Beautiful living – the forgotten middle class

For Karl Marx it was clear: there were exploiters and exploited. The former had the means of production, the latter only had their workforce, which they had to sell to a hunger wage. The factory owner sagged the added value that they generated, which made it richer and richer, while the ranging arm remained. Under these circumstances, it only seemed a matter of time before the nasty people would go to the barricades.

But Marx had made the bill without the social democracy – the rehabilitation clinic of capitalism. By picking up the battered people, she made sure that they no longer found their lives to be unbearable, but as an opportunity okay. The revolutionary vigor suffered from this. With a full belly in the allotment garden or even row house, the willingness was low to stimulate a stir. The class consciousness faded. Yes, the classes themselves mutated to layers, the transitions of which are increasingly blurred. The skilled worker and the office worker have long no longer found themselves a proletarian, but as part of the middle class.

Where this starts and stops is often a matter of interpretation. Of all things, the “Stern” – not necessarily known as a class -fighting press organ – made the discovery on his doorstep in Hamburg that the gap between poor and rich. It was found that within a generation, typical middle -class city parts had been socially relegated, while others (albeit significantly less) had gone through a gentrification. That was at the end of the 90s.

A good quarter of a century has passed since then. Numerous left -wing politicians and not quite as left -wing media have joined the finding of the “Stern” and are not tired of denouncing the growing economic gap. However, the outrage about this injustice may not really occur in the people. A case of cognitive dissonance. Because the numbers does not coincide with the personal feeling of many people, especially West German.

This is because in the old Federal Republic was understood to mean something completely different from the term middle class than today. A family that belonged to the middle class in the mid -1970s had a single car, often a VW beetle, i.e. a vehicle that offered less space than the current VW Polo. Under these cramped conditions, the Spain or Italy went once a year- a flight would have been too expensive. The range of goods in supermarkets comprised only a fraction of the current one. For more exclusive foods you had to go to expensive delicatessen or health food stores.

Today, on the other hand, Aldi offers champagne, Parma ham and organic products. The typical middle class family now has two cars, goes on vacation at least twice a year (one of the reasons why the autumn holidays were extended from one to two weeks) and treats himself to short trips to the metropolises – “London Calling!” No wonder that, according to a survey by the German Economy Institute, the Germans believe that 25 percent of the population are rich in this country. In fact, it is only 4 percent who earn over 5800 euros as a single monthly, as a childless couple over 8,700 euros and as a family with two children over 12 200 euros net.

But in this false assessment, a real perception is expressed: parts of the German middle class now live a life that was previously reserved. The general standard of living has increased. This creates a paradoxical situation: champagne can be afforded, but no longer your own terrace to serve him there. Land and real estate have become more expensive within a few decades far beyond the inflation rate.

Therefore, the economic crack no longer runs between poor and rich, but across the middle class. Here is the “generation heirs”, which thanks to the home ownership can largely use their income for consumption, there the real estateless, who groaned with rising rents and already know with 25 that they will never have a home.

There are many of the latter. The home rate in Germany is only 42 percent. For comparison: In many European countries, this quota is over 60 percent, in Spain, Portugal and Italy even over 75 percent. In view of such figures, a social and fair policy would have to do everything possible to make average earning earnings easier. This is exactly what the social democratic governments of the 1970s practiced by creating numerous tax incentives and funding programs.

In today’s SPD policy, however, the home no longer plays a role. And certainly not at the Left Party. One prefers to lead bitter (and at the end of breadless) discussions about the rental price brake, instead of containing their only consistent implementation – the rent cover – socially and legally. However, this seems to be a further far as well as the nationalization of key industries, still a left -wing demand from ancient times.

Do we look at the situation differently and a trace more realistic: Wouldn’t it be more sustainable to make apartment owners independent of dependent tenants? You could even regulate that ecologically. The home does not have to be a free -standing single -family house in another suburb of the ground. There are beautiful skyscrapers, from which you also have a good view of the political landscape.

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In the Bundestag election campaign, the Left Party campaigned with slogans such as “If your rent is too high, the landlord is happy” and “so that the rent does not eat life”. At first glance, this seems combative, but is not very far thought. One refrains from ending unbearable conditions and is content with relieving them – as if to give painkillers in chronic inflammation instead of eliminating the cause of suffering.

At the same time, such slogans show that many left has become the essence of the middle class. Anyone who belongs to the middle class does not dream of stable rents, but of calling an apartment or a house. The SPD of the 60s and 70s was aware of this. She knew the wishes and longings of her voters and satisfied her. The wages were election results of well over 40 percent. Nowadays the SPD crayens around 16 percent, and the Left Party is celebrating for around half. The winners look different.

So it is high time to take care of the forgotten middle class! There are enough frustrated tenants who are just waiting to break away from the dependency on their landlord. As long as communism is waiting for itself and private property does not disappear, only one thing helps: become the owner.