Der Kanzler kündigt schmerzhafte Reformen an, da wir uns den Sozialstaat in seinem jetzigen Umfang nicht mehr leisten könnten. Wie groß ist die Belastung des Staates durch die Sozialausgaben überhaupt?
I mean, we should care about the debt. We as a nation should be accumulating wealth and spending it to increase productivity to the benefit of all citizens (and residents). That’s the point of a country in my eyes. We should be working towards working less and having more and doing so sustainably and peacefully.
A little bit of debt is fine, you use it to pay for increased growth or invest into things that can give you reduced costs later. But the CDU want to sell off the country’s wealth, give the money they raise to the rich, and cut the benefits of being a German citizen (and resident) at the same time. They are working against every Germans interest and they are doing so loud and clearly.
You are either misunderstanding me or misunderstanding the conceptual differences between debt, money, and wealth.
A nation can absolutely be debt free and wealthy - there’s a world where a country owns many things (wealth) and owes no money to anyone (debt free). “Creating money” as you put it is accomplished by the government creating money and then spending money on things. Debt does not have to come into the picture for money (literal currency) to be created and spent. Loans (I think the most common form is bonds for the government but I’m actually not sure) are a way for the government to spend money they don’t have by borrowing it (debt). This is good if you use that money to grow the governments revenue, the nations revenue, or the nations productivity (building schools, funding healthcare, building public transit, etc). It’s sometimes bad when you use it to buy temporary services or fund inefficient projects or when the money leaves the nation entirely (sending money to a corporation based in the US that spends little to no money here, for instance. A military contract for instance fully built in another country gives us an expensive product we may not use and which no money recirculates in our nation).
So no, I am not for zero debt at the government level - I very plainly think government debt is a good thing in reasonable quantities and when that money is spent on the improvement of the nation and its people. I think too much debt becomes a noose around the annual budget and slowly errodes the governments ability to do its job. I also think any debt spent poorly is as foolish as it would be for anyone to spend money poorly - except in this case it’s everyone’s money being wasted and it’s a gateway to corruption and the further enrichment of the wealthy.
So I believe what Merz is doing is bad for the country because they’re spending money we don’t have inefficiently on companies that are not wholly based in Germany and will not produce efficiency or quality of life gains for the German populace. Furthermore, doing this entirely through debt when there is a way to generate sufficient income AND benefit the average German is incompetent at best and evil at worst. We could tax the wealthy such that we could do this stupid deal AND not go into further debt, which is obviously more ideal than this stupid deal and debt. Just like doing a good deal and going into further debt would be better than both of those.
Yes, we should focus on improving the lives of Germans and accumulating wealth in the form of education, public housing, public infrastructure, clinics and Apothekes and energy farms, and strengthening our farming infrastructure, etc. All the things a good government would be doing, instead of selling off bits and pieces of itself while cutting services to their citizens while spending money on foreign contracts for a war the rich want because it means more inefficient spending in companies they have stocks in.
You make a lot of valid points and smart government spending is sorely missing from the merz administration.
You are wrong that germany can generate money without debt though. Which is exactly why debt is an important part for wealth. Unless you want to abolish the concept of the Bundesbank.
We are in agreement though that reclaiming money that is sitting still and benefitting few is a great why to reintroduce money to the economic cycle.
I mean, we should care about the debt. We as a nation should be accumulating wealth and spending it to increase productivity to the benefit of all citizens (and residents). That’s the point of a country in my eyes. We should be working towards working less and having more and doing so sustainably and peacefully.
A little bit of debt is fine, you use it to pay for increased growth or invest into things that can give you reduced costs later. But the CDU want to sell off the country’s wealth, give the money they raise to the rich, and cut the benefits of being a German citizen (and resident) at the same time. They are working against every Germans interest and they are doing so loud and clearly.
A country can never be debt free and wealthy. The only way to create money is through government debt.
We need to focus on factors like buying power and state of infrastructure including schools to determine how well we are doing.
It sounds like you’d be happy with the “schwarz null” which is a myth that benefits overrich in the short term and no-one in the long term.
You are either misunderstanding me or misunderstanding the conceptual differences between debt, money, and wealth.
A nation can absolutely be debt free and wealthy - there’s a world where a country owns many things (wealth) and owes no money to anyone (debt free). “Creating money” as you put it is accomplished by the government creating money and then spending money on things. Debt does not have to come into the picture for money (literal currency) to be created and spent. Loans (I think the most common form is bonds for the government but I’m actually not sure) are a way for the government to spend money they don’t have by borrowing it (debt). This is good if you use that money to grow the governments revenue, the nations revenue, or the nations productivity (building schools, funding healthcare, building public transit, etc). It’s sometimes bad when you use it to buy temporary services or fund inefficient projects or when the money leaves the nation entirely (sending money to a corporation based in the US that spends little to no money here, for instance. A military contract for instance fully built in another country gives us an expensive product we may not use and which no money recirculates in our nation).
So no, I am not for zero debt at the government level - I very plainly think government debt is a good thing in reasonable quantities and when that money is spent on the improvement of the nation and its people. I think too much debt becomes a noose around the annual budget and slowly errodes the governments ability to do its job. I also think any debt spent poorly is as foolish as it would be for anyone to spend money poorly - except in this case it’s everyone’s money being wasted and it’s a gateway to corruption and the further enrichment of the wealthy.
So I believe what Merz is doing is bad for the country because they’re spending money we don’t have inefficiently on companies that are not wholly based in Germany and will not produce efficiency or quality of life gains for the German populace. Furthermore, doing this entirely through debt when there is a way to generate sufficient income AND benefit the average German is incompetent at best and evil at worst. We could tax the wealthy such that we could do this stupid deal AND not go into further debt, which is obviously more ideal than this stupid deal and debt. Just like doing a good deal and going into further debt would be better than both of those.
Yes, we should focus on improving the lives of Germans and accumulating wealth in the form of education, public housing, public infrastructure, clinics and Apothekes and energy farms, and strengthening our farming infrastructure, etc. All the things a good government would be doing, instead of selling off bits and pieces of itself while cutting services to their citizens while spending money on foreign contracts for a war the rich want because it means more inefficient spending in companies they have stocks in.
You make a lot of valid points and smart government spending is sorely missing from the merz administration.
You are wrong that germany can generate money without debt though. Which is exactly why debt is an important part for wealth. Unless you want to abolish the concept of the Bundesbank.
We are in agreement though that reclaiming money that is sitting still and benefitting few is a great why to reintroduce money to the economic cycle.
This ship sailed under Helmut Kohl when he decided to plunder the Rentenversicherung and give all the money to our oligarchs.
I’m all for rolling that change back tho.
I think it’s a bit reductive to point to one moment and focus there. It can always get worse and the current CDU are working to make it so.
But also thank you for the opportunity to read about German history more. I need to learn more.
True. It’s a process with lots of little cuts. But unlike the leaders before him Kohl had a lot of time in power…
If you want another rabbit hole may I suggest you google “Jüdische Vermächtnisse”.
Yeah, that’s what I meant.