Study shows steep rise of poverty in Germany

[Hannah Bell]

Poverty and the risk of falling into poverty have risen considerably in Germany in the last few years. This was the conclusion of a report issued February 17 by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). According to the criteria laid down by the DIW, 14 percent, or one seventh of the total population, either lived in poverty or were threatened by poverty in 2008.

In 1999 the comparable level of poverty stood at 10.3 percent. This means that poverty has increased by approximately one third in the past 10 years...

In an interview included in the study, its co-author Joachim R. Frick cites high unemployment as the principal reason for the pronounced rise in poverty and adds: “At the same time in the last few years we have seen an increasing poverty risk for persons with gainful employment. This is bound up with the expansion of the low-wage sector and the increase in precarious forms of employment...”

While the authors of the DIW study make no open criticism of the Hartz anti-welfare laws, they acknowledge that the expansion of the low-wage sector — an intended consequence of the Hartz IV reforms — has led to an increase in poverty.

In addition the study states: “Households with small working intensity (i.e., with less than half the hours of a full-time job) are increasingly approaching the poverty risk levels of households without any gainful employment.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/mar2010/pove-m03.shtml

[JVS]

1. They also have no minimum wage. And shit's not going to get any better with the FDP replacing ...

the SPD as coalition partner with the CDU

[blindpig]

2. People like to point to Europe as a model.....

but it appears that their 'democratic socialism' is faring little better than the New Deal.

There is no compromise with capitalism.

k&r