Opinion
Parental allowance, holiday or commuter flat rate: this way, billions can be saved
Union and SPD plan two special funds of 900 billion euros. In order to manage them with loans, it has to be saved violently. Our author has a few suggestions.
When parties struggle for a coalition agreement after new elections, a self -confident guild urges the microphones, the qua definition knows everything better: the economic experts. So it is again in 2025: on all media channels, freezing, sought -after, fed and sergeant is freedom. This is not very helpful per se. Because all of these economists rate the exploratory agreements of black and red, partly fundamentally different. They create more questionnaires than exclamation marks in the heads of the population.
Special funds we are broking by many economists
In principle, some praise the planned debt admission to bring the army and the economy to shape. Others, such as the prominent “economy” Veronika Grimm, since 2020 in the Federal Government’s Council of Expert, who had been tilting the Avised, almost a trillion euro special fund in the “BILD” as “satire” (why, Professor and first advisor to the Federal Government, did you actually not prevent the current economic misery in the five years?)
Now one could simply put the inflation and growth forecasts of the economic experts on the back, because according to statistics, their long-term analyzes are usually hardly more accurate than long-term weather forecasts. You can also not deliver more than a gross orientation, because the development of a globally operating economy is multi -complex like weather events and is not subject to any simple causalities such as road traffic. Above all, however, investments and consumption depend very much on the mood in the country. It can turn very quickly, you know that: Germany wins a World Cup, suddenly there is euphoria, although nothing has changed in the economic key data.
However, there are a few findings in which pretty much all economists agree and that are worth taking a closer look. They are not so profound that you must have studied for this, whoever leads a private household, you can also do it yourself. First of all, they are: if it does not run smoothly, something has to change structurally. Secondly: to spend a lot of money on pump without saving at the same time, where it is feasible and sensible, is a bad advice, because then over -indebtedness threatens.
Where there is savings potential
Point one is extremely important. Therefore, the CDU and the SPD must be determined in the coalition agreement which structural reforms should succeed in the upcoming legislature. Bureaucracy is certainly one of the most important. The consensus over it is available in the population, resistance should only provide those affected.
Point two is just as important, but much more difficult to implement. Because here and the individual is doing the money. Here, too, the economists have already submitted savings proposals. In the following a couple that you should actually think about.
- Increase VAT to 20 percent Appears unthinkable at first glance, especially since under black and red the tax rate for restaurateurs should even fall seven percent (greetings to the tourist paradise Bavaria!). However, CSU boss Markus Söder only said at “Carmen Miosga” that he cannot “imagine” a tax increase, which sounds like a butter-soft dement. VAT actually has room for improvement: EU-wide Germany with its standard tax rate of 19 percent is right behind Luxembourg and Malta in a very favorable place. One percent up would bring around 16 billion euros in additional income a year. However, the lifestyle would also be more expensive.
- Delete another holiday A demand that, among other things, is the Brussels economist Guntram Wolff. Due to the higher work performance, the gross national product would increase by 0.5 percent. In fact, the average working time in Germany is in a European comparison. This is not due to statutory holidays at first, the Federal Republic is modest: it is ten, Slovakia has 15. Nevertheless, for example, one could think about Whit Monday (says the author, a Catholic), hardly anyone knows the importance of the festival anyway. Incidentally, the exemplary Switzerland, by the way, goes well with just four holidays.
- Abolish false subsidies In any case, she wants this, she asserts. Unfortunately, she obviously does not dare to subsidize fossil energies, even if there was a lot to get there. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) puts the climate -damaging grants at 70 billion euros per year. The tax reduction of diesel fuel (diesel privilege) alone leads to tax failures of around 9.6 billion euros. What do the possible coalitioners do: Farmers should even benefit from returning to the “complete agricultural reward remuneration”; It costs up to one billion euros a year.
- End the commuter flat rate and company car privilege For many, the commuter flat rate is an invitation to use the car instead of public transport for driving to work. The state treasury costs 5.3 billion euros each year. This amount could already be significantly reduced by steering the mobility turnover with the commuter flat rate and only giving it users of electric cars (clearly, not legally not easy). The company car privilege is also discussed again and again. It burdens the household with 6.1 billion euros annually. The SPD partly tends to attend, the CDU wants to secure the privilege because it is said to be a social balance.
- Spread parental allowance or spouse splitting Ifo boss Clemens Fuest put a lot of spanking for this idea. Parental allowance is “nice to have,” he said, and mainly supports well -off families. Eight billion euros could be saved per year. One can discuss the meaning of the parental allowance; Whether it is the only sensible way to encourage young people to become parents – questionable. Alternatively, the spouse splitting could be abolished. It costs the state over 20 billion euros per year and, according to the OECD and European Commission, is particularly disadvantaged by women because it promotes classic sole wage marriage. However, neither with the SPD nor the Union is a complete abolition on the agenda.
- Increase retirement age Every year the federal government shoots over 110 billion euros in the pension because the income from the pension fund is not sufficient. Economist Grimm therefore demands that the retirement age to move backwards. The CDU would be ready to adapt the retirement age to the increasing life expectancy. The SPD categorically rejects a shift. In the short term, it should not be shaken in the upcoming legislative period.
What follows from all the considerations? First of all: Despite all the economist warnings, Germany can be pleased that two-sensibly shrunk-folk parties have managed to work out a compromise for the Lahme Land with a financial double praise. Because this first shows courage to make it better and more sustainably according to the economic policy lethargy of the past, without always listening to the professional critics. For this reason alone, black and red earns an advance of trust, including the Greens. The price is high, safe. But today we pay for what we have all missed in the past twenty years.
Second: If the gigantic new debts really lead to controlled investments in growth and accompanied by stringent austerity measures so that the interest burden is dampened by the high loans, the upcoming generation will benefit from the special funds and not suffer. Saving alone would not help. There is only prosperity and well -filled state coffers when the economy is buzzing and people consume. At least on this point, the economists agree.
Source: Stern
