Friendly Suggestion for the New Chancellor
(Post inspired by a comment I just wrote). If you watched the news at all last week, you probably know about the nailbiter of an election for Germany. One of the platforms was unemployment. Germany apparently has a whopping 5 million residents who are unemployed. Given the relatively small size of the country, that’s a problem of the SuperSize variety. With that thought, I would like to offer my opinion as a soon-to-be American ex-pat living in Germany broken down into 3 easy steps.
1. Freaking finish construction jobs! You could hire probably 500,000 currently unemployed people to supplement the pathetically tiny and slow construction crews here. Projects would be done in hours or days instead of years. No where else in the world have I visited where you see a sign today that says “Completion date: June 2009″. They have been working on making a 2 lane into a 4 lane near my house ever since I arrived here 15 months ago. The majority of the time, no one is working at all. Equipment simply gathers dust. And the problem is worse here because when they close a road (for example, to pave a 200 meter stretch which according to their schedule will take 6 months), there is often little or no detour option. I recently left Hahn airport only to discover that my road was suddenly closed without so much as a warning sign. One hour and 30 extra miles later, I’d taken their “detour”. So by creating more construction jobs, they will not only reduce unemployment but greatly improve the morale and sanity of all people who use their roads. Nevermind on the banality of fining truck drivers to use the autobahn, that will be another post.
2. Now that they have construction workers, build border control huts all along the German border. Then hire people to work as border control agents. AND ACTUALLY HAVE PEOPLE WHO WORK THERE. Yes, they have plenty of border control checks but the vast majority of them are empty. Not only will this create jobs, but it will help them control the enormous influx of illegals from former Soviet states from entering the country and taking jobs from actual Germans, as well as living off the fat of the land via Germany’s outrageous social benefits/welfare/kindergeld programs. I have travelled all over this continent and you know how many times I’ve been asked to see my passport? Once - and that was only because I sweetly asked the border guard at the Czech border if he’d be so kind as to give me a stamp for a souveneir.
3. Cut the previously mentioned social benefits. It’s apparently better in Germany to be unemployed than actually have a blue-collar type job, simply based on the generous unemployment benefits. I’d post my real thoughts on the kindergeld program (money that they pay to women to make babies, seriously) but that’s a bit much for one day.
It’s kind of sad, really. At age 9 or 10, children are classified into 3 categories which will determine their entire future. For those kids who are deemed intelligent enough to one day attend college, or enter a trade such as welding or carpentry, lucky them. For the remainder, they get to become the future’s unskilled workers and thus 5 million unemployed.
September 25th, 2005 at 9:40 pm
Welfare is one of those tricky bits. Sure, it’s nice to help people down on their luck, but then you have people who’d rather have another kid than find a job. I think for a while the welfare sweet-spot in Oklahoma was four children. I’ve seen more than one lazy mother “accidentally” get pregnant again for extra money.
September 26th, 2005 at 3:59 pm
European social benefits are morbidly fascinating. The Kindergeld (literally “child money”) is supposed to relieve the financial burden of raising children. But it penalizes married couples. The current way the German social benefits are set up, a 20 year old girl who has never had a job could in theory have a baby today and live comfortably without working for the next 18 years. Given the odds that 50% of children will be female, let’s say she has a baby girl. When that child turns 18, she could in theory get pregnant as her mother did. You now have a mother & daughter who collected social benefits without paying into the system. Weird.