Halle/Cologne (dpa/sa) - The Cologne poverty researcher Christoph Butterwegge calls for significant changes in the labor market in order to tackle the gap between rich and poor. "The labor market must be more tightly regulated again, collective bargaining agreements must be strengthened and the minimum wage increased further," Butterwegge told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung (Wednesday). "We also need a financially strong and poverty-proof welfare state with solidarity-based citizens' insurance, into which the self-employed, freelancers, civil servants, members of parliament and ministers pay in addition to employees."
Tax policy must ask the wealthy, rich and hyper-rich to pay more. Butterwegge said that growing inequality has "long been the main problem in our society. The consequences of social division are devastating because they endanger democracy."
The government supports companies more than the socially disadvantaged. In addition, the labor market has been deregulated, protection against dismissal has been relaxed, and a broad low-wage sector has emerged through temporary work and precarious employment.
Butterwegge said poverty had been repressed for a long time. Now they are more concerned with it because it is no longer just the fringe groups such as the homeless and addicts who are affected, but also the middle class. The movement
The Arbeiterwohlfahrt brings together clubs, trade unions, representatives of those affected and associations. The topics range from poverty in old age to poor despite work and migration to health and rehabilitation. According to AWO, the aim is to set up a nationwide, comprehensive and permanent network in 2023.
