A couple of months ago in Germany....some study came out and suggested that one kid out of five in Germany is on or near welfare status.....meaning they don't have money for the general basics of being a kid.
This launched some discussion within the Bundestag about how they could 'save' the kids. Yeah, this revolves around money, and how you'd crank out x-amount, and hand it to the kid.
A lot of hype occurred over the weekend....politicians getting interviewed and asked how this would work.
At some point, I turned to my German wife and just asked.....how much money are we talking here, and she gave this blunt answer....it's probably in the range of 150 to 200 Euro a month, but they seem to all avoid saying the magic number.
This led to my next question....how would you hand this money to the kid? My cranked out an answer and it was rather negative...asking me....would I hand 200 Euro over to some kid? I responded....if this were my son....he'd spend the money on Netflix, video games, or wasteful crap. Yeah was her response.....so handing the money directly to the kid is not a wise answer.
But I responded then.....you can't hand the 200 Euro over to the parent because they'd likely spend the money on beer, smokes, or Netflix.
So she got to the FDP Finance Minister answer.....don't hand them the money. His idea is to plow the money into better job-training programs, after-school-help, and recreation funds (free pool passes, etc).
A whole lot of money coming up shortly? Well....just based on how everyone wants to 'save' the youth.....yeah.
I would guess by the end of 2023....some chunk of money is going to be put into some pot and sent to individual states to operate programs to benefit kids.
A waste? I get the impression that in five years.....you will still have studies to show 20-percent of German kids are on the edge of welfare, and that the government ought to do something to improve their lives, again.
UPDATE: Amount of funding agreed upon....2.4-billion Euro....nationally.
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