About a dozen years ago, my German son (then around 15 to 16 years old) came up and asked how much money was coming in each month (between me and the wife). I responded....gross? Yeah, was his response. So I gave him the amount. He was rather shocked and then responded with a typical German phrase.
But then I laid out....German taxes, pension tax, the mortgage, heating costs, electrical, car insurance and monthly gas bills, and the various other things (to include the IRA money for retirement purposes). So in the end....the net pay was only around 30-percent. This reality in life had never entered his head.
About four years ago, he got into an employment deal with a local company (Mainz) and while his income check for the month was looking great (gross-wise)....after they took out everything....he was fairly disgruntled.
I remarked one day....just wait until you get unemployed, and your check shrinks a good bit until you get your next job. Over the past year or two, I would say his economic knowledge has increased ten-fold. He and his associates will spend hours each week discussing the tax situation, and the various ways that the government screws them over. The TV tax (17.50 Euro a month) is one of their favorite criticisms to chat over.
But I see this problem with American kids just as much. There is a total lack of understanding about the economy, the burdens of cost, and the enormous jump they make in grasping economics between the ages of 20 and 25.
So I look back over at the kids in this Fridays 'adventure' here in Germany, and how they are mostly well-to-do kids.....not the Hartz-IV welfare kids. If you went asked them....why does your dad work almost 50 kilometers away from the house....the kid has no idea about the job situation or the dynamics of employment. The kid has a Samsung smart-phone, modern style of clothing, 120 Euro sneakers, a Netflix account, and at least 40 Euro a month of an allowance. The kid appreciates all the wonderful things that the economy has delivered but has no idea over how it was achieved.
The chatter over the evils of the diesel car business? If the kid went and asked dad about the reasoning....he'd get the full lecture from dad. The better fuel mileage, lower maintenance costs, more torque, and lower yearly tax would be laid out. For dad to travel that 100 km's round-trip each day....it simply makes long-term sense to own the diesel car. Then the kid responds that diesel cars are 'evil' and the nitrogen oxide kills people.
Dad responds that the oxide collection stations are corrupted in the way they are placed, and the results are stewed. Then dad responds.....all this negative chatter cheapens the trade-in value.....making it a total waste of time to trade it now, and he's driving it for an extra five years to get his pay-back from the whole episode. The kid tries to understand the trade-in value mess, but that knowledge is still four years away.
The fear here for political parties? About a decade ago, there was this big political chatter how they were going to allow 'kids' (down to age 16) to vote not only in municipal and state elections....but in the national election. Some municipal and state rules have already added the 16-to-18 year olds.
The fear now? If you continued in this direction and had another 1.6 million potential young voters into this national election business.....you might have serious political pressure put upon the two main parties (the CDU and SPD), and if they failed to react to the youth vote.....the Green Party would get the upper hand. Go imagine a 2021 election with the Greens getting 35-percent of the vote.
The reality I see is that a decade from now.....with the German economy in serious jeopardy and 15-percent unemployment....some of these Friday's kids will be asking why the economy is so unstable, and why so many of the older Germans seem angry at them. They might go over to dad's house for advice now, but the lecture isn't going to be very comforting.
8 comments:
Your argument seems to be that the kids trusting in scientists telling them there's a problem should be completely ignored, because of your "I'm old - and therefore have a PhD in life and know more than these intellectual types, even though they've studied the topic in depth. Their just making it up, and with my 'common sense' I can see the way that they're being fooled" attitude.
I'm guessing you were a public service employee for many years, and probably were employed during economic times that meant you couldn't walk down the street without bumping in to a new job opportunity.
You seem to blame the kids for being born in to a society that has a lot of rules, and refuse to grant them the right to want to improve it. It's like the FDP with their spoiled housewife ideology of "the money my husband earns is ours, but the money I earn is mine!".
I would posit that the growing trend of socialized bailouts for the banks and businesses, including the socialized destruction of the environment, followed by harsh austerity for the rest of us needs to be redressed somehow. This attitude of 'well if you're enjoying "insert some trivial capitalistic trinket here" then you should shut your mouth' is a childish attempt at trying to stifle debate.
If I moved next door to you and started pouring chemicals in to the groundwater, the burden of proof should be on me to prove that it's not harmful, not on you to prove that it is. Can we agree on that?
With the corruption of politics by lobbying, I think that the kids today have every right to point upwards for a change and cast some blame that way, rather than try and cast blame on those below them (foreigners, refugees, migrants etc). The political class makes a lot of effort to appease the wealthy, and reduce the value of the masses.
Do you actually believe in the climate science that says we've been altering our atmosphere through our actions? Or do you refute it, and if so, what studies do you cite to support your claims?
There's still over three trillion dollars worth of fossil fuels that are in the ground right now, and thus, a lot of incentive to downplay the impacts that the use of such fuels cause to the environment. What's the incentive to make up the current scientific standing on climate science? Three trillion dollars worth of funding? Me thinks, no.
Just because we're offshoring our slavery, doesn't make us less complicit in it. Do we want to progress to a world where a few trillionaires live in razor wire compounds and those who can't offer up enough in labor potential are condemned to poverty? Or should we try and aim for a meritocracy, whilst accepting that there's always going to be people below the bell curve who can contribute to society in other ways, and allowing them to find meaning and a way to contribute?
How would you change Germany for the better?
I wouldn't go and mandate or change Germany 'for the better'. I would caution people that tinkering with the economy creates ripple effects (sometimes with zero consequence or improvement). However, you can do some really stupid things which trigger companies to react and suddenly have another four-percent unemployment on top of a very acceptable 5-percent. All of this invites political turmoil, and suddenly things are rather chaotic.
Allowing a large number of teenagers to lead this economics shift or change? What idiot would sign up to a mass shift lead by this group?
I've come to note a lot of Germans own diesel cars, and their reaction over the past three years is extreme anger over city-governments and the lack of authority from the national government. Add to it...no national political party wants to stand up in their favor. The diesel chaos? It leads back to the EU establishing newer standards ever few years, and the auto companies reaching a stage where they'd have to cut mileage, torque, or add costly filters requiring continual changes. Eventually, the auto companies decided cheating on the test was the best overall answer. Allowing the public to go and sue the hell out of VW and rest? No....the political folks couldn't allow that to happen. So this festering mess was left out there....mostly for diesel owners to whine about and pro-environment folks chat about this constantly.
At some point over the next decade, I expect the PhD folks to say that the flight trail into Frankfurt's airport is causing 2,000 local people health issues yearly. The chant will then go to reducing one-third the traffic into Frankfurt. The 80k employees there will be affected and suddenly local economic chaos will be a big deal. At some point, there will be talk of forcing aircraft out of the transport business, and we end going back to blimps for mass travel.
If you go look over at wind-generators in Germany....there are two environmental groups around them. One is for the generators....one against (mostly because of bird-strikes and landscape desecrating). The placement of the generators in 2019? It's decreased in a significant way. With older generators being taken down at the end of their 'life'...it'll only take two or three years for the grid 'bosses' to get worried about the reliability of the grid. Because of national trends, and public perceptions....this is all very difficult for the typical German to get his hands around, and grasp.
My general view is that there is only so much mass economic chaos that the public will accept, and once we cross the line...we start inviting weird governments and politics to form, and public discontent follows.
It makes me scratch my head when I hear so many younger folk in USA talk about how it would be good if we were Socialist, or maybe even Communist. Sure, until they take 70 or more of income for taxes. Buh-bye smartphones.
So science is fine when it supports you, but you shun it when it doesn't? I know that we all have some cognitive dissonance going on, but this is Dunning-Kreuger levels of ignorance.
Have you studied any science? Or merely plodded along in some cushy government job for your whole career?
And so the 80k that according to your forecast to be unemployed is unacceptable, yet the mass outsourcing and devaluing of labor through unregulated capitalism is A-ok?
Yep, I studied science, business, economics, history, politics, international relations, geography, computer science, and journalism. Somewhere along the way, I learned that as much as you might want to believe so-and-so to be telling you something you wanted to believe....if pieces didn't fit correct, you need step back. It's like the Bigfoot saga, I'd really like for this to be true, but I can readily say that the pieces don't fit, and it's a story you need to avoid.
So years ago, I came across the Gore polar bear story. As much as I wanted to believe it, I also studied comments by Canadian hunters who discussed hunting laws which really halted the decline of polar bears. Remarkably, you saw the same discussion in Iceland and the US.
I'm more careful about what scientists say or don't say, and I certainly don't want economies dissolved without real cause. The German diesel car episode is an example about being careful.
As for unregulated capitalism....there is a fine line between over-regulated and under-regulated. I'd rather not see some juvenile kid making this decision and triggering massive society chaos. Go trigger a 15-percent unemployment situation in some country, and look at the far-left and far-right political game trigger unnecessary stress. I can appreciate the fine line that the Merkel crew has taken on for almost fifteen years, and low unemployment results from that....with people happily working, producing, and paying taxes (which means tax revenue flows into the big pot). But there is this single negative to the Merkel agenda....pay scales for regular people have been mostly stagnant for the past decade, and people grumble about that fact....while employed.
You have nine degrees? If so, I'll defer to your wisdom.
May I ask what science degree you hold?
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