Millions Left Behind in Boom : The High Cost of Germany's Economic Success

[sysop]

Countries around the world envy Germany's economic success and look up to it as a role model. But a closer look reveals a much bleaker picture. Only few are benefiting from the boom, while stagnant wages and precarious employment conditions are making it difficult for millions to make ends meet. <i>By SPIEGEL Staff</i>

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...830972,00.html

[tnt_ynot]

The rest of Europe is going to hell and the FAZ sees Germany as leaving people behind. Here is what I call leaving people behind:

Unemployment
Spain 24% tendency rising
Greece 18% "
Ireland 14% "
France 10% "
Germany 7% tendency stable to declining

Taking a look at the other countrys" youth unemployment levels will make a grown man cry. Germany's makes you wonder what good planet you are on

The most important goals for Germany has been to remain competitive, throttle debt, squash unemployment and if possible hold Europe together. That is being accomplished at levels not seen for decades.

It is the other parts of the EU that are not only leaving their citizens behind but also ruining their future.

Anthony
http://euro-meltdown.blogspot.com

[KhanZubair]

Very true it is. Each day adding to miseries of salaried and jobless people. If some one can meet both ends feels happy to live on. Enjoyment or some extra spending seems to be stories of the past. How long it will continue is doubtful. limits of patience also have borders. Hope those who matter can perceive it.

[Inglenda2]

There are many ways in which the extreme differences between lower and higher income groups could be placed on a fairer basis. Some are so simple that they are completely overseen. The biggest problem however, is that those members of the community, who are in a position to change the situation, are the very beneficiaries of the unjust structural systems within society.
The trade unions too, are also not free from causing a widening between the smallest and excessive earnings. To claim a percentage increase in income for workers, rather than one with fixed rates, automatically provides the better paid employees with a greater financial rise than their low paid colleagues.
While it can be observed, that the majority of retired persons have suffered a 20% loss of buying power over the last 10 years, there are some, who have a net income which is still much higher than the gross wage of many full time workers. Can it really be just for country to pay one person more for doing nothing, than another receives for working all day?
Of course the older people of today - some started work at 14 years of age and worked until they were 65 – cannot be compared with newer generations, of whom a number are still studying at the age of 34 and cannot therefore ever play a responsible part in financing future pensions.. There would however be the possibility of capping the state paid rate of pension to the level of an average workers income. The surplus therewith created then being shared among lower rated pensioners without undue burden on younger tax-payers.
Such changes are unlikely to happen of course, especially in a society in which egoisms is part of education, but in theory the possibility is given.