guess they misunderestimated the cost of absorbing 70 Million East Germans into their Welfare State eh???
Posted on 08/31/2004 5:18:12 PM PDT by blam
Schröder rattled as protests swell
By Kate Connolly in Berlin
(Filed: 31/08/2004)
Tens of thousands of Germans took to the streets last night in the biggest protests yet against the government's unpopular welfare reforms.
Demonstrations were held in more than 200 towns and cities across the country.
The protests, which have run for five weeks, have been dubbed "Monday demonstrations" after the 1989 gatherings in the old East Germany that helped to topple the Berlin Wall.
They are being led by the reformed eastern communist party, the PDS, the anti-globalisation group Attac and far-Right groups, Oskar Lafontaine, a former leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party who has threatened to form a breakaway Left-wing party, was due to address a rally in Leipzig last night. His participation was criticised by ministers.
The protests, which began with only a few thousand people, have now expanded across the country although they are predominant in the east, where unemployment - at 18.5 per cent - is around twice the national average.
Organisers hope to force the government to a climb down over its planned welfare cuts. Under the reforms, long-term unemployment benefit and social welfare payments will be merged, and the jobless forced to take any work. The proposals have prompted accusations that the government is "legalising poverty".
Last week, protesters threw eggs at Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the east German town of Wittenberg.
The government has clearly been rattled by the intensity of opposition. At the weekend it appeared to bow to the pressure to a certain extent by delaying separate health reforms and the introduction of a citizens' insurance policy indefinitely.
Mr Schröder has expressed concern that the protests - together with growing discontent in the west about continued financial support for the east - are in danger of splitting the country.
Critics say there has been little to show for the "solidarity tax" pumped into the east.
Mr Schröder said: "I would stress to those who ask why the west should back up the east that we are one people. We belong together and the east will continue to be reliant on the west."
Maybe if some of these protestors got jobs they would not be so worried about welfare benefits.... ;)
The inevitable collapse of the 20th century progressive welfare state will not be a pretty thing.
"They are being led by the reformed eastern communist party,"
Round here we just call them ANSWER
These are the people who spend less than 1% of GDP on defense and whom Kerry would have us believe are going to come to our rescue in Iraq. Got that. That's his big plan.
Wonder if Bush is responsible. hmmmmmmmmmm
The Great Depression 1929
In October 1929, the New York Stock Market suddenly collapsed. The American investors recalled their short-term loans from Germany. In early 1931, one of Germany's three largest joint-stock banks collapsed. The German economy depended on American loans. Without American loans, production dropped and her export trade also declined. The number of unemployed rose from two millions in 1929 to more than three millions in 1930, to 5.6 millions in 1931 and to 6 millions (one fourth of the working population) in the early months of 1932. The German governments from 1929 to 1933 failed to solve any of the grave economic problems of the day: mass unemployment, inflation and industrial slump.
Hitler's Rise to Power
Faced with economic hardship, the Germans lost any faith they might have in the democratic Republic. The middle classes and the working classes were the most discontented groups because they had been ruined by two economic collapses within six years. It was not surprising that they turned to the two extreme parties for desperate remedies: the Nazis and the Communists. In the general election of September 1930, the Nazis won 6.5 million votes, took 107 seats in the Reichstag and became the second largest party in the country. The Communists obtained 4.5 million votes and 77 seats. Although the Social Democrats remained the largest party, it had lost much popularity and support.
Reasons for the Nazi Success
(iii) The onset of the Great Depression led to mass unemployment. Unemployed workers turned to the Communists for salvation. As the Communists grew in strength, the landowners, industrialists, the middle class people and the conservative right-wing politicians all turned to support the Nazis.
http://www.thecorner.org/hists/total/n-german.htm
Let's see - you got them to depend on free/unearned money from the socialist government. Then, you try to take it away and they protest. What is the news here? How about a return to personal responsibility?
Soon...The cossacks running down the crowds on a sabre charge...The socialist state is eating its progeny....
This writer needs an EDITOR! First of all, the parties he lists are ALL Left-wing Communists.
Second--the far right groups are also know Communists in Germany. Really? Yes--when you shake the trees enough---the far left and right merge----violent, anti-Christian, anti-West--anti-Freedom groups.
The Europeans will be at each other's throats before too much longer.
People getting money for free protest about being forced to work.
I am shocked!
Sounds like the Dems! We want WELFARE! We want WELFARE!
Am I supposed to feel sympathy for Schroeder? Hah!
guess they misunderestimated the cost of absorbing 70 Million East Germans into their Welfare State eh???
Once you embrace socialism, it's like you have locked your arms forever around it and you can never break your grip. All the socialist gummints in Europe are in that predicament and will all fail in the end. Kerry wants us to be just like them. Make sure he never has the chance!
There are some 8 million unemployed Germans, mostly in the eastern states, the former DDR. What Hartz IV does is more than just cut the government pension; it requires that unemployed German citizens or those on welfare sell off all their assets (such as life insurance, etc.) so as to qualify for the lower government payment. Hartz IV thereby forces millions into poverty, which does nothing for the German economy as it adds not one job.
What the journalist fails to point out is that the German citizens protesting Hartz IV in some 200 cities and towns are pushing for a full-employment agenda; prosperity through development. Yes, the Berlin Wall was overrun and torn down in 1989, a year which saw the collapse of Communism. And yet the eastern sector of Germany has yet to see significant economic development. In Saxony alone (as I understand it) there is an unemployment rate of some 18.5%.
And something such as Hartz IV could happen right here in the USA. Did not Alan Greenspin (sic) make remarks to the press just the other day concerning Social Security cuts? A lot of people might not appear to care if the poor and unemployed were burdened with increased poverty, but middle class persons would certainly be the first to squeal the instant their Social Security pension was trimmed.
Going to get a lot worse when we leave..
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