In the last couple of days....because of gas prices escalating in Germany (E-10 fuel for example at 2.12 Euro per liter)....I've had to listen to two differing views.
A lot of Germans have reached the point where they question the current gas tax (there are actually 3 taxes in play for each single liter....I know....it is a bit amusing). So there's government chatter about temporarily reducing the VAT (sales tax) down to 7-percent (instead of 19-percent). Note, this is a temp solution and would likely only exist for three to six months.
Last night, I had to listen to the opposing view on TV....that the tax should stay at the normal rate because this 'help' would only help 'high-earners' (namely, people who own cars). I sat there for a minute....thinking I'd heard it wrong, or translated it wrong....but no, they suggested that a car is a luxury item....in their mind.
The 'high-earner' thinker went to the belief that while low and middle wage people do own cars....if you gave discounts...it's the guy who is 'rich' and lives further away from his job, and thus drives more. In their mind, you shouldn't help that guy.
Proof or facts? None. Last year, I sat and watched a German news piece...a gal making absolute minimum wage, and driving 60-plus kilometers round-trip per day....to earn an income. She wasn't happy but this single job was the only thing she could find.
The Finance Ministry? At this point, I think they will put the fist down and get this temp VAT deal down to 7-percent, for probably a three-to-four month period. But to be honest....I think oil prices will stay high for all of 2022, and they will revisit this VAT issue in four months yet again.
But turning to the dimwits who consider cars a luxury item....they generally live in urban situations (Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart, etc) and haven't connected to non-urbanized people in twenty-odd years.
This week, I had to sit and listen to a Linke Party official suggest that all bus/railway travel be free....to help people save money on gas/fuel. Who would pay for all this free seat crap? Well.....you, the consumer....via more taxation. But if you threw honesty into the mix....probably over three-quarters of the German rural society of Germany don't have adequate public transportation to make this possible.
I'm about to the point of suggesting that all political figures who've lived twenty-plus years in highly urbanized regions....ought to be forced to live in a rural community for a year, to get 'reset' on reality.
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