Dear Chancellor Merz,
Go fuck yourself.
Sincerely, everyone
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2026
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Get your lazy 42 working hour ass up and get a second job till you're 72. You lazy parasite.
Sincerely, Christoph Maria Merz
I love being told to work more by people that don't work at all i mean private jets all over the world, private chauffeur to wherever they need, a nice retirement and all the while getting paid probably 10 times more than me that will most likely die of hunger in a cold shitty house with no power after working constantly for the next 30-40 years...
I'm technically one of these "lifestyle" part-timers, at 35 instead of 40 hours a week. This reduction has had a noticeable impact on my mental health, to the point where I'd dare say my productivity hasn't changed one bit.
But let's be real: I cannot imagine that even Blackrockfritze believes that economic growth is determined by having longer working hours. This is a deliberate attempt to create another group of "lazy people" to lay the blame for the utter incompetence of his government.
I hate every headline I read with his name in it. Disgusting.
Under pressure to make changes to boost sluggish economic growth, the conservative has told voters their country’s prosperity will not be maintained “with a four-day week and work-life balance”. He recently effectively accused them of skiving by falsely calling in sick, criticising the relative ease with which sicknotes could be obtained from GPs over the phone.
Someone does not understand what productivity means and how it's meaningfully improved.
If you (you being the proverbial CDU brain here) need people to marginally increase their working hours, in order to achieve higher economic output, you're in deep trouble. The increased output is also marginal and a one time boost. If you want meaningfully higher economic output, with sustained growth, you have to use machines and automation to achieve more with the same work hours. In other words you gotta do productive capital investment. Unfortunately conservative brains can only think of the cheapest solution (for businesses) first, at the expense of workers quality and quantity of life.
Even that is just a one time boost. If the automation is done there is nothing to be done better. So to grow further people have to be fired or other sources of revenue have to be unlocked.
I still think, sustained growth is impossible in the long run.
Exactly. There cannot be infinite growth on a finite planet.
And we have reached the planetary limits a while ago, as evidenced by the environmental collapse we are all witnessing.
I still think, sustained growth is impossible in the long run.
Oh yeah, for sure. All production consumes natural resources at some point in the chain, even services. And natural resources are finite. Even if we recycle everything, we'd still have a finite amount we have to work with beyond which we can't expand. If the driving force behind the production expansion is primarily profit growth, then there's no satisfying that. That's an inherent problem with the capitalist system. If however the driving force is the need for making something that doesn't exist - e.g. more tanks, more wind turbines, more scientific researchers, more musicians, then automation can help a lot. But even for purely profit-driven growth, automation would provide a lot more runway than making people work more hours. I know you're not disagreeing, I'm just saying this for completeness. :D
I have to thank you for pointing out, that you wanted to say that automation would help more than let people work more. That is a fact that I lost sight of. :)
„If we whip them harder surely they will generate more profit for us masters!“
Kind reminder the Christ Democrats always hated human beings.
Not always.
Das kapitalistische Wirtschaftssystem ist den staatlichen und sozialen Lebensinteressen des deutschen Volkes nicht gerecht geworden.
Inhalt und Ziel dieser sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Neuordnung kann nicht mehr das kapitalistische Gewinn- und Machtstreben, sondern nur das Wohlergehen unseres Volkes sein.
CDU, 1947.
But yeah, that was some time ago.
Translation:
The capitalist economic system has not sufficed w.r.t. the state and social interests of the German people.
The content and the objective of this social and economic restructuring can no longer be the capitalistic seeking of power and profit, but the wellbeing of our people.
Not always but defenetly all parties in germany and global politics got wacky in the 80s and said " SCREW THE STATE TO SERVE PEOPLE! SCREW THE PEOPLE! IT SHOULD SERVE ME!"
Ah yes, the agenda of the Blackrock fanboy turbo capitalist minion.
Destroy social security nets to make people so desperate they will take any job at any conditions.
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Sounds like some "work will set you free" type shit
Leaking this proposal to the media on the day when Auschwitz was liberated is a bit on the nose.
You can’t fix stupid.
wtf, why would you need a permission to work however long, wait a minute
the conservative has told voters their country’s prosperity will not be maintained “with a four-day week and work-life balance”. He recently effectively accused them of skiving
he was bitten by american ceo wasn't he? 🙃
I think it's less about permission and more about rights. In Germany, there is a right to work part-time. Basically, if you work for more than 6 months at a company and the position you are working in can be performed as a part-time position, then your employer must grant you a part-time position upon request. Suitable full-time job offers must also always be offered as part-time offers, although in reality this doesn't happen as much I think.
There are more specifics, but that's the gist of it.
In my opinion, the CDU/CSU is trying to create a new scapegoat for the languishing economy. Previously, it had been unemployed people on social welfare ("Bürgergeld"), but since their government introduced their own (arguably worse and def more expensive) legislation, they need a new group of people to target so that their voters don't do the unthinkable and actually start blaming the government for not properly governing the country.
he was bitten by american ceo wasn’t he? 🙃
It's a ~~global~~ pandemic.
I think working time is the wrong place for politicians to regulate.
Sure, there's a huge imbalance. Some people work a lot and some very little.
The key is that the the people who do work more than mandatory minimum hours, are also the people who enjoy working. Self employed or not, doesn't matter. If people like working, they'll work more. It's really that simple.
Politicians ought to focus on regulation of how enjoyable work is. Then the working time would increase by itself, if that's the ultimate goal for whatever reason.
I don't think it is though. Productivity ought to be the end goal.
Fun fact about Germany: There is no fun, get back to Work!
Dammit people being able to work less is progress.
It's always the fault of the workers and not the leeches at the top taking every gain for themselves.
He has 22% approval in current polls I wonder how it is so high.
Merz seems to genuinely believe no one works except for him. Yeah, right.
He does not even für one second consider utilising technology for efficiency and growth. There is so much potential in not sending people to work. Yes, even AI can automate processes very well if done right. At some point countries will send machines to war and Merz will still send meat to the grinder.
Makes me want to grab and shake this old man in hopes there is still some problem solving capacity left in his >70 year old brain.
Because technology is already utilised to constantly increase productivity and growth. Then that growth/productivity flows directly into the pocket of the sub 1%, barely taxed at all. But that's not something they would ever talk about.
What they want to talk about instead is how workes with their stagnating wages, who also have to finance everything as wages is basically the only thing taxed properly, need to do more to keep the system they intentionally broke to enrich themselves alive.
You’re correct. It’s kind of obvious and really depressing. All this efficiency gained through technology has never been used directly for quality of life of the people.
Someone should really write a book about it, ideally in German
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