The poverty of the unemployed is not an isolated case
After it became known a few days ago that an unemployed man died of starvation in his apartment in Speyer, Germany, the consternation has been. A 20 year old man, who lived with his 48 year old mother, died of malfunction of important organs caused by malnutrition. His mother is under medical treatment for malnutrition-related illnesses.
According to their information, the young man had been cared for by the social welfare office before the introduction of Hartz IV as part of a rehabilitation measure. This ended when the labor market reforms came into effect. The man was classified as able to work, had to apply for unemployment benefit II and was henceforth subjected to the system of demanding and demanding, which had been buried by the proponents of Hartz IV as a gain of personal responsibility and initiative. The death in Speyer showed once again what can happen to people who are unable to keep up with the competition of the fit, flexible and creative.
Thus the dead man of Speyer is the direct counterpart of Henrico Frank, who had become famous because he had interrupted the prime minister of Rhineland-Palatinate Kurt Beck during a speech and was asked by him to wash and shave (The Punk and the Politician).
Henrico Frank became a media event and at the same time a bone of contention in the unemployed movement. For he took Beck’s advice and asked for work. But he was headstrong enough not to be ready for every appointment that was given to him by the Mainz seat of government and also not to accept every job at every price. When he went through the media as the most famous unemployed person, he was finally offered a job by a music radio station. Almost everyone was satisfied. Henrico Frank, the media and also politics. Had nevertheless apparently once again proven that one gets even a place, if one is not only flexible, but also self-confident. Even a slight renitence, z.B. the writing "work is disc" on the clothes, does not have to be negative.
The unemployed groups were doubly duped because they had previously criticized Frank for his obstinacy. He is a bad representative for the unemployed because he has refused appointments and has made it clear that work is not the most important thing for him. The unemployed activists had to make it clear that the media success story of Henrico Frank had little to do with the realities of life for many Hartz IV recipients.
The disconnected precariat
The dead man in Speyer was, as far as the drastic consequences are concerned, certainly an exceptional case. But he stands for quite a few people who have been characterized by Beck, perhaps involuntarily, with the vocabulary of the precariat. They are in fact cut off from almost all social events. They have never had the Internet or a computer, they cannot afford a newspaper, and when the electricity is cut off, television can no longer provide any diversion. These people are neither positively nor negatively addressed by politicians’ speeches about the unemployed, because they do not know them at all.
For Anne Allex of the Round Table of Unemployed and Welfare Organizations, the poverty of the unemployed is not a marginal phenomenon. "Anyone who wants to achieve a great standard of living at the age of 65 must, since the 16. Earning very well in the second year of life. A rough rest has to starve until the mini pension. The red-green strategy for the elderly and the old is: "Schmalhans ist Kuchenmeister", she wrote after the introduction of Hartz IV.
Such warnings are often dismissed as scaremongering. Also the activists of the tribunals against poverty and misery, which made beklemmende facts known in different cities uber the life situation of humans in Germany, are mostly ignored medially. The fact that people have to do without heating and electricity even in winter because they could not pay the bills is usually perceived as an individual fate.
In the meantime, authors from the unemployed movement have compiled advice on how to prevent electricity and heating from being cut off. A chapter of the booklet is also devoted to urban places where people can find a warm place to warm up in the winter without having to spend money. Shopping malls as well as libraries pay for this. The death of Speyer has once again shown that such advice can even be vital for some people.