From social safety net to social G-string

Are you not fed up already with us harping about marginalized folks in a rich country like Germany?

We admit: the main reason for this specific post is our dumb pride in coming up with the title.

Yet, the title is adequate. A G-string often exposes things you really, really would prefer not to see.

Germany took the hedge clippers to its social safety net and out came a homemade G-string, not even an Ives Saint Laurent or Ralph Lauren one. Nope, one ugly ass (pardon the pun) G-string it is.

And it is a one size fits all! You get the image?

We already pointed out that one problem with those cuts is the absence of a non-governmental support system. The churches handing out food, the food banks, the small outfits like Food not Bombs, they were not needed around here, and now the country does not have them.

To be sure, there is one food charity called "Die Tafel" (the table), where some of the groceries close to expiration date from our local supermarket go. We ran into a couple of old German guys receiving some groceries at the loading dock of a nearby store.

They were almost apologetic when they lowered their voices to explain they were making a pickup for Die Tafel a couple of towns over!

Even at Die Tafel, food is not completely free. They still charge you a buck or so for a bag of food, and you have to show papers proving you are on means tested benefits.

Another reason for why the situation is dire is that German approach to doing things, both good and bad.
So, they took the idea of means testing and implemented it "the German way", need we say more?

While we are dealing with social benefits images, the Germans have the term "soziale Hängematte" (social hammock, or benefits hammock, "welfare queens"), a liberally used insult towards people on the means tested Hartz-IV or SSI regime.

Obviously, hammock evokes an image of leisure, of white beaches and palm trees, of free flowing booze and friendly young ladies, especially in a country without white beaches and palm trees, although they have the booze and the friendly young ladies.

Middle aged while males sipping a colada, leering at the ladies in the lei, while the industrious folks back home go to work in the dark and the cold, it is a powerful image.

Flat wages, lots of "not enough to live on" jobs, higher fees, taxes, drastically cut pensions, and that German way of doing things...