The rest of Europe is worse.
Few Germans, however, are willing to part with their commitment to social responsibility.
They're unwilling to part with their benefits.
America's laissez-faire hire-and-fire approach and acceptance of gaping social inequalities aren't the answer, many Germans agree.
I wonder where this myth arose? To the extent we have inequality, to that extent we follow the German model of socialism.
But Mr. Streeck and other academics believe Germany's egalitarianism will eventually erode under the costs of maintaining it. If current trends continue, "we will have a dual citizenry of a very accomplished, wealthy elite and then those completely dependent on the welfare state," Mr. Streeck says.
QED.
Income differences will create a society that will begin to look "a lot like America," he adds.
In spite of the guy's refutation of his own assertion, he bails himself by pointing at a myth of his own creation.
Signs of declining wealth are already apparent. When B. Kuhlen went bankrupt last year, Karl Kretschmann's four-decade career at the company ended. He spent months in bed, occasionally getting up to walk his dog, Balou. "My lifesaver," he says, patting the gray dog.
In Germany this kind of fatalism ends up with Germans allowing someone to execute them just as Saddam has been elected to execute Araby.
At about the same time, his wife, Doris, lost her job with a local frozen-goods company. Then their daughter-in-law, who lives in the apartment below theirs, was let go from the photo-developing shop where she worked. Their son, a fireman, remains employed.
We gotta get Jochen out of that place.
"What I fear is if we can't hold on to what we have," Mrs. Kretschmann says. "I'm afraid of what comes next."
Zig heil? |
