What’s the alternative? Everyone knows it’s the eventual ruin and end of Germany (and much of the West has the same problem) but that’s still generations away. The current existing people who understand that the entire government run social system can’t work unless more people can pay into it are obviously making the best out of 2 bad choices. And the locals aren’t reproducing so they’ve essentially have said that the idea of Germany (and more generally the west) isn’t important. At least not as much as ensuring they can continue to receive state run benefits that only work with growing populations generally.
So what’s the solution if not this? The entire developed world is seeing a drop in fertility and reproduction so they’ll all eventually be fighting for people from places that are - Africa and Middle East and some other regions.
I'm an immigrant in Germany, and I'll likely apply for citizenship now. I was waiting for this, as were many of my friends.
The alternative is eternally staying on a residence permit, and getting kicked out when you stop making money and paying taxes. It's not what I want, and the transactional relationship cuts both ways, but it gets you taxpayers with no strings attached.
However I want to be more than a worker. I want to build a life here and I'm getting really tired of the humiliating residence permit renewals at the dysfunctional immigration office.
>So what’s the solution if not this? The entire developed world is seeing a drop in fertility and reproduction so they’ll all eventually be fighting for people from places that are - Africa and Middle East and some other regions.
Gulf states have awesome solution. You can go there and make money, never path to citizenship. If you are expat - you can make a lot of money and live well. If you are low skill laborer - well they can improve their conditions.
But I no see problem with importing people just to work, send money home and then send them back.
> And the locals aren’t reproducing so they’ve essentially have said that the idea of Germany (and more generally the west) isn’t important
That is if you have an explicitly ethnic understanding of "the west" and Germany and, implicitly, that there is any kind of significant ethnic overlap between the west and Germany: there isn't. The west is made up of Anglos, Scots, French, Germans, Portuguese, Spaniards, Italians, and many hundreds of smaller cultural and ethnic groups which have spent the better part of the last 2000 years of european history trying to utterly annihilate each other (not to mention that larger "political west" which can include Japan, Korea, and other non-european liberal democracies).
Imagine going back in time and lamenting to the French people of the late 1800s that there aren't going to be enough Germans left. I don't think they'd react with the same sadness as you but rather breathe a sigh of relief. "The west" is an invention: what matters is the survival liberal democracy and the human race
Funny you should mention it; one of the election posters in Alexanderplatz is for the Partei für schulmedizinische Verjüngungsforschung ("Party for Biomedical Rejuvenation Research") — a single-issue political party in Germany that seeks to accelerate the development of medicine to reverse the aging process.
I can't vote here, but if I could, this is appealing.
(I might still not actually vote for them, it depends on the details of the voting system and single-issue parties like this in the UK seem to attract people that don't play well with others).
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Another solution is one I mention in half the threads around here on the topic "are AI companies evil copyright pirates?", where my comments revolve around asserting that any AI good enough to be economically disruptive is necessarily also good enough to be the kind of thing that a government can take ownership over in order to supply the means of production that enables a sustainable UBI alternative to the current economic paradigm.
The solution to the encumbered pension fund is to transition to privately run retirement schemes like the superannuation scheme of Australia.
The problem with Germany today is that the social state is archaic and has not been updated for the modern world. Unsurprising when the government still uses fax and snail mail for all communication.
This of course does not fix declining populations as a whole, but all advanced economies go through population decline almost like a rite of passage now. Unless growth is maintained, the system shrinks. Ultimately politicians and economists are more concerned with this over any other social ramifications of bringing migrants into the country. Obviously a balance needs to be struck, but Germany doesn't seem to be good at moderate and effective policy, e.g swinging from being a haven for refugees to now wanting to initiate mass deportations
> transition to privately run retirement schemes like the superannuation scheme of Australia.
How is this a solution? Let‘s say you are a social worker or a teacher, lower middle class income. What kind of financial trickery can potentially save you after retirement if you barely meet the ends now and demographics aren’t looking good?
Are Australians able to fund their retirement in 2050? This is the only question that matters, because Germans can fund their retirement now too.
Investing savings via a fund is not unreasonable, but will it beat the inflation in the long term, taking into account management commissions and taxes? The answer is not obvious to me.
> Everyone knows it’s the eventual ruin and end of Germany
This is not an "Everyone knows..."
Unfortunately, the major right-wing party wants to reduce immigration and actually remove German citizenship from non "native" Germans with multiple passports.
That’s inflammatory and unnecessary. And you can hardly say “check the data” without reference. This kind of comment does not belong here or in any decent discussion.
So what’s the solution if not this? The entire developed world is seeing a drop in fertility and reproduction so they’ll all eventually be fighting for people from places that are - Africa and Middle East and some other regions.