Poverty and early deaths for the pensioners
Poverty when they?re old threatens Germans now aged over 40. The pension insurance has practically mutated into a special tax for younger people. Pensioners fighting for their rights is the last thing Red/Green want. The government has caused massive price rises in the cost of living, hitting people on small pensions worst; they?re having to skimp on food. Reports are emerging of seriously ill pensioners dying because they received no or inadequate hospital care. A planned value-added tax hike will financially break the neck of the recipients of small pensions.
After Red/Green took the inheritance of the Kohl government, the ?Riester Pension? was propagated, a scheme under which income earners take out state-subsidised insurance to provide additionally for their old age. It?s to make up for shortfalls in the statutory pensions insurance in years to come. But the Riester Pension, so named after a welfare minister and former trade union leader no longer in office, does not solve the problem of the old age poverty threatening those now aged over 40.
Premium increases on the one hand and benefit reductions on the other leave no substance for ?private provision?. A pensions cut that came into force on 1.1.2004 was nicely packaged: Pensioners have to pay the full premium for nursing insurance and they won?t be getting the usual annual pensions raise this year ? ?Nullrunde?, zero round, is the phrase used. At the same time the benefits for in-patient hospital treatment were cut.
The old age pension has practically mutated from an ?inter-generation contract? into a special tax for younger people. On the one hand people are forced to pay very high premiums into the statutory pensions insurance, on the other hand those paying the premiums won?t even get to see the money they paid in. Currently the system is running according to the principle: ?What the hell do I care what comes after me?? Those paying in are so ripped off that they don?t have enough left to put into private provisions ? not even for a simple standard of living.
The so-called "Riester Pension" of Red/Green offers no security whatsoever because
1. the tax promotion can be ended at any time and then you?re sitting on a savings contract with below-average conditions;
2. the Riester Pension is not transferrable abroad. So anyone who for financial or political reasons wants to spend their retirement in another country receives not a cent;
3. the disbursements of the Riester Pensions are taxed at high rates;
4. due to new borrowing and corruption of the Euro stability pact the government is working on a new inflation.
If the euro stability pact is castrated of its content ? and that is the proposal of the Red/Green government ? and this generates large-scale inflation, none of the Riester Pensions will be worth anything. Then the champagne corks will pop in the managerial offices of the insurance companies. That will be the cream on the jam of the Red/Green piss-take of those who invested in Riester Pension schemes.
Red/Green warfare on Joe/Jane Average
With the currency reform (changing DM into euro) and several laws the government has caused massive price rises in the cost of living that break any will to save by people with small or median incomes. It goes without saying that Red/Green spoke out against letting the people vote on whether to bring in the euro or not ? now, where would that take us in the German democracy? In other European countries they did vote on introducing the euro. Like in the education and growth rankings, Red/Green also gives us an also-ran place in democracy. This suits Red/Green because aware pensioners fighting for their rights is the last thing they want. They want them, like dumb livestock, to swallow the propaganda slogans devised by advisers and advertising agencies.
The ?ecology tax? on motor fuels has caused massive food price rises but done nothing to alleviate damage to the environment. With the law to promote renewable energies (EEG) and the law to protect electricity production in power-heat cogeneration (KWK) Red/Green has brought in regulations which have also raised electricity prices substantially. Anyone who thinks this is doing something for the environment is mistaken. Both price increases hit people on small pensions worst; they have to skimp on food to pay them. For pensioners Red/Green is becoming a never-ending nightmare because every ?reform? cuts a salami slice off their standard of living until extreme poverty threatens.
One pavement stone in that direction is the cutting of hospital stay disbursement that began on 1.1.2004. It appears that the intention is not to remove but to expand the inhumane conditions in old people?s nursing homes, caused by under-staffing and the employment of untrained rather than trained workers.
Where is the effective Red/Green initiative to do away with the inhumane conditions in care? If it should exist, it would be only as a propaganda fake for whose rhetoric consulting firms are making money like it was going out of fashion. These inhumane conditions are reported regularly.
The Social/Green realpolitik is a wrecking ball not only in destruction of the social security systems but also in respect of the basic human rights in nursing care.
Reports are emerging of seriously ill pensioners dying because they received no or inadequate hospital care due to the cut in insurance payments. Do they want such cases to increase?
No one is saying it openly yet, but they?re all working on increasing the rate of value-added tax But then, every nation of pensioners ? and that?s what we?re becoming ? has the government it deserves.
Translated by Diet Simon.
Premium increases on the one hand and benefit reductions on the other leave no substance for ?private provision?. A pensions cut that came into force on 1.1.2004 was nicely packaged: Pensioners have to pay the full premium for nursing insurance and they won?t be getting the usual annual pensions raise this year ? ?Nullrunde?, zero round, is the phrase used. At the same time the benefits for in-patient hospital treatment were cut.
The old age pension has practically mutated from an ?inter-generation contract? into a special tax for younger people. On the one hand people are forced to pay very high premiums into the statutory pensions insurance, on the other hand those paying the premiums won?t even get to see the money they paid in. Currently the system is running according to the principle: ?What the hell do I care what comes after me?? Those paying in are so ripped off that they don?t have enough left to put into private provisions ? not even for a simple standard of living.
The so-called "Riester Pension" of Red/Green offers no security whatsoever because
1. the tax promotion can be ended at any time and then you?re sitting on a savings contract with below-average conditions;
2. the Riester Pension is not transferrable abroad. So anyone who for financial or political reasons wants to spend their retirement in another country receives not a cent;
3. the disbursements of the Riester Pensions are taxed at high rates;
4. due to new borrowing and corruption of the Euro stability pact the government is working on a new inflation.
If the euro stability pact is castrated of its content ? and that is the proposal of the Red/Green government ? and this generates large-scale inflation, none of the Riester Pensions will be worth anything. Then the champagne corks will pop in the managerial offices of the insurance companies. That will be the cream on the jam of the Red/Green piss-take of those who invested in Riester Pension schemes.
Red/Green warfare on Joe/Jane Average
With the currency reform (changing DM into euro) and several laws the government has caused massive price rises in the cost of living that break any will to save by people with small or median incomes. It goes without saying that Red/Green spoke out against letting the people vote on whether to bring in the euro or not ? now, where would that take us in the German democracy? In other European countries they did vote on introducing the euro. Like in the education and growth rankings, Red/Green also gives us an also-ran place in democracy. This suits Red/Green because aware pensioners fighting for their rights is the last thing they want. They want them, like dumb livestock, to swallow the propaganda slogans devised by advisers and advertising agencies.
The ?ecology tax? on motor fuels has caused massive food price rises but done nothing to alleviate damage to the environment. With the law to promote renewable energies (EEG) and the law to protect electricity production in power-heat cogeneration (KWK) Red/Green has brought in regulations which have also raised electricity prices substantially. Anyone who thinks this is doing something for the environment is mistaken. Both price increases hit people on small pensions worst; they have to skimp on food to pay them. For pensioners Red/Green is becoming a never-ending nightmare because every ?reform? cuts a salami slice off their standard of living until extreme poverty threatens.
One pavement stone in that direction is the cutting of hospital stay disbursement that began on 1.1.2004. It appears that the intention is not to remove but to expand the inhumane conditions in old people?s nursing homes, caused by under-staffing and the employment of untrained rather than trained workers.
Where is the effective Red/Green initiative to do away with the inhumane conditions in care? If it should exist, it would be only as a propaganda fake for whose rhetoric consulting firms are making money like it was going out of fashion. These inhumane conditions are reported regularly.
The Social/Green realpolitik is a wrecking ball not only in destruction of the social security systems but also in respect of the basic human rights in nursing care.
Reports are emerging of seriously ill pensioners dying because they received no or inadequate hospital care due to the cut in insurance payments. Do they want such cases to increase?
No one is saying it openly yet, but they?re all working on increasing the rate of value-added tax But then, every nation of pensioners ? and that?s what we?re becoming ? has the government it deserves.
Translated by Diet Simon.
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