People who depend on the favour of ruling parties and receive government benefits will gift their votes at the ballot box to their “benefactors”. There is no more influential tool of power than making people dependent.
(Ramin Peymani)
The risk of poverty is increasing. The Catholic Family Association and the German Family Alliance (hereinafter – the Associations) recently appealed to the public, calling for help. The message from both associations states that “due to the growing burden of taxes and levies, families with several children are the first to encounter a lack of money”.
To “stay above water”, an annual income of 50,000 euros is currently still enough. There are many reasons why families do not have enough money. One of them could be the new generation's ever-increasing demands for mobile phones and branded clothing. Parental indifference to costs when shopping, choosing a bank account, or cancelling previously signed contracts also plays a role.
The celebrated German penchant for insurance is, as with most people, exaggerated; it “rips” extra holes in the family budget every month. Similarly, millions of people still refrain from regularly changing their electricity suppliers and, when a contract ends, consider it unnecessary to search online for more cost-effective options. There is much more joy in digging around online in search of seemingly cheap fashion items.
The situation where politicians in Germany are taking more and more from people, specifically families with children, should not be taken for granted. According to the calculations of both mentioned Associations, a family with two children and a gross salary of 35,000 euros is already living below the statutory subsistence level.
INSTEAD OF ASKING FOR NEW RELIEF FOR FAMILIES, STRICTER CRITICISM OF THE STATE'S GREED WOULD BE DESIRABLE
After deducting taxes and levies and adding child benefits, the net sum remains nearly 30,800 euros, but the tax-free subsistence minimum for one adult is 9,168 euros, and for a child – 7,620 euros. If these figures are added up, the shortfall at the end of the year exceeds 2,700 euros.
Thus, a four-person family is short by 230 euros per month to reach the subsistence level (which German citizens are entitled to). Although the Associations' criticism regarding ever-increasing taxes and levies is correct, it should be added that a net sum of 30,000 euros per year should still be enough to live on – even with two children. The main reason why the statutory subsistence level is increasingly not being met is its annual increase. The tax-free amount has grown by 2% annually since 2015, which is significantly faster than the rate of inflation. So far, the lobbying activity of the Associations is commendable, but it was “started from the wrong end”.
Instead of asking for new relief for families and adjusting the subsistence level for children to that of adults, stricter criticism of the state's greed would be desirable. The problem is not to be found in the fixed amounts used to challenge one's means of subsistence, but in the unjustifiably high costs of financing the insatiable, partisan state that throws billions to the wind, spending on clientelism under the guise of environmental and climate protection and forcing an ideologically motivated increase in the cost of all areas of life.
A TOOL OF POWER THAT CREATES DEPENDENT PEOPLE FUNCTIONS NO MORE SUCCESSFULLY IN ANY OTHER FORM OF GOVERNMENT THAN IN A DEMOCRATIC STATE
The associations do not name the true problem: the partisan state continues to pump money from residents, only to then hand it back in various ways as “charity” in just enough amounts so that they can “somehow make ends meet”. Hidden under the beautifully formulated concept of “participation” is merely a political plan: to constantly expand the circle of benefit recipients.
The plan works: those who depend on the favour of parties and receive benefits from the government will “gift” their votes at the ballot box to their “benefactors”. There is no more influential tool of power than making people dependent. In no other form of government does this age-old recipe work more successfully than in a democracy. Therefore, no one should hope for improvement. On the contrary – Germany has chosen to hone the principle of benefits to perfection. For professional politicians, the families of the country's residents are “easy pickings” – not only as consumers, but also because parents can easily be charmed by being told that increasing taxes and levies are necessary to ensure the future of their children.
Priority does not belong to investments in education and technology, but to the goal of improving the fifth digit after the decimal point in the CO2 concentration figure. Yes, the risk of poverty for families is becoming greater, but a share of the “blame” must be taken by the interested parties themselves, because they fall so easily for the hook of green and left-wing ideologues! Whoever votes for environmentalism and socialism today is lowering their own standard of living and endangering their descendants. It is amazing how many people fail to understand this.