[lbo-talk] Interview with Left Party Leader Oskar Lafontaine

[shag carpet bomb]

At 05:09 PM 5/18/2009, SA wrote:
>shag carpet bomb wrote:
>
>>interesting, especially in light of discussion around german politics by 
>>angelus novus. (got this from the platypus society list, which I joined 
>>out of curiosity when SA posted something about the group).
>>
>>i fing two things interesting, in a tongue-and-cheek way: that the left 
>>party is being accused of moving to the left! and that their proposed 
>>minimum wage is the lousy equivalent of $13.60. given our stereotypes of 
>>european welfare states: bfd!
>
>That's almost twice the new, hiked U.S. Obama-Ted Kennedy minimum wage. Bfd?
>
>SA

that's the proposed, pie-in-the-sky, fat chance they'll be able "to enter 
into a coalition with any other party" because the demands are so "left" 
according to der Spiegel's interviewer's comments. The other parties are 
advocating the minimum wages advocated in the u.s. ~10/hr:

As Angelus Novus wrote me off-list:

"I just wanted to note that Germany doesn't even have a legally mandated 
minimum wage, except for branches of industry where a sufficient percentage 
of the branch is subsumed to a collective bargaining agreement.  The idea 
of actually implementing one is current among various currents, the Greens 
and the DGB (the trade union confederation) are both advocating 7,50 an 
hour, Die Linke is advocating 8,00 (if my memory serves me correctly)."