Michelle and Ted dissect German politics from Spargel to the Schwarze Null, and tell us why Germany isn't as seen on TV. Support us at https://www.patreon.com/spassbremse
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spassbremse
1 - Hartz und Herzlos
The first episode of Spaßbremse is here, and Michelle (@shhellgames) and Ted (@ted_knudsen) are discussing Hartz IV—aka Arbeitslosengeld II—the controversial reforms to unemployment benefits introduced by Gerhard Schröder's SPD-Green coalition government in the early 2000s. Produced by Isaac Würmann (@wuermann).
Music by Lee Rosevere. Art by Franziska Schneider.
To learn more about Hartz IV, here are some links to articles and studies cited in this episode:
-German Deunificaton: An interview with Ingar Solty by Darko Vujica in the Monthly Review
-The Low Wage Sector in Germany is Larger than Previously Assumed by Markus M. Grabka and Carsten Schröder for the German Institute for Economic Research
-Which is worse? by Adam Tooze in the London Review of Books