“We need to work longer in order to maintain the prosperity that generations have built up since the end of World War II,”
And where is that prosperity? The richest 10% of households own over 60% of net wealth, while the bottom 20% have no wealth at all. The top 10 percent of the german population accounts for around 61.2 percent of total wealth, with approximately 10.5 trillion euros.
And the difference between the top and the bottom only keeps growing. Because most of the profit generated by selling our work goes to the super-rich. This means lifting the retirement age will only increase the difference between poor and rich and mostly benefit the rich, who can retire early or work leisurely at will, while grinding down the old and poor.
We could easily take care of everyone in Germany if only we would commit to redistribute wealth more fairly instead of from the bottom to the top.
And the difference between the top and the bottom only keeps growing
For Germany, France, UK and the EU in general this is not true. The top-1% and top-10% wealthiest people own around the same share of their countries wealth than 25 years ago.
Outside Europe, however, the inequality has risen much faster in the same period, particularly in India and China. Just look at the numbers.
Now look at the bottom 50% and extend the horizon a little further.
From the peak of their share in 1988 to 2023:
UK: 12.3% to 4.6% = -2.67x
Germany: 7.6% to 3.4% = -2.23x
France: 9.7% to 4.9% = -1.97
US: 1.8% to 0.9% = -2x
And since wealth isn’t evenly distributed in the bottom 50%, this means the bottom parts have fallen even lower.
Then add the fact that government-provided services and safety nets like welfare, pensions, healthcare, education etc. function as a the largest part of the bottom 50% wealth. Consider how austerity and climbing retirement age affect that.
What you’re saying is that things aren’t as bad as they are elsewhere. True. But people notice and react to changes in their environments and the trends are in the the same direction as in the US. Which makes sense because the processes giving rise to the those trends are the same. E.g. declining union density. The slopes and starting points of the trends are different since the EU does a better job at slowing down accumulation, and so the current states are different, but without a change in direction, for now the US is Europe’s eventual future.
Thanks for linking a source but this is a misleading interpretation, please don’t try to argue with data if you don’t know how to interpret it.
You need to look at e.g. the top 10%, middle 40% and bottom 50% to get a proper idea. And then look at it country by country because the scales don’t match. Yes, the USA are extremely inequal, I think back to like 1913 level in 2013 or something like that iirc, so if you put them on a plot with e.g. France, France will look great.
Thanks for linking a source but this is a misleading interpretation, please don’t try to argue with data if you don’t know how to interpret it.
Thanks for this. Inequality is now in Europe lower than it is in India, China, the U.S., and it is below the global average. It may be hard if this doesn’t align with your desired narrative, but this doesn’t change the fact.
There is no desired narrative. There is data and I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt but you seem to be actually incapable of interpreting it correctly.
And where is that prosperity? The richest 10% of households own over 60% of net wealth, while the bottom 20% have no wealth at all. The top 10 percent of the german population accounts for around 61.2 percent of total wealth, with approximately 10.5 trillion euros.
And the difference between the top and the bottom only keeps growing. Because most of the profit generated by selling our work goes to the super-rich. This means lifting the retirement age will only increase the difference between poor and rich and mostly benefit the rich, who can retire early or work leisurely at will, while grinding down the old and poor.
We could easily take care of everyone in Germany if only we would commit to redistribute wealth more fairly instead of from the bottom to the top.
For Germany, France, UK and the EU in general this is not true. The top-1% and top-10% wealthiest people own around the same share of their countries wealth than 25 years ago.
Outside Europe, however, the inequality has risen much faster in the same period, particularly in India and China. Just look at the numbers.
Addition: Look it up yourself - https://wid.world/world/#shweal_p90p100_z/US;FR;DE;CN;ZA;GB;WO-PPP/last/eu/k/p/yearly/s/false/37.836/125/curve/false/country
Now look at the bottom 50% and extend the horizon a little further.
From the peak of their share in 1988 to 2023:
And since wealth isn’t evenly distributed in the bottom 50%, this means the bottom parts have fallen even lower.
Then add the fact that government-provided services and safety nets like welfare, pensions, healthcare, education etc. function as a the largest part of the bottom 50% wealth. Consider how austerity and climbing retirement age affect that.
What you’re saying is that things aren’t as bad as they are elsewhere. True. But people notice and react to changes in their environments and the trends are in the the same direction as in the US. Which makes sense because the processes giving rise to the those trends are the same. E.g. declining union density. The slopes and starting points of the trends are different since the EU does a better job at slowing down accumulation, and so the current states are different, but without a change in direction, for now the US is Europe’s eventual future.
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Thanks for linking a source but this is a misleading interpretation, please don’t try to argue with data if you don’t know how to interpret it.
You need to look at e.g. the top 10%, middle 40% and bottom 50% to get a proper idea. And then look at it country by country because the scales don’t match. Yes, the USA are extremely inequal, I think back to like 1913 level in 2013 or something like that iirc, so if you put them on a plot with e.g. France, France will look great.
But if you look at France alone you get a different picture and inequality is rising again since the 80s. Here’s an article by a French economist with research focus on inequality which cites the same data: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2025/09/24/global-inequality-in-historical-perspective-part-1/
And people in France compare their own wealth share declining from yesteryear to this year, not to Americans’ wealth share.
Oh yeah I hadn’t seen your comment thanks for also pointing that out.
Thanks for this. Inequality is now in Europe lower than it is in India, China, the U.S., and it is below the global average. It may be hard if this doesn’t align with your desired narrative, but this doesn’t change the fact.
There is no desired narrative. There is data and I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt but you seem to be actually incapable of interpreting it correctly.
Yeah, the benefit of the doubt is invaluable. So go back and rethink your interpretation.