In 2012, Volkswagen executive Peter Hartz headed up a commission in charge of reforming Germany’s job market. The result was a package of reforms known as “Hartz 4” aimed at reducing unemployment and reducing social benefits. The reforms brought about a tremendous rise in the recipients of social welfare, a drop in wages, and a rise in poverty in Europe’s leading economy. In this report, analysts and welfare recipients paint a picture of the new kind of poverty artificially created in Germany. People are forced to accept jobs, yet survive on a miserable wage. The gap between the rich and poor has grown wider and workers’ rights have been greatly diminished. Hartz 4 is administered by the National Job Office, described by job seekers as a totalitarian regime that collects information about every detail of a person’s life. The reforms, they say, can only be implemented with heightened repression. The Hartz 4 reforms are a control method that subjects child recipients to bullying and isolation, a kind of modern slavery that keeps people working in precarious conditions and forces them to live in isolation. teleSUR
