Seth Ackerman wrote:
> What's with this "willful misattribution"? I was
> under the impression that you're against the welfare
> state, based on comments like the one below. But I
> phrased it in the form of a question to give you an
> opportunity to explain your position.
Seth, notice the key phrase "but not supporting open borders":
"Anyone arguing for some sort of social-democratic welfare state measures to cushion the blow of neo-liberalism for workers in the advanced countries, but not supporting open borders is defending racial privilege and welfare chauvinism of the advanced countries."
> Angelus, I'm sure you know much more about the
German > scene than I do. All I know is what I read in
the
> papers. According to Der Spiegel
*snip*
> Beck wants to extend this period again, in
accordance > with a model developed by the German
Confederation
> of Trade Unions (DGB).
Seth, this is typical neo-liberal alarmism from der Spiegel. All Beck wants to due is prolong the period of paying out Arbeitslosengeld I for workers over a certain age. In this, he is not doing anything to help the masses of long-term unemployed under Arbeitslosengeld II, but is simply throwing a bone to the skilled-worker trade union clientel. It also makes sense. A skilled tradesman who spends 30 years working and paying into the social security system only gets Arbeitslosengeld I for, at the most, 18 months, before being forced to collect Arbeitslosengeld II and losing his civil rights (this sounds like exaggeration to you, I'm sure, but as my partner receives ALG II, I can tell you it it is pretty horrible what one is subjected to).
Perhaps the source of your confusion is that while Hartz IV is officially the name for the series of welfare reforms proposed by the Hartz commission, in the everyday vernacular it is used by people as a synonym for Arbeitslosengeld II. So when I say that this measure does nothing to affect people under Hartz IV, I mean that it does nothing to touch the draconian measures of ALG II.
But for the reactionaries at der Spiegel, even Beck's mild sop for the trade unions goes too far.
> you know how the SPD is inserting the words
> "democratic socialism" in their program to appeal to
> voters on the left? See for yourself how well that
> would play over here!
Except that over here, every leftist knows what a sad joke it is when the SPD employs such rhetoric.
I suspect the Europhilia of American leftists has to do with the fact that they all fantasize about being the Jean-Paul Belmondo character in Godard's A Bout de Souffle, running free through Paris and making love to Jean Seberg. Not that I blame them. I certainly do too. Unfortunately, that's not reality.
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