<story><title>What Does It Mean to Be Poor in Germany?</title><url>http://www.spiegel.de/international/tomorrow/a-1093371.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zinssmeister</author><text>I read the german version of this article a few days ago and paired with my own experience (I was born and raised in Germany and lived there until the age of 25) I came to the conclusion that: a.) being poor in Germany is much much better than being poor in most other countries (incl. the United states, where I reside now) and b.) When you are poor in Germany you can drastically improve your cash flow by not living in one of the expensive cities. Living out in the country in a small village will enable you to stretch your welfare checks compared to living in Munich, where most things and most people around you are much more.&lt;p&gt;I also think Germany has a unique opportunity here to tackle the problem of social mobility and could improve the way they deploy the welfare budget. For example supporting a young family with many children before they face sliding into &amp;quot;poor status&amp;quot;, due to one parent staying home to take care of the family. The article did a great job highlighting three interesting situations and their challenges&amp;#x2F;opportunities.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>weinzierl</author><text>&amp;gt;  The article did a great job highlighting three interesting situations and their challenges&amp;#x2F;opportunities.&lt;p&gt;Yes it did and I agree with all you said. 
As a German I just wanted to point out one thing that might not be clear to many readers not familiar with the situation in Germany:&lt;p&gt;And as you said the article was &amp;quot;highlighting the interesting situations&amp;quot;. These life stories are highly atypical.&lt;p&gt;Mr. Huber was an Engineer at Siemens. Even if he didn&amp;#x27;t make quite a career there, he had certainly one of the better paying jobs in Germany. He inherited a house at Tegernsee, which is wealthy area. In contrast to most other Germans he had all the chances he could have, but somehow (the article doesn&amp;#x27;t say) he lost everything.&lt;p&gt;The Ehlers&amp;#x27; trouble started with the birth of their forth child.
Only 3.5% of all families with children in Germany have four or more kids [1].&lt;p&gt;Mrs. Kramer is seriously ill. She is a single parent but has (apparently) otherwise no family to support her.  She lives in her own apartment and has a good education. Her case is certainly the most typical of all three.&lt;p&gt;What does typical poverty in Germany really look like?&lt;p&gt;15.4% of the German population is considered poor[2][3].&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    - Single Parent 41.9% 
    - Family with three or more children 24.6%
    - Unemployed 57.6%
    - Low level of education 30.8%
    - Foreign national 32.5% 
    - Migration background 26.7%

&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.destatis.de&amp;#x2F;DE&amp;#x2F;PresseService&amp;#x2F;Presse&amp;#x2F;Pressekonferenzen&amp;#x2F;2013&amp;#x2F;Geburten_2012&amp;#x2F;Begleitheft_Geburten.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.destatis.de&amp;#x2F;DE&amp;#x2F;PresseService&amp;#x2F;Presse&amp;#x2F;Pressekonfer...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.zeit.de&amp;#x2F;wirtschaft&amp;#x2F;2016-02&amp;#x2F;armut-deutschland-2016-paritaetische-verband&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.zeit.de&amp;#x2F;wirtschaft&amp;#x2F;2016-02&amp;#x2F;armut-deutschland-2016...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.der-paritaetische.de&amp;#x2F;index.php?eID=tx_nawsecuredl&amp;amp;u=0&amp;amp;g=0&amp;amp;t=1465160658&amp;amp;hash=b1f7f86883b269c53d1a67812b32830d631b2e21&amp;amp;file=fileadmin&amp;#x2F;dokumente&amp;#x2F;2016_armutsbericht&amp;#x2F;ab2016_komplett_web.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.der-paritaetische.de&amp;#x2F;index.php?eID=tx_nawsecuredl...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>What Does It Mean to Be Poor in Germany?</title><url>http://www.spiegel.de/international/tomorrow/a-1093371.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zinssmeister</author><text>I read the german version of this article a few days ago and paired with my own experience (I was born and raised in Germany and lived there until the age of 25) I came to the conclusion that: a.) being poor in Germany is much much better than being poor in most other countries (incl. the United states, where I reside now) and b.) When you are poor in Germany you can drastically improve your cash flow by not living in one of the expensive cities. Living out in the country in a small village will enable you to stretch your welfare checks compared to living in Munich, where most things and most people around you are much more.&lt;p&gt;I also think Germany has a unique opportunity here to tackle the problem of social mobility and could improve the way they deploy the welfare budget. For example supporting a young family with many children before they face sliding into &amp;quot;poor status&amp;quot;, due to one parent staying home to take care of the family. The article did a great job highlighting three interesting situations and their challenges&amp;#x2F;opportunities.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jfaucett</author><text>Exactly this. I moved to Germany around 6 years ago, and I&amp;#x27;ve noticed huge differences in cost of living just in the few cities I&amp;#x27;ve lived in (southern Germany was the most expensive i.e. Munich).&lt;p&gt;Also, as someone who has lived in the US and Argentina, and has spent a good portion of life living in the &amp;quot;poorer class&amp;quot;, I have to say being &amp;quot;poor&amp;quot; in Germany seems lightyears better than it is in those two countries, although I haven&amp;#x27;t experienced being poor here, only in those others.&lt;p&gt;The first time I saw a German ghetto I thought it was joke. A German ghetto is a pretty nice place to live in most countries, in the US it&amp;#x27;d be like living in a multicultural poorer neighborhood where everyone has healthcare and there&amp;#x27;s no guns or violent crime.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, it still amazes me sometimes how far Germans go with the &amp;quot;lets help the world&amp;quot; mentality. One of the first things, I got asked after arriving in Germany was if I wanted Hartz IV? I already had a fulltime well-paying job, but hey I wouldn&amp;#x27;t start for a couple months so they wanted to give me money until then! What country does that? So sure, you pay huge taxes, you get safer cities and even &amp;quot;poor&amp;quot; people have apartments, healthcare, food, tv, internet, etc.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t to say all is perfect. There&amp;#x27;s plenty of things wrong in Germany (aka 6 month winters), but on the issue of &amp;quot;quality of life as a poor person&amp;quot;, they are rocking it IMHO.</text></comment>