“Germany” clearly is rich compared to its neighbors, it just has worse wealth inequality. And the richest 1% play the typical game of diverting attention away from that by pointing to a convenient scapegoat like immigrants.
Standards on infrastructure. Fresh air, clean water from the tap, heating in all homes, electricity that never fails, doors and windows that actually work, public services, even police is a little less corrupt than many other places…
When it comes to questions like: is a country able to pay for accommodating refugees it is a good approximation. And that is what the person that started this discussion tried to deny.
Ok, so what does it depend on then? In the medium to long term these Refugees probably contribute to the economy, but in the short term it costs money to support them and build accomodations etc. and a country with a high GDP is definitly more capable of paying for that than one with a low GDP.
Germany” clearly is rich compared to its neighbors, it just has worse wealth inequality.
Where do you get this from?
The top-1% wealthiest’s share in Germany is at a similar level as its neighbours at around 27%. Switzerland and Austria’s data are bit higher (above 30%), only in Belgium and the Netherlands the top-1% own significantly less than in Germany.
Other measures like the top-10% shares show similar patterns. Germany’s data show that the country’s inequality level is roughly the same as its neighbours.
(Btw, other large economies, notably the U.S. and China, have significantly higher inequality than Germany and most democratically governed countries in Europe and beyond, with China have been experiencing rising inequality in particularly in the last two decades.)
You got a source for this? Because it sounds very cherry-picked and partially contradicting other data I have seen. Gini coefficient of Germany for example is among the worst in Europe.
Germany’s Gini coefficient for disposable income in 2025 is 30.1, according to Eurostat. Some EU countries show a higher Gini, some a lower one.
It’s the same thing everywhere. Germany’s inequality is around the Eurooean average by any comparative standard that I have seen. (And, again, Europe’s inequality is much lower than in most other world regions, particularly in larger economies like the U.S. and China.)
But if you think my data is cherry-picked, I’m open to learn something new. What are your sources?
Germany is around the European average pretty much by definition given it’s large size. But when you look at the actual data the wealth inequality is more similar to a corrupt mafia state like Malta, than countries like Belgium or Finland.
I provided a source for Gini. Eurostat is the European Statistal Office under administration of the European Commission.
If you looked at Eurostat/ European Commission, you saw that Finland and Malta have slightly lower Gini coefficients than Germany, around somewhere at the average. So the source you named doesn’t support your claim.
The same data source, but you seem to be cherry picking data from specific years and countries to make it fit your story that Germany is not at the lower end of the scale compared to other western-european countries.
Edit: and Finland had a gini of ~25 averaged over the last 5 years.
“Germany” clearly is rich compared to its neighbors, it just has worse wealth inequality. And the richest 1% play the typical game of diverting attention away from that by pointing to a convenient scapegoat like immigrants.
In terms of mean wealth per capita only Poland, Czechia and Austria are poorer. If you look at median wealth it is only Poland and Czechia. If you look at GDP it is Poland, Czechia again and France and at the same level as Belgium
Germany is in one of the richest parts of the world. To be fair wealth inequality is horrible in Germany and needs to be fixed.
Germany is not rich. By what metric do you think its rich? Compared to its neighbors even? Like Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark?
Standards on infrastructure. Fresh air, clean water from the tap, heating in all homes, electricity that never fails, doors and windows that actually work, public services, even police is a little less corrupt than many other places…
Total GDP.
GDP isn’t an appropriate metric for measuring wealth.
When it comes to questions like: is a country able to pay for accommodating refugees it is a good approximation. And that is what the person that started this discussion tried to deny.
No, this is not true. This, again, has nothing to do with economics.
Ok, so what does it depend on then? In the medium to long term these Refugees probably contribute to the economy, but in the short term it costs money to support them and build accomodations etc. and a country with a high GDP is definitly more capable of paying for that than one with a low GDP.
Where do you get this from?
The top-1% wealthiest’s share in Germany is at a similar level as its neighbours at around 27%. Switzerland and Austria’s data are bit higher (above 30%), only in Belgium and the Netherlands the top-1% own significantly less than in Germany.
Other measures like the top-10% shares show similar patterns. Germany’s data show that the country’s inequality level is roughly the same as its neighbours.
(Btw, other large economies, notably the U.S. and China, have significantly higher inequality than Germany and most democratically governed countries in Europe and beyond, with China have been experiencing rising inequality in particularly in the last two decades.)
You got a source for this? Because it sounds very cherry-picked and partially contradicting other data I have seen. Gini coefficient of Germany for example is among the worst in Europe.
Germany’s Gini coefficient for disposable income in 2025 is 30.1, according to Eurostat. Some EU countries show a higher Gini, some a lower one.
It’s the same thing everywhere. Germany’s inequality is around the Eurooean average by any comparative standard that I have seen. (And, again, Europe’s inequality is much lower than in most other world regions, particularly in larger economies like the U.S. and China.)
But if you think my data is cherry-picked, I’m open to learn something new. What are your sources?
Germany is around the European average pretty much by definition given it’s large size. But when you look at the actual data the wealth inequality is more similar to a corrupt mafia state like Malta, than countries like Belgium or Finland.
What are your sources?
Official data by the European comission. And besides, quite rich to ask me for sources when you provide none.
Why so uneasy?
I provided a source for Gini. Eurostat is the European Statistal Office under administration of the European Commission.
If you looked at Eurostat/ European Commission, you saw that Finland and Malta have slightly lower Gini coefficients than Germany, around somewhere at the average. So the source you named doesn’t support your claim.
So what are your sources?
The same data source, but you seem to be cherry picking data from specific years and countries to make it fit your story that Germany is not at the lower end of the scale compared to other western-european countries.
Edit: and Finland had a gini of ~25 averaged over the last 5 years.