[1100] Tipping Point
└ posted on Monday, 22 July 2019, by Novil
- Man: The Germans are taking our jobs!
- Woman: Our taxes were raised because of them!
- Man: There’s not a single free apartment in the whole town!
- Larisa: They made my best friends cry!
- Sandra: Seventeen-nil!
- Mayor: I understand your anger. But you also have to see the good sides of the Germans.
- Businessman: For example, my company was only able to complete a large order on time thanks to the new German workers!
- Assistant: Sir! Sir!
- Businessman: Huh?
- Assistant: The Germans in your company persuaded the other workers to unionize and go on strike. Their first demand is 30 days of vacation a year!
- Businessman: Death to the Germans! Kill them all!
![[1100] Tipping Point](/comics/2019-07-22-1100-tipping-point.png "[1100] Tipping Point")
@ Arent:
You can’t just pick the rules you like and ignore the rest. Our constitution clearly states that “political refugees” have a right to request Asylum (or however that’s to be translated).
This right has been limited and reduced and “but if”‘d several times over in the past.
But it’s still THERE on the first few pages of our constitution. Right after “rules” like that the human dignity is to be upheld, or men and women are to be treated equally or that there’s no discrimination against race, religions and age.
Those aren’t mere suggestions or “idealist ideas”. They are the very fundament of our country.
And they’re enforceable. And any law breaking these “rules” is per default invalid and can shall be revoked by the highest court.
By the way: having an army is NOT something that’s written down as an requirement in the constitution. We do have one because our political leaders decided we should have one and it’s worthy a task enough to allocate some money for it.
Personally I do see the need for this – just because we can’t ask our “friends” to protect us if we’re unwilling to help them.
The point is: Human dignity, equal rights, religious neutrality and the right to apply for protection as a political refugee, all those are fundamentally granted in the constitution. Period.
Ideas like “Hey it would be cool if we had an army” are *not*.
To clarify something: of course we germans have federal holidays (around ten), and they do not count towards the around 25 vacation days. They go on top.
The germans are coming and they bring COMMUNISM with them!
BHAHAHAHAHA!
PS: I have 33 days off per year
@ R,Berg.:
Not quite sure. I think the legal minimum is 20 days, but my last job was 36 days payed vacation and 13 to 14 salaries depending on the company success. Payed on X-mas and on June ahead of main vacation time.
@ Drake:
sick leave or payed salary while sick in germany is 6 weeks by law. Separate from holiday. When you get sick in vacation with a note from the doctor you get those vacation days extra. The vacation days dont count then as vacation.
@ David Stenzel:
Henry Ford was known for many things. He also said, he want to pay his workers as many as they need to be able to buy one of his cars. So, he was not tight with the salaries, i think.
Arent wrote:
If someone doesn’t want all that, I personally would say they should simply found their own state without army, police or borders. And then all illegal immigrants can simply go there. Then the problem is solved.
That’s a great idea! Now to find a place that is outside all the existing borders to locate this utopian state.
@ Gamesman:
In germany we have between 10 and 14 holidays by government, depending on the state. Some are at the weekend but all means when you have to work shift f.e. you get extra pay.
My job was shift, so i did not get those holidays but extra pay. 5 days a week workers had those extra days on top of their holidays, as long as those government holiday was in the week at usual working days. Salary is usually payed per month.
@ Mr. Random:
Minimum is 20 days by law. Average is about 30 days. Plus 6 weeks sick leave by law but only if your Dr certifies that you are sick.
I have been sick, went back to work after one week, because i didnt want to have my colleagues do my work and became sick again. I started working too early. My boss called the dr and the dr explained it to him. No problem. Very unusual that the boss calls the dr and the dr is not allowed to give details about the health problem.
@ Anon:
Did you notice that the company owner was very happy that thanks to the german workers he was able to complete that large order in time. What is wrong with asking to have a share in the bigger win? Better work – better pay its just fair. Or were you kind of sarcastic?
@ Regis Earsquake:
The company has to pay 6 weeks sick leave, before the health insurance is on.
One colleague broke both legs in a ski holiday. Took him 6 months to recover. Of course not fired. When there is no chance to come back to work. F.e. you are construction worker and got paraplegia, paralysed from back down or from the neck down, there will be probably some other solution. Maybe a small state pension and early retirement.
@ Peya Luna:
That is not so common in my experience. We had a flexible time account (Gleitzeitkonto). Days with overwork had to be taken as holiday until end of march the next year. If the workload did not allow taking holiday you get your overtime payed out.
I do know people from other companies though who collected many overtime. One lost all that with a bancrupcy of the company. I think he got 20 Euro from the Konkursmasse.
The problems of the people are only treated by their leaders as real problems only when they affect the leader’s pocketbooks.
@ James Brown:
I do have contact to some. Most are families from Syria or Irak. Learning hard, very motivated. I did not hear complains in my city (50000). I met one boy from Afghanistan i was able to talk to after he was 5 month here. Still had to go to school with a legal guardian from the city. Played in a third league club in the youth and had a contract for carmechanic apprenticeship which is 3 years with exam, payed by the company with about 1000 Euro per month. Probably a sponsor of the soccer club. Very bright boy. There are few who make problems. mostly young men from Africa, balkan or caucasus. They flock in some big cities, dealing with drugs and stuff. A problem is the different culture in dealing with police. In germany there is respect between police and citizens both directions. In the countries these troublemakers come from the police is often the public enemy and they carry that over here. But, as i said, that is a very small minority. Most try hard to fit in.
@ Arent:
Look at Bangladesh f.e. they sometimes sleep at the workplace. Bars at the windows and locked doors.
Michael Weskamp wrote:
That’s one of those “turns out not to be true” stories:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/04/the-story-of-henry-fords-5-a-day-wages-its-not-what-you-think/#47975cb4766d
The pay increase was to reduce turnover, not allow workers to buy cars. It turned out to be a big cost-saving measure for Ford because having workers quit in the middle of a shift was really hurting production. But it wasn’t a straight wage increase:
The $5-a-day rate was about half pay and half bonus. The bonus came with character requirements and was enforced by the Socialization Organization. This was a committee that would visit the employees’ homes to ensure that they were doing things the “American way.” They were supposed to avoid social ills such as gambling and drinking. They were to learn English, and many (primarily the recent immigrants) had to attend classes to become “Americanized.” Women were not eligible for the bonus unless they were single and supporting the family. Also, men were not eligible if their wives worked outside the home.
And by 1932 wages were down to $4/day at Ford.
The start of this comic sounds a lot like the recurring Red-Neck community joke from “South Park” which only seems to have one saying that generally divulges into incoherent crowing…
@ Dave:
In Germany, if you’re sick just get a note from your physician and that’s paid leave up to six weeks. After that, you only get 70% of your wage, paid for by health insurance. That six weeks are consecutive, e.g. if you take a month, work for a week and get sick again, you’re up for another six weeks.
Also, if you get sick on vacation just call in sick, doesn’t touch your vacation days then. You can take them later when you have recovered 🙂
@ James Brown:
As a social worker for refugees responsible for all migrants in a town of 12.000 inhabitants, I could tell you the opposite. I could tell you that my clients are working hard to learn german (which is quite difficult to learn) and, once they have done that, are eager to work. I could tell you that they are willing to take any job, although a lot of them have university or vocational degrees that are not recognized here, and that, when working, they only make a little more money than they would get if they lived off of welfare. I also could tell you that, while many being muslim and living according to their beliefs, they are interested in and accepting the rules and values of german society. Furthermore, I could tell you some reports about war, suffering and torture I was told (I personally have seen scars of some of those people, and I don’t even want to imagine the things they didn’t tell me).
But, I guess, you are not interested in that. To me, it sounds that you are spreading stupid propaganda about things you heard somewhere in biased media outlets, far away from europe. I hope that, at some time in your life, you can overcome that hate. I can respect a different opinion than mine in those matters, but I despise hate, uninformed emotional decisions or blind following of so called leaders.
rioki wrote:
The American “Work Ethic” Is Completely Stupid
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2363839513828141&hc_location=ufi
The UK works some of the longest hours in the EU and is among the least productive. And we do get 4 weeks holiday + bank holidays (8 for England) per year as that is the minimum entitlement for all EU workers.
Here’s the relationship between working hours and productivity:
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/crunchmode/econ-hours-productivity.html
And:
https://time.com/4621185/worker-productivity-countries/
Note that French people are often portrayed as “lazy” by right wing tabloids in the UK but they seem to have got something right.
Also;
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-relationship-between-hours-worked-and-productivity-2013-10
Another thing is that in all EU countries employers need to have a robust disciplinary process and it is possible to fire someone for excessive illnesses but you have to show that you tried to help employees first.
Of course, if someone is strangely sick whenever their sports team plays, they will be out on their ear as soon as the sickness policy allows.
@ Nachum:
Still works when all racists are.
@ Robert:
Ah – ok, another illusion busted. Very sad.
I thught he was in the same tradition of some industrialists so as The Fuggers who were super rich 500 years ago and built cheap housing for people in need in Augsburg 500 years ago. Still existing “the fuggerei” you can rent there cheap but with some conditions. Later in 19th and 20th century in Rheinland – Ruhrgebiet some companies like Krupp or mining companies built reasonably cheap housing for their workforce, did care about their people. Known as “rheinischer Kapitalismus”. In 19th Century Bismarck as Chancellor of Kaiser Wilhelm invented the state pension system, health insurance and accidents insurance as reaction to the upcoming socialists in form of the SPD party that changed in the 1950s to a capitalist social democrats party. Bismarck was a monarchist and very conservative. That these reforms came from that side was never forgotten in german politics.
I have 27 vacation days, but get an additional 13 with this common construction (Netherlands): work 40 hours a week, get paid 38, so you save 2 extra hours of vacation a week. This brings me to 40. I also have the option to buy 10 additional days, which I will do next year when I hope to have my first child. (For reference, I’m Male. For females it’s a lot more common to work less hours a week/ save more vacation per week)
@ Xeferah:
I forgot the 9 national holidays were have in the Netherlands
@ Robert:
The consequence was, that Companies now work together with the unions more or less. Trying to find a direction that is ok for everybody sometimes with more fighting sometimes less. Workers elect representatives, from a certain number of staff, the representative is full time off his job, only for representing. sitting with the board, discussing hire and fire issues, looks after certain conditions so when staff has to be reduced, the ones with family will be the last to go, etc. Even have a say in the companies strategic decisions. Often the staff reacts flexible to difficult market situations by working more or less without making a fuss but they expect to get a share, when the company does very good.
THEY TOOK OUR JOBS!
MaronaPossessed wrote:
Steve is dead anyway. Wait a second.
REFUGEES KILLED STEVE JOBBS!!!!!!11111elvenelvenelven
That mayor *so* calls for a “Hergé” tag =)
@ AsteriskCGy:
I’ve seen this whole racism is due to the existence of white people argument and for one who claims such a thing to be true while espousing opinions about how racism is evil and needs to be stamped out. They’re effectively calling all white people evil and calling for genocide.
No, not all racists are the same.
We are seeing a rise of a Social Nationalist American Worker’s Party in the states. Anti-racists seem to think that rearranging words always changes their meaning, that they’re not basically Nazis.
I’m white and if I were to say an ethnicity were superior to any other, which I do on occasion. It’s east Asian. That doesn’t mean I think every other ethnicity shouldn’t exist, bigotry is a horrible state of mind.
In which way are we “superior” to any other ethnicity?
What’s the metric you used for measuring the superiority of one race towards any other?
Technological inventions?
Political progress?
Historical achievements?
Wealth?
And not to be picky, but “east Asia” isn’t an ethnicity, it’s a region. A pretty large and diverse at that.
Are you talking about Japan, China, Vietnam, North Korea, South Korea, or some other part of it? Or all of it?
I agree with the hysterical businessman: something has to be done!
#GasTheKrauts #RemoveFritz
I have a mixed feeling that the comic feels like an old episode of South Park where illegal immigrants came from the future.
While they did show anti-immigrant as self destructive and stupid, it kinda had an outdated notion that they’ll take their jobs. At least it didn’t go for them taking educated people’s jobs, like in South Park (though considering that they’re non-partisan Libertarians, that type that had Robert Nozick creating a normally left-wing anarchism into pro-business variety, not the type to like Unions or worker rights). That was back in 90’s and they did show their research later on (Last of the Mexicans being an example where the economy ground to a halt with unskilled laborers returning to their homeland), but the comic didn’t account for 2010’s data.
That and “what if we use first world, rich demographics turning into second class” parable (e.g.- White Men’s Burden, Mermaid Project’s white refugees, and Black Like Me to an extent) to be somewhat dated today, what with far-right people promote their toxic views by claiming to defend the white people from turning into oppressed class by oppressing the minorities despite their anti-racism message.
And judging by the comments here, I think the comic–among other “political commentaries”–failed to account for “left-right” dichotomy being increasingly futile as “The immigrants ruin ma welfare” type, and “my country is progressive than US, but the immigrants will ruin it” existing here. Again, you can include South Park here as well, considering their contradictory views in ideology.
https://existentialcomics.com/comic/159
So here is a good example of what I mean by Robert Nozick.
@ Arent:
Well that would work, except all the freaking states were expansionist. It’s not like there were any nations that were like, “Yeah, our nation is big enough at two miles wide, we’ll just leave all that land that’s presently unassociated with a nation to be wild and free. Maybe some other nation will want to start itself up there and we could be neighbors!”
That is, to say,
“One does not ‘simply’ found their own state – or buy a sandwich in Mordor.”
@ Mr. Random:
Yes. The legal minimum is 24 days, but most companies give you 30 days of fully paid vacation in germany. Fun fact: disabled people get 5 extra days of paid vacation, so they come to 35 days.