The German middle class falls. Germany has a lot to lose
In uncertain times, only one thing is certain: The middle class dramatically shrinks. Formerly 70 percent were included in it. Germans. Today it is less than 60 percent. And the numbers are still falling rapidly. Only a few lucky ones manage to reach the top. Most, however, fall from it – straight to the lower class. From there The road towards the poverty border can be short.
Everything is more important
German politicians seem to have different worries than the empty voter wallets. Their attention is currently dealt with by the issue of energy, climate change, migration and asylum policy, war, vaccines and pandemic. Which of them, living with such a multitude of matters and duties, still think about relieved the middle class?
Low salaries, which have only increased slightly since 2005, are no longer the only problem. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the outbreak of war in Ukraine and energy transformation inflation has been galloping. Until 2021, the international “unit of measure” – old good Big Mac – already increased by almost 30 percent. in ten years. Anyone who goes to a restaurant or even a cafe today to meet their own basic needs, such as hunger or desire, keeps face to face with bitter truth. Today, going to the premises is a luxury for a German middle class.
Restaurant in the television tower in Berlin. Germany. 2023
One thing is certain: restaurants that currently lose employees will not lower their prices, just like hairdressers and any other service points. Already Alexander von Humboldt, a German naturalist and creator of geography, in the nineteenth century stated that energy drives and enlivens all aspects of space. If its sources are cut off, if it becomes deficit or imported, everyone will have to pay dearly.
Passerby. Restaurant at Alexanderplatz in Berlin. Germany. 2023
Plane flights, car rides, heating a cozy house in winter and air conditioning in the summer – All these convenience is already beginning to get out of the hands of middle class representatives. Even saving for your own four angles is a trap, because keeping a house or apartment consumes a lot of money.
Millennials are amazed at their uncles and grandparents, who, as lecturers at universities, inconspicuous state officials, yew editors in public stations, not very clever lawyers or church activists easily earned a house with a garden, a second car and a small house in Tuscany or Majorca. In addition, several actions or a state pension – and we have a recipe for happiness.
Expectations versus reality
How parents are to deal with all this nowadays if they have 6,000 at their disposal euro (if they earn so much) and must provide their children with education? Especially at a time when the student apartment in Munich costs more than they have in the wallet. Inheritance is the only sure way to prevent the fall of the middle class. It is said that the best inheritance comes from the grandparents of the so -called the economic miracle and parents of the time of unification of Germany. In this case, however, the state takes the lion part.
Economics has a solution on how to maintain easy access to the middle class: you should reward performance and provide good education at a good price. The current state budget, of which one -third is allocated to pensions, and a significant part for basic security is a denial. There is no place for tax reductions, there is no money for good schools and universities.
Boutique in Berlin. Germany. 2023
Only a few celebrities and rich pensioners are able to bear higher and higher fees. A gray citizen must live more modestly. When some fill their wallets, middle class people fall into financial ruin.
The state will pay for it
On a state carousel with a good salary, low stress, private healthcare and good pension – this can be middle class facilities. In France, working on such a job is a life goal of many. Germany is on their way to make it the same.
Emigration, counting on a large inheritance, marriage with a millionaire, winning at a lottery – These are not strategies that will put the economy struggling with difficulties. Most of the desperate middle class representatives will probably miss the last good moment to rescue. Already, pensioners who have not benefited from social promises go to Bulgaria or Romania to fulfill their dream of life in relative comfort.
It's not colorful anywhere
Meanwhile, a beautiful Portugal is stormed by digital nomads – and prices are rising rapidly. The world running forward is becoming smaller for middle class people.
What will happen to society if the middle class fighting for survival disappears? This question today spends the eyelid to many thinkers, including Italian middle -class researcher Matteo Battistini. He believes that there is no democracy without her. Where she is erosion, there is clever politicians like Donald Trump, offer a tempting answer: Together we can become great again! Hope dies last.
But the hungry, who are standing at the end of the queue to the buffet, have less and less to lose and soon their recent hopes will dispel. And the state does not respond – there are more important issues.
Tourists in Majorca. Spain. 2022
The situation is well summarized by the new novel of the Dutch author Leon de Winter “Song of Europe”. Her action takes place between 2025 and 2047 in the Dystopia of the Dutch writer Only those who work for the state and international corporations can make ends meet.
The middle class, consisting of traders, self -employed and scientists, is only a foggy memory in this world.
