It's Just Money

There is some economist in Germany who has gone out and analyzed the heck out of the refugee episode, and then predicted that the real cost per year.....will be near 30-billion euro.  Journalists mostly just noted his comments and the magic number.  No one really challenged it and there's been various estimates (some going to ten billion....some going to twenty billion).  This was the first one to approach the thirty billion Euro point.

An average German will shake their heads and ask why the heck the government can afford this.....without raising taxes.  And if they raise taxes....it'll freak out fifty percent of the German public.

Well, it's kinda simply on raising taxes.  You simply pull up the infrastructure plans book, and pick out forty projects that won't be executed in 2016 or 2017.  Then you pull up the education and Bundeswehr budget, and you carve off a big chunk of money.  Eventually, you come to some twenty-billion point and just hope it doesn't go past that point.

I read this week that the apprentice training program that has been enhanced over the past year for Syrians and other refugees.....has hit some bumps.  A fair number of guys didn't really grasp that when you go and become an apprentice....it means you have to study and pass tests.  You need more than marginal German.....to sit in the class or pass the tests.  That's been a problem.

But wait, there's more.  According to yesterday's news.....some refugees who got visa status and a seat in some apprentice program....were shocked that the apprentice deal only gets you around five-hundred to seven-hundred Euro a month.....for the two-to-three year period.    German kids could have told them that, but it's a harsh reality.  The German state is having slide enough extra money over to cover apartment costs and some lifestyle things, but you are living on the edge of life as an apprentice.

For a lot of these guys, they expected to have a real job and real income.....then send some of that real income back to their family in the old homeland.  Well, on apprentice income and welfare coverage.....you don't have extra cash sitting around.

Harsh reality?  Yeah.   It's extremely harsh.

My son sat and lived in the old house for the three-year period.  He did his apprentice school episode and worked over at the company.  At the peak (last year), he was making just over 700-Euro a month.  Naturally, he didn't have to pay for housing, food, or anything.  He'd admit....he was a bit frustrated over health insurance being taken out, and later after he got full-employment.....he whined over taxes and pension costs.  My guess is that the refugees who did wrap up some apprentice deal and got to full-time employment.....discovered the same reality as my son.....taxes, healthcare and pension costs......eat up the whole check.

The financial problem here is that once you agree to house and shelter folks, then agree to provide language training and job education, then start to cover a driver's license, food, and medical care.....every single individual has a cost assigned to them.  I could see a family of four refugees costing the German government 130,000 Euro for a 24-month period as they get situated and settled into some type of real work. It's a fair chunk of money, and if you asked where it came from.....well....that just infuriates the average German who pays $8 for a gallon of gas or pays 19-percent on sales tax.  Some idiot political figure might even be stupid enough to appear on TV and say the magic phrase...."It's just money".