J Please don’t complain now! That representatives from the Union and SPD as well as from the federal, state and local authorities in a commission in a few months on a “welfare state reform” were able to agree and everyone except the AfD approves of the result is worth a lot in these times of polarization. The Union speaks of a good basis. The SPD praises: “We are turning the big wheel.” The Greens and the Left think the direction is right, too Charities.
And in fact: If the 26 measures proposed by the Welfare State Commission are implemented, a lot of things will become easier for many people. Child benefit, for example, should be paid out automatically from birth. So far, the baby has only received the tax number without asking. Anyone who receives benefits such as housing benefit or child allowance in addition to their – narrow – salary should only have to write to one authority, and do so digitally from home.
In the future, there should be a central social portal, a one-stop shop, the department store for the welfare state. The Greens planned something similar with basic child welfare in the last legislature, and now the black-red coalition may be completing what the traffic light failed to do. It works.
But the fact that almost no one complains is of course also because, contrary to what the name “welfare state reform” suggests, it is not about a fundamental reform of the welfare state. The name is a bit of a misnomer, because at its core it is an administrative reform. It is important and necessary, after all, give it The federal, state and local governments spend more than 260 billion euros annually on systems of social participation and support out of. With so much money, one can expect that it will be distributed and received efficiently, which is currently not the case. Instead, many people forego applying for what they are entitled to because it is too complicated and time-consuming.
But if the state becomes more citizen-friendly, no child will be better protected from poverty and no one will be more effectively protected from homelessness.
The name welfare state reform is a misnomer, because at its core it is an administrative reform
The fundamental questions of justice and distribution remain unaffected. While the pressure on employees is currently increasing, companies can look forward to relief. At its core, this is about the inherent conflict between labor and capital.
Before its federal party conference and in the state election campaign, the Union is happily considering proposals to reduce employee rights, such as abolishing them the right to “lifestyle” part-time work or eliminating paid sick days. The ideas from the middle class wing of the Union have caused heads to shake and will probably disappear into obscurity, but they follow the basic direction that Friedrich Merz also sets as CDU chairman.
The Chancellor thinks that employees work too little and take sick days too often and would like to abolish the Working Hours Act. And in fact, the Union and the SPD have already agreed in the coalition agreement to abolish the eight-hour day. For companies that naturally find that this is far from enough, the coalition is reducing taxes and prices. The Association of “Family Business Owners”, which also speaks loudly for very wealthy entrepreneurial dynasties Bundestag lobby register spends more than 9 million euros a year, the government is calling on further “significant” cost reductions.
Where is the SPD?
And who is opposing it? At least not the SPD. When she ran for SPD party leadership last year, Bärbel Bas accurately called it “class struggle from above.” When she attacked her employers a few months later, she received a real shitstorm and has kept a low profile ever since.
It was the Left Party that last week requested a current hour in the Bundestag on the topic of “Preventing the erosion of employee rights” and also requested figures from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, headed by Bas. Accordingly Including overtime, around half of the employees already work more than 40 hours per week. The image of the “lazy” worker is a class struggle disguised as a culture war.
If the Social Democrats really saw themselves as advocates for the “hardworking” in this country, as co-leader Lars Klingbeil repeatedly emphasizes, then they would firstly clearly contradict this neoliberal narrative and, secondly, promote their concept for a reform of the inheritance tax more vigorously. They do neither. They should get the receipt in the state elections. But then please don’t complain.