Samstag, 2. Mai 2009

Labour Day Demonstrations Hamburg, Berlin

Clashes with the German police more violent than ever.

Some augured that in Germany social unrest was hovering ante portas with the underclass growing restless as an outcrop of reckless banks being rescued by the state - thus in turn by people's tax Euros.

That may be but the underclass of Germany literally stayed put throughout Labour Day and shall continue to do so.

Underclass being defined as "those people" who stay unemployed for longer than one year.
This is what happens to them:


They forfeit the right to move beyond a perimeter of 50 miles of their registered address.
Though they may get permission to do so from their caseworkers, disobeying the rule will be sanctioned by slashing the already low alimentation. Which case officer would give permission to travel to a May Day demonstration? Only one who is sickened by her job on moral grounds and wants to get fired anyhow.

This underclass forfeits any claims resulting from decades of payments into compulsory unemployment insurance. Instead "those people" receive Grundsicherung - - the basic minimum sustenance for staying alive and clothed.
In order to receive that they must give up substantial portions of their privacy and civil rights.
Because the state must be able to determine at all times if criteria of eligibility are being fulfilled. Those criteria are so detailed and intertwined with anything a person does in everyday life that, as a result, there is no longer any such thing as "everyday life" for a person on the receiving end of this ration.

Further "those people" may not receive any monetary gifts from friends, mothers, brothers ....in order to complement their meager allotments. Lest the same amount be deducted from the Grundsicherung.
Doing the math, that means the underclass neither has the money nor the liberty to travel to any of the Labour Day demonstrations.
Well done, I'd say.

Labour Day demonstrations are are dubbed "May Day" demonstrations in Hamburg, that very old and very sophisticated seafaring city. There are a great many things sinking indeed.

Heidi 2.0 muses:
Can one be underclass if one dwells on top of the mountain?

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