Being retired she could no longer live on just her "Rente" sort of the equivalent of the American Social Security.
Not quite. If it's the normal state "Rente" then it's more like an insurance - you paid during your work time and get out a percentage of the income of today's working income. Though because of demographics it's been with added general tax income for years.
There is a "Sozialrente" if that state pension and other incomes is not enough - that is a social security thing.
And speaking of social security (for workign age) it used to be that heating and warm water were paid for as you paid, up to a certain amount.
With a doubling or even tripling of that amount, everyone will be breaking that ceiling. I wonder how this will be handles. I would have linked it to the energy use of the house anyway long ago (it's law for a decade or so that every renter has to get a "Energieausweise" - a one-pager listing the propable energy use based on type of the house, insulation etc.
But I guess if you did that it would turn out people on social security are not wasting energy and you lose a point you can feel superior about the lazyasses...
Reduced income due to forced essential spending is a real thing one is allowed to groan about:).
Yeah, but as I said those don't seem to be complaining.
It more seems to be gigh middle income spendypants and the same people who last year complained about Fridays for Future and that the kids should go back to shool and earn money before they can tell people they should change their life and use up less ressources.
I think that American social security works exactly like Rente - it's an insurance and you get what you pay for, if you don't pay in, you don't get anything. What we think of as social security here in Europe is what Americans call welfare. Now heating costs are such a big news item, I've learned that some sort of subsidy for heating is part of welfare or old age pensions in many countries! Sounds very generous, we never had anything like that in NL. Our welfare is not generous at all. It's really a struggle, designed to be so uncomfortable that not claiming it is the easier option.
Right now our government has decided that from January, energy companies have to charge 2019 prices for electric / gas use up to the use of an "average" household and anything over that, they can charge market prices. That sounds great (my bills will get a lot lower) but it's not actually helping the people who need it most, such as low income people living in cheap rentals, which are often not insulated at all so use much more energy than the "average" household, or people who have a low income because of a disability and use more energy because of their disability (such as charging electric wheelchairs or mobility scooters, kidney dialysis equipment or equipment that helps them breathe) . But it will be a great help to working class and lower middle class households with children, for them this will be making the difference between making ends meet and not making it.
@LennStar Maybe it's also because we're in different countries. It would be quite taboo here for newspapers to publish woe-is-me articles about people who can't afford to charge their brand-new Tesla's anymore. Obviously there will always be people nitpicking over other people's budget (such as why are they eating anything but rice and beans) but most of the people I see in those articles really are in deep poverty with no easy way out. Even MMM has claimed in one of his old articles that his methods work best for people who have lots of disposable income but waste it, not for those truly on the poverty line. Although I think he did do a case study once about someone who was actually working poor. For those with lots of disposable income, a period like this might be a lesson: let's be more frugal with energy, let's use the bike instead of the car, let's take the train instead of the car. But for many people this is an extremely difficult period.
@Sibley I get what you mean. Honestly, I feel like a lot of people here don't have first-hand experience of living in poverty. I know a lot of people here are of the "nothing needed but rice, beans and water" school, too. I've always been frugal, I've never been in debt, I've always found creative ways to make ends meet, but living an extremely spartan lifestyle when it's not a choice and not something you know is temporary is
hard and it's not an experience that somehow makes you a better person.
Topic: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun) (Read 5563202 times)
