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Comment by cyberpunk | Hacker News Reader

Everyone I speak to agrees, no one seems to be running on such a policy.

There’s a definite time bomb coming on the aging population, to boot.

Although I still think things are looking better in Germany than the UK right now.

You don't seem to speak to a lot of people. The debt break is in high regard in Germany, for very good reasons. Just look at the latest absurd policy suggested by Habeck: a 1000€ voucher for electricity for everyone who buys an electric car. THAT'S the kind of policies which are prevented by a debt break.

The problem is not that the government cannot spend enough. We have higher tax revenues than ever. The problem is that most of the taxes are spent on consumption instead of investments. More money for the government through debts won't necessarily increase investments, but it will 100% increase consumption ever more.

Also, you should look into why the French government collapsed: because their high-debt policies haven't been sustainable.

Which party are you going to vote for?

High consumption, usually, eventually leads to investment. Germany has had a lot of bad investments, especially in infrastructure. Stimulating the economy by increasing the government spending is usually not the worst idea, as it will let the market decide on what to invest.

The opposite seems to be working in Argentina, sure, but I always quote Kuznets when it comes up: "there are 4 types of economies: developed, undeveloped, japan and Argentina".

As someone who studied economics and is doing wildly different things, I'm looking forward to see how the "DOGE" thing Elon is doing will change things. I bet it'll be for the worse, but there is a reason why I didn't become an economist at the end :)

Consumption in Germany means spending on social amenities such as unemployment benefits (no time limit, no more obligation to get a job or even show up for interviews) and stuff like that. That kind of government spending does not lead to any meaningful investment.

You don’t even have an obligation to go to interviews ? Why not?

Well, technically you do. But the late left-wing government decided that sanctioning people (usually decreasing their payments) for not fulfilling their obligations is "socially cold", so they ended all sanctions. Meaning that you can ignore that obligation and still get the full amount of money.

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