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Redistribution from the bottom to the top

In their social policies, even the Liberals pale beside the Greens as the motivating force of social deterioration. Things that the Social Democrats as a popular party would not allow themselves, the Greens sell and realise light-heartedly, marked as a reform. Thus, old age, disease and unemployment are stigmatised as individual mistakes for which no solidarity from society is to be expected.

Even with their recent stirring up hatred against so-called lazybones, the chancellor and the war minister did not enter virgin territory - the Greens had already been waiting for them to come for a long time. Already in 1999, the Bundestag Parliamentary Group of the Greens wrote in a position paper, during the Kosovo war: “New offers for the unemployed will be accompanied by obligations.” Also, the guidelines for the realisation of the JUMP programme (concerning youth unemployment) already contained forced labour: “In the case of young people who receive social security payment, the job centre has to report to the provider of the social security benefit the refusal of participation or abort of measures. These providers will then assess whether the guaranteed financial aid (...) is to be cut.” It is precisely in this ideological wake that the war minister, of course not without good reasons, is stirring up hatred against lazybones: the Federal Constitutional Court will most probably lift universal conscription. A measure which will certainly prove beneficial to the attacking capacity of the army, however, the territory needs to be prepared for the obligation of unemployed young persons to serve forced labour in nursing homes, replacing conscientious objectors who do a big part of the work there until now.

Be it labour market politics or the pension reform - the disadvantages of Red-Green as compared to the previous government are always very obvious. While the former minister for social affairs Norbert Blüm wanted to favour the lower income classes, the tax promotion of private pensions now goes to the cashbox of middle and higher income classes. However, the real winners of the red-green pension reform are not mentioned yet: the private financial servants. They and the employers can look forward to prosperous negotiations, because the contribution will be passed on to be payed by the employees.
Thus, ideal conditions are created for the next consensus talks of the red-green government, attacking the equal financing of social security.

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