxation and redistribution, with lots of money on welfare. Maybe the problem is the opposite, there is no more capitalism in Europe. Who has money does not invest anymore, better a beach somewhere

[@pogos3882]

The reason is because people are literally taxed the most ever in history. Families decades ago could literally raise their family of 5 by just one parent having a job. Let's not ignore that before the 20th century there was the head tax. Most of the taxes today didn't exist before. That's what you sacrifice for progress. Even if you apply "progressive taxes" and "equity" you will just bring everyone down to the level of the poor but the billionaires would still be billionaires that's what you get for siding with bourgeoisie to abolish the monarchy, you just get oligarchy. Then this guy Marx made the "Utopian" delusion as he saw the oligarch problem with "democracy".

[@user-co7fo]

In Germany, we increased the spendings in our safety nets, it is our biggest spending theme, we haven't dismanteled our labour protections. What the hell are you talking about?

[@Joker-no1uh]

Communism is gay

[@ClydeBreeze_994]

Olaf and his coalition + Merkel's legacy and CDU is the answer to that question!

[@shahankhan7685]

I completely agree

[@thecitizen87935]

Intel fly away,wolswagen job cuts,more tension of immigrants,housing incapatincy

[@mekolayn]

Neoliberalism

[@MrBurnsExcellent]

Thank god something different and not just 'capitalism'

[@jenshep1720]

thank you for reporting on this. this needs to be talked about way, way more because its been like this for more than 20 years now and there is no political will to change it.

[@surfacepro3328]

Germany having low debt is worth absolutely nothing

[@mike-dn5fu]

I don’t think it is that simple. As someone who has been interested in this topic I can tell you the the „Schuldenbremse“ - the black 0 - is highly disputed (in a positive way) by many economists as it may lead to less growth but also leads to our economy being way more resilient to crises which is important for an export driven economy. I don’t know your qualifications but for my part as someone who didn’t study macro economics I don’t feel I’m in the position to know what’s best for the country but I can assure you there’s hundreds of economists constantly debating and refining our economic system; otherwise it wouldn’t be enough to make it to the top 3 in the world. If you have found other information contradicting our current financial course please let me know :))

[@mike-dn5fu]

Edit: Not to say it is perfect or the best course to take… Hope you have a nice day

[@BernasLL]

Say a government wants to do more public spending. Which one has the opportunity to do so, one with low debt or one overburdened with debt? Is it worth "nothing" still?

[@Spidymc]

As a Greek I would suggest the Germans to follow the advice that their politicians were giving back then. If it worked for us should do wonders for you.

[@lukastux3024]

As a German, I completely disagree. *We need LESS socialism, not more of it.* The reason everyone is poor, is that it doesn't make economic sense to work anymore, especially for people with low income. The aid money is already higher than what companies can pay for the bottom quartile of productivity, and that aid money is taken from taxing income at the top 25%. The income taxes are that high, that it is literally impossible to ever really save any money, and it gets immediately redistributed to the bottom. So neither the top nor the bottom have any real incentive to work more. Top earners can almost cut their working hours in half without much income cuts, and this is what many much-needed professionals do now (if they do not leave the country; 20% of all physicians in Switzerland are from Germany, with their training paid for by German tax money). *Merit must become worth it again!* Wages are taxed so high, that almost noone ever can accumulate a starting capital from work alone, so the only way to be wealthy in Germany is to already own assets. The solution however is not to try to tax it all away (which will just lead to capital leaving Germany), but to *enable the general population* to accumulate wealth and make it worthwhile investing. The issue is, that most people cannot afford homes. The only other way to invest in assets, i.e. into the stock market, is highly unfavourable in Germany (especially compared to real estate), as private people are heavily taxed on gains, which makes this asset class much less attractive than in other European countries. Rich people can avoid taxes on investments with the help of corporate structures, which is why we still have rich people despite the "high" taxes (high for everyone else). *We need to stop the discrimination of poor and middle-class working people by the tax system,* and that includes LOWERING TAXES on wages, as well as removing all taxes on stocks saved for retirement, as well as below a certain value (and, if necessary to allow for the tax cuts, reduce excessive government aid).

[@leomagnvs4525]

You guys are good on the data but consistently terribly on the opinion. "Wealth redistribution" is a disaster as are wealth taxes.

[@Iskelderon]

16 years of conservative mismanagement in an overall 40+ years phase of one neoliberal screwup after another to make a handful people rich and the rest poorer, now combined with a finance minister whose biggest acclaim is a bankruptcy and never figuring out how business works, ...

[@BrennHill]

German law makes owning a home increadibly difficult, with it costing more than10% of the home's cost in FEES that just vanish on purchase. So to buy a 500k home, you need to spend 50k. Then, if you live in that home, the tax system penalizes you. Instead, it rewards being a landlord. It's completely stupid.

[@leostabauer5930]

The answer is capitalism

[@Joker-no1uh]

Communism is gayer than AIDS

[@00Platypus00]

​Are you 11?

[@LaurieHallLJH]

What a great piece of work! As a brit living in Germany, it explains a lot of the differences I see in people’s attitudes regarding money and savings. eg even people with high incomes rent their whole lives instead of buying a house. Which means they never accumulate wealth that they can pass on to their kids.

[@Wertzuio]

taxes are too high and the government doesnt invest as much in infrastructure as in... handouts to asylum seekers/illegals

[@coke2679]

Dummschwätzer

[@AmInen-ro9bn]

I'm not even going to watch the video. Let me guess: half of their salary goes to rent

[@purpledevilr7463]

About sums up our current times.

[@mrmercury9286]

In the 80s and 90s when we were going on holidays to Italy the German tourists always had the biggest cars compared to other European countries - Mercedes, BMW, Audis.

[@tmusic591]

Why does Germany collect so much tax then? And especially why do they gift a large share of the taxed earned to other nations and people?

[@ronaldderooij1774]

define "large" please.

[@raphaelokoye6459]

@@ronaldderooij1774 income tax is one of the highest in the world. Vat as well

[@mrx2062]

Most Germans do not own their home, what would be ok, if they would invest in other productive assets like stocks. But most Germany do not invest in stocks either. That is quite bad over longer periods of time, if you share your currency with states like Italy, Spain and France and inflation increases.

[@thomasl6912]

This video is trying to make Germany look worse than it is. So, the UK looks better...

[@TheHusam94]

you forgot to mention the 25% Capital gain Tax making even saving in Stocks unnatractive

[@txbre8758]

America is basically at this point. Europeans think the average American is rolling in money but doesn’t look at the level of debt we have. It’s insane. Just break it down.

[@ryandanngetich2524]

Its even worse when you don't get enough social benefits and paid leave and skyrocketing healthcare costs

[@MrJoeSomebody]

No it’s not. Not even close

[@gruffelo6945]

We used to have low rents in Germany - especially in Berlin...being hip and liked has its dark side...rents exploded the past years.

[@Kushite-bloodline]

Capitalism.

[@jinmong5417]

Capitalism + anti-communist propaganda = a society where the workers collectively feel wronged by their government (rightfully so) but lack the class consciousness and political education in order to understand the cause behind it and then just vote AFD.

[@AltIng9154]

In Germany it is very cheap to be rich but very expensive to become rich (wealthy). I started from zero, but got a relatively high income! That means almost no money left to create wealth for a long time! At least my wife and I bought a house, suddenly we are relatively wealthy now! Really weird!

[@itryen7632]

No shit.

[@poulha]

And now, with the German auto industry risking bankruptcy because they were too late to the EV market, what are we to expect politically?

[@daanwolters3751]

Given that germany still has high social mobility and equality in europe, being far greater than italy, france, the uk. I would definately not call this a crisis

[@hwfq34fajw9foiffawdiufhuaiwfhw]

exactly this video is exagerrating the extent of it. The wealth and income inequality is INSANE in the UK, Spain, Italy... the class system in germany is largely eroded, its not perfect but definitely not as bad as other countries in the EU (ahem eastern Europ)

[@Adi2xcl]

It definetly should be called a crisis, because AFD is gaining popularity and changes to stop them won't happen over night.

[@armatacalanca962]

"germany still has high social mobility and equality in europe" : this video says otherwise.

[@padriandusk7107]

The video shows exactly the same rank in term of social mobility for Germany and France. And most poor people are still waiting for the day their nerves finally collapses to burn down everything....or for the law to maybe autorize burning down everything. Then no longer there will only be hooligans plundering everything. Pour sûr.

[@daanwolters3751]

@@armatacalanca962 this video does not touch social mobility. And it is very telling that the numbers are not compared to the UK, France's or Italys numbers ....

[@maritaschweizer1117]

During the war most appartments were destroyed in Germany and this is the reason why in other European contries much more real estate is heritaged from generation to generation.