The German government is aiming to get the country back on track with a wide range of reforms. However, the latest Deutschlandtrend survey shows that the public remains unconvinced.
There are none. It’s just a random symbolic demolition of social and health care systems praised by the right-wing main stream media as “sweeping reforms” to pretend it’s something positive.
It’s
stable rent for today’s pensioneers at the expense of young people who will get shit - because they refuse any actual reform
increasing the taxes for the top 10% waged workers (everyone slightly above the median is already paying the maximum because they only tax wages while everyone actually rich gets a free pass)
reducing worker protections and giving employers more options to exploit workers (including limiting protection against arbitrary dismissals) and -while every actual study shows that reducing work hours increases productivity- giving more flexibility to employers to let their employees work longer with less breaks
now legally requiring a doctor’s sick note from day 1 on (employers can actually require those since forever, but nobody does because it’s stupid to trade one sick day once in a while for a doctor’s sick note that will definitely not be for one day - if you are actually diagnosed you are written sick for a week at least)
also abolishing the possibility to get that sick note from your regular doctor via phone or video, so everyone sick will indeed spend their day in the doctor’s reception room waiting; doctor’s that are already overworked btw and loudly warning about that idiotic reform
more support for obsolete tech (just like they are the one’s pushing for no limits on combustion engines and in general abolising climate restrictions on the EU level)
sabotaging renewables: officially they are providing clear guide- and timelines for grid expansion… which basically boil down to “we wil block solar, wind and storage unless the grid is build up” - with exactly no incentive for the grid providers that benefit from high costs and less renewables to actually build up anything; all while pushing for more gas power in yet another fossil fuel price crisis
deregulation (transparency, climate protection, environmental regulation) in the name of debureaucratisation… while creating massive amounts of bureaucratic overhead with such bullshit as the new sick note laws (see above)
So basically the usual gifts and presents for the usual 0.1% at the expense of workers and some added let’s fuck workers even more just because it’s fun. All with not an shred of sensible policy that will actually help the economy in sight.
And most of the media is cheering because “Look! The government is actually governing! Aren’t they great?!” while barely mentioning any facts. Everyone criticising those “reforms” is just too stupid to understand them because -as far as those people are involved- there are now draw backs worth reporting about. After all those are the smart people with a clue about the economy at the helm again now, not those idiots from the former government that wanted to improve anything. Those are the same people that back then when in the opposition sued the government to reduce their budget and loudly screamed about no new debt to keep investments down after already accruing decades of investment backlog/debt. To then take on a historic amount of new debts the second they were in power again… and waste it all on tax breaks and subsidies for their rich donors and some pension increases for their pensioneer voter base.
PS: Oh, do you wanna know what the media are also barely reporting about? The fact that investments into infrastructure (that would actually help the economy) have reached a new low right after the government took an about a trillion € of new debt to invest in infrastructure… and these "see, how great they are with their ‘sweeping’ reforms’ stories come right after there was some talk about all that misused money. Basically the same loud cheering in all the big publications…
(here’s a slide show on Reddit of all the -totally conincidental of course- praise stories just of today…)
(Personal highlight: praising the bullshit sick note stuff as less red tape under the headline of “finally less government”)
I have no complete list of the reforms, but the reforms include things like the ban to oust big housing companies (this is especially sketchy, since Theres an actual debate about this in Berlin), you now have to show a doctors note about you being sick from the first day on and at the same time it is no longer legal for doctors to create these notes based on a phone call, so now you have to walk to the doctor every single time you are sick.
Could you explain to an outsider what is so terrible about the sweeping reforms?
There are none. It’s just a random symbolic demolition of social and health care systems praised by the right-wing main stream media as “sweeping reforms” to pretend it’s something positive.
It’s
stable rent for today’s pensioneers at the expense of young people who will get shit - because they refuse any actual reform
increasing the taxes for the top 10% waged workers (everyone slightly above the median is already paying the maximum because they only tax wages while everyone actually rich gets a free pass)
reducing worker protections and giving employers more options to exploit workers (including limiting protection against arbitrary dismissals) and -while every actual study shows that reducing work hours increases productivity- giving more flexibility to employers to let their employees work longer with less breaks
now legally requiring a doctor’s sick note from day 1 on (employers can actually require those since forever, but nobody does because it’s stupid to trade one sick day once in a while for a doctor’s sick note that will definitely not be for one day - if you are actually diagnosed you are written sick for a week at least)
also abolishing the possibility to get that sick note from your regular doctor via phone or video, so everyone sick will indeed spend their day in the doctor’s reception room waiting; doctor’s that are already overworked btw and loudly warning about that idiotic reform
more support for obsolete tech (just like they are the one’s pushing for no limits on combustion engines and in general abolising climate restrictions on the EU level)
sabotaging renewables: officially they are providing clear guide- and timelines for grid expansion… which basically boil down to “we wil block solar, wind and storage unless the grid is build up” - with exactly no incentive for the grid providers that benefit from high costs and less renewables to actually build up anything; all while pushing for more gas power in yet another fossil fuel price crisis
deregulation (transparency, climate protection, environmental regulation) in the name of debureaucratisation… while creating massive amounts of bureaucratic overhead with such bullshit as the new sick note laws (see above)
So basically the usual gifts and presents for the usual 0.1% at the expense of workers and some added let’s fuck workers even more just because it’s fun. All with not an shred of sensible policy that will actually help the economy in sight.
And most of the media is cheering because “Look! The government is actually governing! Aren’t they great?!” while barely mentioning any facts. Everyone criticising those “reforms” is just too stupid to understand them because -as far as those people are involved- there are now draw backs worth reporting about. After all those are the smart people with a clue about the economy at the helm again now, not those idiots from the former government that wanted to improve anything. Those are the same people that back then when in the opposition sued the government to reduce their budget and loudly screamed about no new debt to keep investments down after already accruing decades of investment backlog/debt. To then take on a historic amount of new debts the second they were in power again… and waste it all on tax breaks and subsidies for their rich donors and some pension increases for their pensioneer voter base.
PS: Oh, do you wanna know what the media are also barely reporting about? The fact that investments into infrastructure (that would actually help the economy) have reached a new low right after the government took an about a trillion € of new debt to invest in infrastructure… and these "see, how great they are with their ‘sweeping’ reforms’ stories come right after there was some talk about all that misused money. Basically the same loud cheering in all the big publications…
(here’s a slide show on Reddit of all the -totally conincidental of course- praise stories just of today…)
(Personal highlight: praising the bullshit sick note stuff as less red tape under the headline of “finally less government”)
I have no complete list of the reforms, but the reforms include things like the ban to oust big housing companies (this is especially sketchy, since Theres an actual debate about this in Berlin), you now have to show a doctors note about you being sick from the first day on and at the same time it is no longer legal for doctors to create these notes based on a phone call, so now you have to walk to the doctor every single time you are sick.