Germans are facing an increasing range of economic problems, including recession, inflation, falling real wages, and even the beginnings of deindustrialization, but Green Party MP Green Party Johannes Wagner is claiming that Germans have a “moral duty” to give up their wealth.
Wagner took to Twitter to express his outrage that Germans do not want to give away their wealth.
“It’s such a shame that so many people don’t see (or don’t want to?) what incredible prosperity we have in Germany. We are one of the richest countries on Earth. We can still give so much. And also have a moral obligation to do so,” he wrote.
The MP earns more than €10,000 a month in income per month, as well as additional benefits such as paid travel and other expenses, placing him among the highest earners in Germany. He will also receive a generous pension due to his high salary as a state employee.
In another tweet, Wagner called for “more redistribution of the wealth of the super-rich.” However, he did not mention how this money would be redistributed.
Wagner was hit by a range of negative comments on social media. Besides increasing poverty and economic headwinds facing Germany, users pointed out that the median net wealth of young Germans is far below that of other EU countries, while the federal government has soaring debt totaling 2.5 trillion.
As Remix News reported last year, the proportion of poor people in Germany reached a new high, according to the Federal Statistical Office, with the data highlighting a sea change in the German economy. The report also only covered data up until the end of 2021 before the dramatic increase in food and energy prices in 2022.
“The findings are shocking, the economic effects of the pandemic are having a full impact,” said Ulrich Schneider, the director of the German Welfare Parity Association, at the time. His association plays a large role in helping deliver and coordinate social welfare services in the country, with 10,000 organization members and association branches in all 15 German states.
“Never before has a higher value been measured based on the official micro census, and never before has poverty spread so rapidly as during the pandemic,” said Schneider, who added that there are “more poor people than we’ve ever had.”
As Remix News also reported this year, at the same time that Germany vows to continue spending heavily on its liberal migration policy — more than €36 billion in 2023 alone — an increasing number of the country’s senior citizens are reported to be at a growing risk of poverty.
Federal government data published under a request from Alternative for Germany (AfD) lawmakers revealed that 28.1 percent of the German elderly are at risk of poverty, a figure that is higher than the EU average of 27.4 percent and far greater than its Western European neighbors of France (19.1 percent), Belgium (17.4 percent), and Luxembourg (9.3 percent).