Because who exactly finances the social safety net in Germany? Certainly not the top-up recipients, but rather those in the upper financial class.
The great "rich" save the lazy "poor"? We live in an interconnected network, and without the "poor," there would be not a single rich person. It is not at all the case that the "rich" actually pay for the safety net for the "poor," even if some "rich" like to feel that way. I have read such approaches here quite often, and they always give me goosebumps immediately. I find the use of the term "top-up recipients" alone to be discriminatory. You top-up recipient - I, the hero, pay your top-up, so kneel down... sorry.
And even the local poverty is not the poverty that someone from Nigeria might imagine.
Everyone experiences their own situation of poverty directly and 100%. No outsider can even remotely assess it: "If you haven’t walked 1000 miles in another person’s moccasins, you have no right to judge them" (quote). Someone in Germany who feels socially discriminated against might even feel worse than someone in Nigeria who is - financially poor - happily surrounded by family. Of course, I can tell him that things would be even worse for him in Nigeria, and in turn tell the Nigerian that things are worse in Chad, and so on.
Welcome to the world
...which world?
Of course, we have only one globe (world), but billions of different living and experiential worlds, each different for everyone. These worlds change. Just as we all eagerly absorb technical changes like heat pumps, photovoltaics, and other stuff here, we resist necessary social change or innovation in the societal realm, simply because it threatens our own luxury that has guaranteed us a more or less comfortable life so far (I include myself here!).
Of course, I am willing to pay more taxes if I see that it benefits society.
Yes, of course, that is exactly how our system is designed and built, and that is a good thing.
Here I rather think "Scandinavian." It is right that the biggest beneficiaries of infrastructure, legal certainty, and social peace also contribute the most. This does not entitle them to special rights in deciding the direction to take. We very often forget that.
I lived in Scandinavia for a while and support this way of thinking. Despite all the problems that also exist there, there is less of this divisive status thinking... in Ireland, by the way, there is also less of it, often a more forgivable and less rigid approach in some areas.
"Welcome to the world" sounds like the cynical excuse "I can do nothing and simply remain inactive among the winners."
yep
It is currently really difficult as a voter to change anything.
...it is by no means more difficult; the electoral system has not changed. We - and I explicitly count MYSELF among them! - are often too comfortable and defend our pleasant situation.
However, I truly believe that everyone largely holds their own luck in life in their own hands. Even though socially disadvantaged people have it much harder, these people can also achieve a great deal through second and third chances in education.
That’s true, and I still really like that in Germany, despite all the room for improvement. A terrible problem that I know, for example, from South America is that the so-called lower class sees no meaning in education or self-development at all due to lack of education. I also see this problem coming toward us.
I share your attitude to a large extent - especially the observation that socially disadvantaged people have it much harder. I derive from this the task of changing this "having it harder."
Exactly, that is why the gap between rich and poor is so harmful and should basically be changed by the "rich."
In the short term, the financial elite is more successful (more capital), but in the long run, it completely loses the existing qualifications of the "poorer" social class, which in turn means that the new "elite" is recruited only from the previous "elite" and no longer excludes the weaker/dumber ones from their golf club circles. It will be a pure financial elite and no longer an educational elite... I dread that. I don’t need to be a mathematician to see that in the end stupidity will prevail.
I never could have imagined this, but living in South America has shown me exactly that - terrible when you set aside the beaches, mountains, volcanoes, or don’t just vacation there. Nowhere have I ever experienced so much socially accepted decadence and arrogance of a financial elite; that is also why I feel closer to Scandinavian thinking.