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Comment by Beijinger | Hacker News Reader

" I'm proud of contributing through my taxes so that anybody in need can have the same treatment irrespective of their economic situation."

It is a big world my friend. And if millions come to use these services but don't pay in, the services get thinner and thinner. 1 Million Ukrainians came to German. Less than 25% have a job. The rest is financed by the taxpayer. Money, Rent, Health insurance...

Edit:

It reminds me of a Third Reich joke. An old woman goes into a map shop and looks at a globe.

She asks the sales person: What is this big blue land on the globe?

The sales person says: This is the USA.

Old lady: And this huge Red area, what is this?

The sales person says: This is the Soviet Union.

Old lady: And this tiny brown spot, what is this?

The sales person says: This is our Third Reich.

Old lady: Does the Fuehrer know this?

-----------

I hope you get what I am trying to say.

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As a German who pays a lot in taxes each year, I’m more than happy for those taxes to support our Ukrainian friends who are refugees during this terrible situation

It's important to remember that Ukrainian individuals in Germany make up just 1.2% of the population, the majority of whom are war refugees.

And while 0.9% can be treated just as a number, each one of these individuals has a unique story and deserves our empathy and understanding.

[0] https://www.osw.waw.pl/en/publikacje/analyses/2023-08-25/ukr...).

The one I have seen are all young women and kids. They will cause not even a fraction of the health care costs a 70 or 80 year old German generates. I can't find this stat but basically it's exponential, one generates more health care costs in the last ten years of its life than during its entire previous life, on average.

> They will cause not even a fraction of the health care costs a 70 or 80 year old German generates. I can't find this stat but basically it's exponential, one generates more health care costs in the last ten years of its life than during its entire previous life, on average.

I really don't wanna get into this populist debate, which is really annoying lately as it seems to be our biggest issue in the world, but ... the 70-80 years old people (probably) worked in the country, they contributed to their own country, and should be treated with some respect or decency and not just as a cost.

They enjoyed the golden years after WW2 where the economy was booming, decent pension starting at reasonable age, nobody cared about the environment, people lived like there's no tomorrow.

Now the coming generations can deal with the fallout.

It's a bit unfair what you said and probably you know it - next generations can blame so many things on us today... it's just like history or life works.

Yes I do, and I'm aware the vast majority of them were blissfully unaware, but then again I've talked to enough of them to also hsve learned that many of them simply don't want any of that to be true today. Some form of denial I guess. Like simply claiming the greenhouse effect isn't real, or protesting new wind turbine or high voltage power lines, because they would see them from their big houses with big gardens they were able to easily afford a few decades ago. Or protesting the new city district on a farmer's land because they like to ride their electric bikes along the fields - never mind even families with double income struggle to afford decent apartments nowadays, let alone a dedicated house.

Seriously, we have frequent protests against a new city district here, and you exclusively see college students who know jack shit about life and old folks around there.

Wait until you're old and they'll complain that you didn't do enough for XYZ.

We have all the possible available knowledge at our disposal today, right now, and look at how much crap we still do.

Adding a source to this claim as it is very valid [0]. I cannot find a good overview of the overall demographics of the ukranian refugees other than it is mostly women and children due to the borders being closed to outgoing men. Employment rates will rise as people integrate.

[0] https://www.oecd.org/health/Expenditure-by-disease-age-and-g...

In Germany, 75% of Ukrainians don't work. In other EU countries, nearly 80% work. It is a question of the system and incentives.

Source? This is interesting.

The integration of Ukrainian war refugees into the German labor market is sluggish by European standards. This is the result of a recent analysis by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. While just 18% have found a job in Germany, the figure is two thirds or more in countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Denmark. The reasons for this are bureaucracy and the wrong incentives.

https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/deutschland/politik/ukrainer-...

ok, so it’s not 80% in any country. 74% in Denmark, 2/3 in Poland and Czech Republic.

18% in Germany is also still better than Switzerland and Austria (14%), but I agree it’s not good.

Too much poor processes preventing these people from working, very frustrating.

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