If 17-year-old Ahmed on the other side of the Mediterranean doesn't hear this, then nothing!
The youth wing of the German Social Democrats is concerned about the level of wealth inequality, which is why they came up with a proposal: regardless of residence status, every 18-year-old resident of Germany should receive 60,000 euros, i.e. 22.8 million forints, as a basic inheritance.
A month ago, the representative of the German government responsible for the eastern provinces (also a social democrat) would have given those coming of age a start-up capital of "only" 20,000 euros, but according to them, it was not a loud enough Willkommen for the 17-year-old Ahmeds on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea.
Originally, however, the idea of a 20,000-euro "basic inheritance" was proposed by a left-wing Berlin economic research institute, except that they would have tied the benefit to a goal, so it could only be used for training and further education, buying real estate or starting a business.
The Young Socialists are more generous than this: they would give three times the money, according to the news, with zero conditions.
According to the current demand to be voted on at their upcoming congress, it has now become a "legend" that work is the driving force of prosperity, as it is actually a vicious circle: rich families pass on their wealth, while many others "live from month to month and are happy if for a washing machine repair they don't have to starve in the following month" (we are still talking about Germany).
Therefore, they would introduce an inheritance tax such that 10 percent would have to be taxed from one million euros, 20 percent from two million and above, 30 percent from three, and more, up to a tax rate of 90 percent applied from nine million euros - this would cover the annual cost of basic inheritance of 45 billion euros (in forints, this is roughly 17 billion ).
The fact that the average value of inheritances in the eastern part of the country is 52,000 euros and 92,000 in the western part of the country gives some context to the matter, and anyone with a net worth of 107,000 euros in Germany already belongs to the wealthiest half of the population (whose name is worth 40 million forints in Hungary he has an unencumbered property and HUF 1,000 in cash, on paper he is already richer than every second German).
Looking at it from this point of view, we can feel that exceptionally large, multi-million euro inheritances are typically embodied not in liquid funds, or even in yacht fleets, but above all in family businesses.
The approximately three million such companies employ 60 percent of all German workers and thus form the backbone of the economy - however, in order to pay an 80-90 percent tax, most of the heirs would have to sell the successful family business built up with up to a century of work (the buyers are obviously large companies, i.e. even bigger capitalists would come into question), or of course there is also the other option, that the people who are going down will evacuate the factory founded by the industrious great-grandfather to another country in the first place as a preventive measure.
But what would be wrong with that if one day the prosperity that can be obtained through work is just a silly urban legend.
Irish Navy personnel rescue migrants from LÉ Eithne (P31) as part of Operation Triton
Source: Irish Defense Forces/Wikimedia
