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The liberal party in Germany is tossing the idea around that recipients of social security shouldn’t get their actual rent paid (within reasonable limits), but just a flat rate. This is supposed to allow them the decision to cough up more money of their own for a better apartment or to downsize and have more money to spare.
Given the housing prices, I think we’ll have quite a rise in homeless’ wealth, should this ever get through parliament.
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I think so long as: —
a) it's based on the average rent for the area,
b) they give everyone at least 3 months' notice, and
c) there's extra help for those struggling to find cheaper (and reasonable) accommodation (including footing extra to cover their current rent if necessary)
then I think it could work. I'm open to having my mind changed though.
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Under the current system, recipients of social security get their rent paid according to an allowed flat size (e.g. 60m² for two people) and the regional average rent. Now “Lindner [head of the liberal party] wants to save billions using the new approach.” “Recipients should not get their rent covered based on the actual cost, but via a flat rate.” (paraphrased from https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/innenpolitik/lindner-buergergeld-ukrainer-100.html; German).
You can guess how well that will go with
it’s based on the average rent for the area,
and
there’s extra help for those struggling to find cheaper […] accommodation
Lindner is famous for his (paraphrased) statement “the markets will solve this”. Rents have skyrocketed just like anywhere else. Now he doesn’t want to regulate the housing market, but wants to regulate the spending on those who already can’t afford housing. It’s disgusting.
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Lindner, and the FDP general, are more libertarian than liberal. This is expressed pretty nicely by ideas like this and his famous "Der Markt regelt das".
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'Liberal' has a different usage in many countries that has more implications of 'free market liberal'.
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I didn’t know about the distinction between the two. After a 1-minute Wikipedia read I think you’re right.
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