Europe
News and information from Europe ๐ช๐บ
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
- Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.
(This list may get expanded as necessary.)
Posts that link to the following sources will be removed
- on any topic: Al Mayadeen, brusselssignal:eu, citjourno:com, europesays:com, Breitbart, Daily Caller, Fox, GB News, geo-trends:eu, news-pravda:com, OAN, RT, sociable:co, any AI slop sites (when in doubt please look for a credible imprint/about page), change:org (for privacy reasons)
- on Middle-East topics: Al Jazeera
- on Hungary: Euronews
Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media. Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com
(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)
Ban lengths, etc.
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the primary mod account @EuroMod@feddit.org
view the rest of the comments
Keep foreigners out? Sounds reminiscent of USA MAGA racism. Please elaborate
The German economy will be short of 7 million workers in 10 years. That will severely affect the economic output and the general welfare. An obvious solution would be to attract people from other countries to come work in Germany. Incidentally, there have been many asylum seekers in the past 10 years. However, due to public sentiment fueled by right wing propaganda, ruling parties have worked to increase obstacles to move to Germany. Recent examples would be the closing of borders to EU neighbours or cutting welfare checks for Ukrainian refugees (and services that help them finding work, which is more relevant than the financial cuts). The far right AfD party is and has been on the rise and they were able to dictate policy related to foreigners as the other parties try to regain lost votes, mostly unsuccessfully so far. In general, this creates a hostile atmosphere for people from abroad, making Germany less attractive as a place to work or new home. This of course directly contradicts the requirement of additional people in the work force, that's what I meant when saying that this is a self-made problem by the government.
This is of course very brief and simplified but I hope it gives you an impression. Yes, MAGAesque politics are on the rise in other parts of the world as well.
Which is only bad for capitalists. The shortage will increase wages for workers.
There are many issues like the downtrodden infrastructure, shortages in the medical sector or in the public administration. Already today some things take ages. There are many everyday tasks that become more difficult, especially for workers that cannot freely distribute their time to get that doctors appointment or daycare for their children. Also, there is risk of inflation eating up the higher wages. That depends on how much productivity can be raised but a loss of almost 15 percent in output will be hard to offset.
I have difficulty seeing this situation as a win for anybody.
Edit: for some individuals that will obviously be a win but for the society as a whole it will not.
Capitalist do not pay taxes and therefore pay for infrastructure, the medical sector or public administration. Workers do. So higher wages, are going to improve that.
Also fewer people means less demand for housing and basically the same supply. So prices will fall. That means people will be able to move to the places with the best infrastructure.
Oh and daycare for children is something, which is a fix for this. A kindergarten can take care of say 10children per employee, which allows basically ten parents to work in the meantime. That is a massive leverage.
The wages of the workers will adjust because they are what the Capitalists need. The workers cannot distribute time because they are not valued enough. With more workers the situation will get worse, not better.
Wages will certainly not go up enough to combat everything else going to shit.
Who cares about a higher salary when you cannot get any healthcare? What's the use of more money when the infrastructure is turning to dust?
Higher wages pay for that health care. When wages increase spending moves from business owners who buy yachts to workers who can buy healthcare. So less people build boats and more people treat patients.