Merkel Says Germans ‘Never Had It Better.’ But Many Feel Left Behind.
" he said. that But if I look at other developments, such as the precarious job situation, 1.2 million people who hold down jobs
but still live below the poverty level — the food banks have more than 1.5 million people whom they are helping — how an average family has never had it so difficult to find affordable housing in Germany’s large cities — these are developments that Angela Merkel likes to block out,
Support for the Social Democrats — traditionally the party of workers
and the champion of a strong system of social benefits — soared to around 30 percent in March.
"But the growing prosperity of the majority has come at the expense of many others." Even as the number
of working people has increased, so has the number of people relying on government benefits.
Instead, Mr. Jabs said the employment office sends people who cannot get jobs elsewhere to help at the
food bank, where, in addition to their food rations, they are given just 1 euro — of symbolic pay.
For the past five years, Mr. Richter, 59, has worked from dawn to dusk, sifting donations for the Tafel food bank in a part of Bremerhaven, a once-prosperous northern port city,
that has earned the unwelcome moniker of the "poorest neighborhood in Germany." When his organization opened its doors 22 years ago, it served 300 people.
Mr. Richter said that I think it is tragic that the Tafel even exists, that it needs to exist,
The country, no doubt, remains one of the world’s wealthiest, home to four of the globe’s largest companies by revenue, according to Forbes, with one of the highest average incomes in the European Union
and one of the lowest unemployment rates, at 5.7 percent.
