Balance sheet of the Merkel years
Unashamedly, Schäuble pushed the billions over to the financial industry through tax credits (Cum-Ex) and emptied the treasury. When the subsidies were exposed by whistleblowers and could no longer be hidden, the mainstream media spread that everything was so complicated. A state finance minister (Borjahns) did not want to participate in the fraud any longer and called the fraudulent machinations by name, so that the payments were for the most part reduced. However, Federal Finance Minister Scholz has not completely stopped them and is trying to continue the payments as silently as possible. In the meantime the treasury has been eased by around thirty billion euros and there is no end in sight. Meanwhile, Scholz is talking about pension security; But the gentleman in the White House has mastered this distraction strategy better, so Scholz and Nahles (“we want to take care of the hard-working population”) still have a lot to learn.
Under the Merkel government, the German auto industry has accumulated one hundred billion euros in capital. But the government of the grand coalition staunchly refuses to attack this cushion for retrofitting diesel vehicles. The return on investment is considered sacred and the government is its chief protector.
The accumulation of capital by the energy companies was already so important in Merkel's first years that the operating times of the nuclear power plants were extended immediately after Schröder was replaced. It was only the anger of the population after the Fukushima disaster that led to a reversal, albeit with billions being paid to the corporations. At conferences, the government sounded big about climate protection, but did nothing and continued to mine lignite in the opencast mine. The media eagerly seconded.
In agriculture, the farms became more and more dependent on the meat companies. Pigs continue to be castrated without anesthesia. The groundwater continues to be contaminated with nitrate, while the costs are borne by the general public. Agricultural products are increasingly being exported to Africa under the Merkel Government with the aid of subsidies.
The armaments industry experienced a major boom under the Merkel government, and exports to the Middle East, Israel and Saudi Arabia have swelled. The German army is not only drilling wells in the Hindu Kush, but is now also defending in Mali. To this end, the defense budget is to be increased by four billion euros. There is already resistance across the country, but left and right mainstream media will downplay the resistance.
The digital industry does not need to pay taxes in Germany; The Merkel government has agreed with the EU that the corporations will deliver some tips in Ireland and in Luxenburg, so that's it.
The exploitation of labor was initially increased by the Schröder-Fischer government through an extension of working life (67 years). Under Merkel still set a clear intensification. The low pay sector was expanded, cheap labor from southern and eastern Europe flooded the German labor market and depressed wage levels. Women make up the largest share and have no chance of getting a pension entitlement from which they can live in old age.
Maximum capital concentration on the one hand and austerity as a sociopolitical guideline on the other: Merkel has implemented the neoliberal dogma brilliantly.
What is there to say about the health policy assessment?
The Merkel government only continues the policy of the Schröder-Fischer government: Schröder's minister, Ms. Schmidt, created the legal framework for the invasion of the financial industry; In this service sector, too, there has been the opportunity to generate a return on capital employed that is above the average return of three to four percent. The deployment of workers from Eastern Europe on a large scale forms the basis. The old people, who can not work anymore, and the young children who can not work yet, stay in their home countries, where they can be cared for less. This enables very low wages in the hospitals and in the care sector and leads to returns on the invested capital, which go beyond ten per cent. For these processes the SPD has a specialist, the man with the fly from Cologne. He sits on the supervisory board of a corporation that generates returns in this area. Here, the political class even has a personal union with the group management. So, of course, Friedrich Merz was also a good candidate for the party leadership of the CDU.
The unconditional basic income would cost around 1 trillion euros. The total current state budget is only about 2 / 3 of this sum.
Who should be able to pay for it. The supporters of this nonsensical project have so far offered no solution.
And anyway, who would be the winners?
1. The employers. You can bet on even more wage dumping. A basic income ensures the livelihood.
2. The State. Why should there be any mediation efforts for the unemployed? Why more support measures, etc.? Do we still need Jobcenter? Probably not.
Who draws comparisons and looks at other countries must be objective. A current Hartz IV recipient has more than one basic income recipient, which is being considered in some other countries.
Results with model tests like in Finland show that the whole system can not work that way. One has rejected the idea again.
And finally ...
Anyone who is healthy and able to work must also work. Jobs are currently enough!
A social society must only catch those who, for example, for health reasons, etc. can not work.
Doing nothing for the community is antisocial. Society must not allow simply “taking” without also “giving”.
In this respect, all direct and direct measures of the general public are correct, to force unwilling and lazy people to work or to curtail or even cease state transfer payments.
Only in this way is a society fair and social.