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Experts warn of rising inequality in Germany
TheLocal.de ^ | 18 Mar 2016 11:23 GMT+01:00 | (DPA/The Local)

Posted on 03/18/2016 6:04:15 AM PDT by Olog-hai

Income inequality has leapt in Germany since 2000, a new study shows, with the lowest earners having less money in their pockets than 15 years ago despite sustained economic growth.

The study by the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, a government-owned development bank, shows how unevenly the fruits of prosperity have been divided over the past decade and a half.

Whereas in 2000 Germany had arguably the lowest income inequality in the world, it has now fallen behind the Czech Republic, Sweden and Denmark.

The report does however emphasize that Germany is still one of the most equal countries in the world when it comes to disparity in earnings, due to its progressive tax system.

(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.de ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Germany; Government
KEYWORDS: eurobanking; eussr; incomeequality; merkel; progressivetaxation; socialmarketeconomy

1 posted on 03/18/2016 6:04:15 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

Inequality is GOOD.

Equality is BAD.

Everyone is equally starving in North Korea and Venezuela.

Here in the US of A folks without enough income can be provided a wealth of programs to provide food, heat and housing assistance.

These poor folks do have the opportunity to work themselves out of poverty.

Wealthy people here are free to loose everything and start over.

Equality is BAD — those who actively push for equality are communists and, as such, are a rick to our fundamental freedoms.


2 posted on 03/18/2016 6:11:53 AM PDT by BBB333 (Q: Which is grammatically correct? Joe Biden IS or Joe Biden ARE an idiot?)
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To: Olog-hai

We must eliminate inequality. At 5’9” I never had a chance to make it in the NBA (I also never played basketball growing up but that’s irrelevant). I could be a multi-millionaire if the NBA was forced to treat us all equally. And since they don’t the government should reimburse me for the high $ contract the NBA never offered.


3 posted on 03/18/2016 6:16:54 AM PDT by LostPassword
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To: Olog-hai

For anyone having a hard time imagining this...I live in Germany and will give it a fair portrayal.

Germans dislike changing jobs. Germans have gotten into the habit of not asking for pay-raises. Germans readily accept fifty-percent or more of their salary going toward social security, healthcare, taxation, etc. Germans accept taxation on just about everything as the price to pay for the infrastructure around them. Germans don’t ask questions when 250 million is spent on a regional airport (Kassel) that will never have any regular air traffic or potential for revenue.

German companies can’t really compete against other countries except when you have some new technology developed which they hold the initial advantage over. German banks are saddled with lots of debt. Germans whine and complain about a lack of affordable housing in major urban areas, but politicians can’t entice real estate people to build housing which pays minimum profits. German EPA-related rules are such that lots of production is now done in Eastern Europe.

Germans would like to fire various political parties but accept the fact that things will change once the established thugs are fired. Germans complain about heathcare options and cost, but there is no plan B or way to fix this except to lessen the number of hospitals in existence (which what they are now doing). German doctors whine about their pay scale....enough that they occasionally pack up and leave the country...thus forcing hospitals to recruit in third-world countries and bring their doctors into Germany.

The whole gimmick that makes the immigration episode acceptable? You get a bunch of new people in....who will accept lower pay than the typical average German.


4 posted on 03/18/2016 6:19:24 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: Olog-hai
With all the burdens placed on Germany, the main economic engine of Europe, I'm surprised they have any growth.
Importing millions of piss-poor "refugees" (with iPhones somehow) won't help with the "equality" equation.
If Germany only had to deal with genuine refugees who were able and willing to do honest labor, they would have no problems.
But we all know that's not the case.

5 posted on 03/18/2016 6:27:30 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: Olog-hai

What the honorable member is saying is that he would rather that the poor were poorer, provided that the rich were less rich. So long as the gap is smaller, they would rather have the poor poorer.

6 posted on 03/18/2016 6:31:05 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: pepsionice

They’ve really had the socialistic concepts pounded into them for a long time, haven’t they, even since Bismarck’s time. They can’t conceive of private enterprise building infrastructure anymore.


7 posted on 03/18/2016 6:40:01 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

Really? So they factored in all those rapugee’s that showed up?


8 posted on 03/18/2016 6:51:33 AM PDT by SkyDancer ("Nobody Said I Was Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: Olog-hai

The glaring example is the lack of affordable housing in urban areas.

They built so many stumbles for the real estate market...city council efforts to hinder you acquiring the property. Then political thugs want to gimmick you into a corner about how you build this...what gardens will be designed into it...what bike paths...and the diversified occupancy. Then they tell you that some of the project must be for ultra-low income, and you try to explain that you design for a profit, and they suggest they will hinder you until you cooperate. So you walk away.

Then you have city council operations who want to build special rules that if you did have cash, walk in and buy a 1950s built building and do a renovation, then to recoup your money....you have to double the rent, which makes the current renters go crazy....well, they will have rules to stop you. So no one really wants to renovate anymore. People complain about the lack of renovation but don’t understand that the fact that their rent hasn’t gone up since 1995...really doesn’t register any brain-waves.

Go bring up mass transit and major projects like Stuttgart-21....where billions were going to pour into a 10-year project, and how the Greens fought it tooth and nail. The whole of Stuttgart politically has been reshaped because of that fight. Strangely enough? Stuttgart-21 will continue on and somewhere around 2022...Stuttgart will be a magnet for tens of thousands of new residents because of the urban transport project.

You could write a 1,000-page book on incompetence within BER, the Berlin airport project, which is a utter failure.


9 posted on 03/18/2016 7:00:01 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: SkyDancer

I’m sure that’ll exacerbate the numbers further.


10 posted on 03/18/2016 7:04:35 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: pepsionice

I think that Stuttgart 21 will eventually be unbuilt. The Polizei were actually beating people up over that. It’s superfluous anyhow, and the cost overruns will swallow it whole.


11 posted on 03/18/2016 7:06:43 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

Stuttgart-21 will be finished...but based on various stumbling blocks....it’ll be at least three years late (my humble bet). I’ll also bet that it exceeds 20 billion Euro (it’s not supposed to pass the 6.5 billion mark).


12 posted on 03/18/2016 7:20:43 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: pepsionice

A few years ago I was in southern Germany. At a meeting I struck up a conversation with a woman who was a manager at a manufacturing company. She told me that she could never work in the US because in Germany she was given “free health care and three weeks of vacation”. I said, “do you realize that each week of your free vacation costs you about 2% of your pay?” She said, “no it doesn’t” I said, “yes, it does” and then thought that I had better quit before I was any farther behind in the being-pleasant department.


13 posted on 03/18/2016 8:20:01 AM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: pepsionice

There was a public vote on the Stuttgart-21 project...and the majority was for it. The usual types can’t accept that of course and continue to throw temper tantrums.


14 posted on 03/18/2016 8:54:56 AM PDT by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building)
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To: pepsionice
You get a bunch of new people in....who will accept lower pay than the typical average German.

Sounds very familiar. Stagnant wages for lower income earners and lots of immigrants. Couldn't possibly be related.

15 posted on 03/18/2016 8:58:39 AM PDT by USNBandit (Sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: Moltke

That public vote came after the election....where the theme was the Greens would stop the whole thing. So the crowd jumps on this Green enthusiasm, and clobber the 21-project.

So they win, and instead of taking charge...they suggest a ballot measure. Sixty days later, the vote goes to the opposite direction. Total shock. Everything is still on track.

Personally, if you were looking at any German city which is gearing up for expansion in the 2020-2025 period.....Stuttgart should be number one for business and growth.


16 posted on 03/18/2016 9:02:20 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: pepsionice

Lots of building going on here. Residential as well as commercial.


17 posted on 03/18/2016 9:33:53 AM PDT by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building)
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To: Olog-hai
The seeds of revolution in Germany are being sowed by stupid policy and an irrational love of fake ‘diversity’... No matter what's it's called, cheap labor is exploitative....
18 posted on 03/18/2016 10:19:03 AM PDT by GOPJ (The Democrat Party is white liberal elites propped up by the black underclass.)
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To: pepsionice

Lived there a long time. First time I took my pregnant wife to the doctor, I went down the hall to the toilet while waiting in a common area and saw a room full of people. The receptionist kept telling me to sit in different places for some reason. I asked the wife wtf? afterward and she told me they didn’t want the people waiting there for hours for “free” healthcare see us come in and go out before the others. Take a guess...we paid cash! No commie kommisar will ever change that fact!


19 posted on 03/18/2016 12:06:41 PM PDT by gr8eman (Don't waste your energy trying to understand commies. Use it to defeat them!)
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