this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2026
134 points (99.3% liked)

Europe

11392 readers
1549 users here now

News and information from Europe πŸ‡ͺπŸ‡Ί

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
  10. Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.

(This list may get expanded as necessary.)

Posts that link to the following sources will be removed

Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com

(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)

Ban lengths, etc.

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the admin that applied the rule (check modlog first to find who was it.)

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] jenesaisquoi@feddit.org 11 points 3 hours ago

Anything but taxing the rich.

[–] Melchior@feddit.org 5 points 7 hours ago

To be fair pension with 70 in 2090 might actually be a decent idea, but way too far into the future to plan for anything.

The real headline should be the end of pensions with 63. The most births after WW2 in Germany were in 1964. So they could start to retire next year. That obviously is going to stress the pension system. However it also means that the baby boomers are at an age, where death is much more likely. So this will be naturally solved in a decade. However obviously the labour market is going to be worse for employers.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 17 points 10 hours ago

We need a general strike and we need it yesterday.

[–] MattR@feddit.org 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

They will couple the retirement age to life expectancy and this parameter will drop in future. I'm pretty sure we are currently around the peak value of how old the average person will get. Climate change will result in millions of premature deaths every year worldwide. Heat waves will get much more deadly, more pandemics, more extreme flash floods, tornados, storms will kill additionally. Fungi already kill a lot of old people and nobody really knows that or cares about it, despite the WHO's warning of 8 very harmful species of fungi and their urge to invest more in prevention. Global food and water supply will get pretty precarious. More toxins accumulate in the environment. We see more wars and violence, less stable economies, more social unrest... How can any sane person expect people will live longer under those conditions? Just because conditions have improved for decades doesn't mean it will never get worse again.

[–] Vinylraupe@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago

Are you sure they are gonna implement something smart like that? Your enthusiasm is refreshing tho.

[–] einfach_orangensaft@sh.itjust.works 27 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Thats why i do my retirement now, making sure i get my 10-20 years of free time now, cuz idk if i even make it to 70.

Yeah best decision I made was dropping out at 17 and play games, then around 21 get involved with an underground soundsystem with a full Funktion one rig and rave for 4 years

Nowadays money is meaningless and just stacking since material goods hold little value in my eyes.

Fuck the system

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 91 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Anything but taxing the rich. No no no, can't have that now, can we?

[–] chahn.chris@piefed.social 39 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I feel like all proposals that change how social benefits work should be benchmarked against why taxing the rich wouldn’t be a better option, laid out plainly, so everyone can see the lies.

It should be illegal to propose anything that doesn’t include taxes for those who can pay them the easiest.

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

They always say the rich will run away.

[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago

A country can continue taxing people after they leave. It's the second suggestion by the leading economists on the matter right now, right after "tax the rich".

The US does the extreme and says as long as you're a citizen you're getting taxed. A better plan would likely by 10 years or something. I think they describe it as paying the difference in taxes of the two locations. So if the ultra-wealthy flee to Dubai or whatever (most won't), they pay the difference between Dubai and their home country's taxes to their home country so the movement is tax neutral.

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 12 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Great, fuck 'em. Introduce an exit tax. And they can't move their houses or other buildings with them.

[–] HansGruber@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Already exists in Germany, not perfect as some loopholes still present.

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Germany doesn't have a wealth tax though, right? There's not really a reason for them to leave as it seems quite advantageous to stay there if you're rich.

[–] HansGruber@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

That's kind of correct. On paper Germany has a wealth tax but it is omitted since 1997. The story is a bit frustrating, surprise. The federal constitution court found in 1995 that property is taxed not enough. So it ruled that the legislative has to reform the tax until end of the year 1996.

The government at the time consisted of conservatives and neo-liberals and guess what, instead of reforming they disabled the tax with the reason: We already tax high incomes with 53% so we should not tax the people more.

Fast forward: still no wealth tax and highest income tax is 45% and many exceptions in inheritance tax. So rich folks getting richer.

[–] UpperBroccoli@feddit.org 1 points 6 hours ago

Rich people also don't have income, and legally pay zero taxes if they are clever.

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

That's fucked up. I don't understand how the legally accepted response to "you aren't taxing enough" can be "then we will tax nothing".

[–] HansGruber@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago

It is. But the court ruled that the tax is unfair.... low on property. Well if we tax no one, every rich person pays the same amount -> 0 so it's fair now right?

[–] kossa@feddit.org 1 points 6 hours ago

The most astonishing part to me: in 1996 the government still gave a shit about court rulings.

[–] thesdev@feddit.org 15 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Well the electorate has to vote for that and they're way too busy hating on immigrants right now.

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 3 points 9 hours ago

I'm not. I vote for any party seriously proposing a wealth tax.

[–] B0rax@feddit.org 9 points 19 hours ago

Oh don’t you worry, they are also busy with hating the poor, as in everyone with less than 5 million on their bank account.

load more comments
view more: next β€Ί