Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]

Welcome to the Commonwealth, the regional forum for Atlantis, Caprecia, New Sorvun, Nysa and The United States of Europe. We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Poverty Critics Slam Merkel
Topic Started: Mar 8 2013, 11:02 PM (132 Views)
Baal
Chancellor Angela Merkel's Cabinet has adopted a report outlining social and income disparities in Germany after four months of delay. Critics accuse her coalition of rewriting findings to mask a widening rich-poor gap.

"Social Situations in Germany," the 548-page report released on Wednesday by the conservative-liberal government, faces widespread criticism from social welfare organizations and opposition parties.

It shows that in Germany, Europe's largest economy, the richest 10 percent own 54 percent of the country's assets, that half of all households possess 1 one percent combined, and that between 14 and 16 percent of people are classified as living in poverty or facing the risk of impoverishment.

On Wednesday, Economy Minister Philipp Rösler - who heads the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), the junior partner in Merkel's government - defended changes made to the text of the report since its intended publication date last November.

"I regard it simply as electoral campaign rhetoric," said Rösler, referring to opposition criticism of the report ahead of Germany's federal vote in September.

"Everybody knows that Germany is doing better than it has done for a long time. That's reflected in the good labor market and economic growth trends," Rösler said, alluding to Germany's relatively robust status amid the eurozone crisis in nations such as Greece and Spain.

Opposition alleges 'fudging'

Hubertus Heil, the opposition Social Democrats' deputy parliamentary whip, accused Merkel's Cabinet of "fudging" the report under pressure from Rösler's liberal pro-market FDP.

As a result, Heil said, the Cabinet was disregarding the social realities in Germany and injuring voters' desire for social justice.

Cem Özdemir, the co-leader of the opposition Greens, demanded that such four-yearly reports be compiled in the future by independent experts instead of officials from Ursula von der Leyen's Social and Labor Ministry .

Union outrage

Frank Bsirske, the head of Verdi, Germany's major service sector trade union, slammed the revised report, saying it illustrated the result of a decade of "deregulation on the financial and labor markets," begun with policy changes of a former Social Democrat chancellor: Gerhard Schröder.

German DGB trade union federation board member Annelie Buntenbach described Wednesday's report as a "shameful indictment" of a Merkel Cabinet that had allowed more poverty in Germany despite declines in registered unemployment.

"The tricks and cosmetic rewrites" of the government could not mask that the gap between rich and poor was continuously widening, Buntenbach said.

Germany's SoVD federation of welfare organizations said despite the report's "cosmetic" rewriting, it show a decisive decline in statutory entitlements, more and more low-wage workers and precarious job contracts.

"The anxiety over poverty long extends in Germany deep into the middle of society," said the SoVD president Adolf Bauer. Instead of revising the report, the Cabinet should have laid out effective measures to counter poverty, he said.

The general-secretary of the economic advisory council of Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, Wolfgang Steiger, accused critics of focusing debate on "social envy" instead of seeing gains in advancement opportunities.

"Since the middle of the 1990s, there are significantly more prosperity winners in Germany than losers," Steiger said. Since 2007 the number of long-term unemployed had sunk, he said, from 1.7 million to 1 million.

The debate coincides with mounting calls for a statutory minimum wage in Germany to counter a strong expansion of its low-paid job sector and alarm that Germanys poor lack adequate pension entitlements for old age.
Member Avatar
Auxiliary
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Quote Post Goto Top Offline Profile
Deckard Christopher
Um... I don't seem to understand this at all.
Edited by Deckard Christopher, Mar 13 2013, 09:59 AM.
Member Avatar
Dealmaker
[ * ]
Deckard Christopher
The United States of Nova Angleterre - The Gentleman Villain
Follow Me on TWITTER!Deckard Christopher's Twitter


THE EMPIRE OF NOVA ANGLETERRE
Nova Angleterre
Nova Angleterre II
Nova Angleterre III
Quote Post Goto Top Offline Profile
Tsruhkwah
I can't believe Germany doesn't have a minimum wage.
Member Avatar
Contender
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
The Imperial Kentish Colony of Tsruhkwah
Posted Image
Lord Chancellor of New Sorvun
World Assembly Delegate of New Sorvun
Commonwealth Senator from New Sorvun
Chairman of the Progressive Nationalist Party

"Those who imagine that a politician would make a better figurehead than a hereditary monarch might perhaps make the acquaintance of more politicians." Baroness Thatcher
Quote Post Goto Top Offline Profile
Deckard Christopher
That's typical of a conservative government. I would actually be in favor of a living wage tied to the rising costs of living.
Member Avatar
Dealmaker
[ * ]
Deckard Christopher
The United States of Nova Angleterre - The Gentleman Villain
Follow Me on TWITTER!Deckard Christopher's Twitter


THE EMPIRE OF NOVA ANGLETERRE
Nova Angleterre
Nova Angleterre II
Nova Angleterre III
Quote Post Goto Top Offline Profile
Lemurian Islands
Woah! It's crazy that a modern developed nation does not have a minimum wage. Even America has a minimum wage, and they tend to be way more right wing.

I hope that the SDP wins the next German election.
Member Avatar
Dealmaker
[ * ]
Lemurian Islands
Former High-King of Atlantis
Former World Assembly Delegate for Atlantis
Former Justice on the Commonwealth High Court
Former Regional Liaison Officer of the Founderless Regions Alliance


Quote Post Goto Top Offline Profile
Svunbrink
So do I.
Member Avatar
Contender
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Quote Post Goto Top Offline Profile
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · The Tavern · Next Topic »
Add Reply