It turns out that unrestrained capitalism leads to the end result that a very few hold almost all the resources. That's because the more money you have, the options you have and can make, and thus every transaction rich do make more money.
The rest of us don't have those choices, so our money ends up going TO the rich.
Housing is going up because the last 20 years, housing was the big thing to capitalize (aka: price all but the rich out of the market). And then, housing doesnt make money by itself, so they then rent out to the humans whom they deprived access to begin with.
But in this housing endgame, rich people have options to remove options from the average people, in which the result is "Rich people profit on the backs of the normal people".
And also, this is not a "Germany-only" phenomenon. We're seeing this happen across all the "Western Nations", wherever unrestrained capitalism has reared its ugly head. Even Adam Smith wrote the last 80% of his book about how unrestrained capitalism would do this.. but no economist ever appears to read or heed his words.
Also, this isn't some "socialism and/or communism" is the answer post. Neither of them can handle the fact that most of what we create isn't physical matter, but instead knowledge and content. No economic system as of yet can handle the fact that something costs $x million to create, but $0 to copy. But whatever we do *must* be able to handle that respectably to all participants. And alongside that, maximums of what people can own - extreme income inequality is massive scourge to any government and people.
Germany does not have "unrestrained capitalism". It has an extensive social safety systems: health ensurance, unemployment benefits, pensions, low-cost education system, job protection against dismissal, workers councils in many companies, low youth unemployment, ...
I think it'd be fair to say that Germany's govt does restrain more than the USA.
HOWEVER, the very article title is "Why Germany Is Rich but Germans Are Poor and Angry", and the article discusses the usual extreme income inequality and mostly unrestrained capitalism that allows the extreme rich to become more rich.
This isn't some unique extreme income inequality we only see in the USA. This is happening nearly everywhere, EVEN in places with supposed better controls on capitalism.
> Germany does not have "unrestrained capitalism". It has an extensive social safety systems: health ensurance, unemployment benefits, pensions, low-cost education system, job protection against dismissal, workers councils in many companies, low youth unemployment, ...
Are people thriving or are they just going through the motions of living? Sounds like to me that most people are just surviving, and suffering the whole time, while the richies live on the backs of everyone else. Again, the article talks about "farmers protest against the German government's planned cuts to agricultural sector subsides".
Again, this is playing out around the whole world.
There are other factors for inequality. One is that "East Germany" has 1/3 the median wealth compared to "West Germany".
We have a million refugees from the Ukraine here. That makes the housing situation difficult, because available space is scarce and expensive.
Energy was very expensive last year, due to the Russian energy war against Europe (and especially Germany).
Financing an apartment or a house got very expensive due to higher interest rates for credits and rising construction costs.
People lost jobs during the covid pandemic.
Still there is little unemployment.
> Are people thriving or are they just going through the motions of living? Sounds like to me that most people are just surviving, and suffering the whole time, while the richies live on the backs of everyone else.
"most people are just surviving" ? Have you ever been to Germany?
> Again, the article talks about "farmers protest against the German government's planned cuts to agricultural sector subsides".
"subsides" - they are fighting to keep these privileges. Nowhere else is the agriculture sector so much protected than in Germany (and the EU). They are driving with tax-free diesel to the protests. Agriculture for example has quite a different structure in Germany compared to the US.
The rest of us don't have those choices, so our money ends up going TO the rich.
Housing is going up because the last 20 years, housing was the big thing to capitalize (aka: price all but the rich out of the market). And then, housing doesnt make money by itself, so they then rent out to the humans whom they deprived access to begin with.
But in this housing endgame, rich people have options to remove options from the average people, in which the result is "Rich people profit on the backs of the normal people".
And also, this is not a "Germany-only" phenomenon. We're seeing this happen across all the "Western Nations", wherever unrestrained capitalism has reared its ugly head. Even Adam Smith wrote the last 80% of his book about how unrestrained capitalism would do this.. but no economist ever appears to read or heed his words.
Also, this isn't some "socialism and/or communism" is the answer post. Neither of them can handle the fact that most of what we create isn't physical matter, but instead knowledge and content. No economic system as of yet can handle the fact that something costs $x million to create, but $0 to copy. But whatever we do *must* be able to handle that respectably to all participants. And alongside that, maximums of what people can own - extreme income inequality is massive scourge to any government and people.