Money on my mind

Increasingly, so-called "coaches" appear on social media such as Instagram and YouTube, showing us ordinary, wage-earning people in front of screens how to apparently build a huge fortune within just a few weeks. Basically, all you need to do is follow their mentoring programme and simply develop the right "money mindset". In doing so, these individuals not only overlook the economic reality that money cannot simply turn into more money, since behind increases in value – at least outside the crypto hype – there are also real economic production, that is, labour performance, but something far more serious: in these bubbles, people talk about "investment" and "growth" as if for most people their "mindset" were the obstacle, when in fact it is something entirely different: their poverty.

The topic of poverty and social injustice finds little space in German politics and heated talk shows alongside the major crises of Corona, climate change and of course the endless debates about gender asterisks and women's quotas. And the public also prefers to spend days discussing the entry ban for a nationalist Serbian tennis player who fails to comply with isolation rules and allegedly falsifies PCR results, rather than engaging with the issue of unequal wealth distribution. At first glance, this seems unsurprising in a country where one does not talk about money and wages, and certainly not when one has too little of both. For who in our society can really openly say that they are currently having sleepless nights because rent is no longer affordable, or because a newly needed pair of glasses costs half a month's budget? The pressure in late-capitalist societies to always perform, always own much and always show much of oneself, certainly weighs on each of us, but especially on those who cannot even dream of purchases and plans that go beyond basic needs, since they can barely fully meet those basic needs themselves. And this suffering is no rarity: in 2021, in one of the richest countries in the world, approximately 16% of the population is considered poor, meaning they have less than 60% of the net median income available monthly. Or to put it another way: 13.4 million people live in poverty within Germany. Among them are especially socially disadvantaged and otherwise often forgotten population groups such as single parents, families with multiple children, people with a migration background or the unemployed. However, employed people are also affected by poverty: currently almost 20% of full-time employees are counted among the low-wage earners, meaning their monthly salary is less than €2284 gross. It does not help these people when a so-called "coach" comes along and tries to explain to them that anyone can make it if they just want it enough; quite the opposite. Such statements can further destroy the self-confidence of those affected and give them the feeling that they are simply too lazy or not clever enough, even though due to their financial starting position they have significantly fewer opportunities to build knowledge, skills and capital than others. Children from financially weaker families face numerous disadvantages despite the alleged equal opportunities and educational equality. Starting with school trips and purchases for school life through to exchange years or ski courses: for poor families, these additional expenses are impossible to manage, which in turn has a negative impact on the children. They experience fewer new situations, cannot develop as freely and cannot continue their education outside of school, and in the worst case are bullied or feel ashamed of their financial situation. This is particularly striking when looking at the breakdown of the Hartz IV rate: according to the standard rate, a child is allocated €1.61 per month for hobbies. Calculated over the year, that is €19.32 – perhaps just enough for a single hour of music lessons. Or one saves for 5 years and can then perhaps afford a cheap guitar. For annual holidays and restaurant visits, a total of €83.76 per year is provided in children's allowances, which cannot begin to cover the costs of a ski course, let alone a holiday. For single parents or parents in precarious employment relationships, such expenses also represent major additional burdens and are very often not feasible. Of course, one could now claim that there is financial support available for poorer families for school activities. However, this is unfortunately often not taken up out of shame or lack of knowledge. Under these starting conditions, it is far more difficult for children and young people to free themselves from the poverty trap. Often they then have to take on precarious employment themselves due to lack of funds or poor training, or go heavily into debt in order to study. Later, they cannot simply retrain, become self-employed or reorient themselves, as they are heavily dependent on their income and have no savings whatsoever. As a consequence, many poor and poverty-at-risk people are more susceptible to mental illness and stress, suffer more frequently from addiction, concentration difficulties or sleep problems. This in turn makes them less productive or even unable to work, which leads to a further deterioration of their economic situation.
In the course of these considerations, another narrative can finally be dispelled: the principle of the achievement society. Already in 2010, more than half of all wealth in Germany was inherited, whilst 40% of people have no net assets whatsoever. Additionally, almost 20% of full-time employees are currently low-wage earners. This implies that increasingly less wealth is built through actual wage labour, since without an inheritance and with low income that barely covers living costs, it is hardly possible to build up savings. This causes inequalities to become increasingly entrenched, which is evident for example in the fact that approximately 60% of all wealth is owned by only 10% of the German population. This trend appears to be clearly continuing in the direction of an increasingly unequal society. Overall, this is not only a danger for the affected people themselves, who do not receive appropriate recognition for their wage labour and often suffer throughout their lives from the direct and indirect consequences of poverty, but also for social cohesion and democracy itself. To solve the problem of economic inequality, it is therefore not enough if each of us simply invests a little more or changes our attitude towards finances. In the 21st century, solutions must be found at the political level – both global and within states – to truly shape our societies fairly, performance-oriented and free from economic pressure.