According to a study by the Hans Böckler Foundation, high-earners are more satisfied with the crisis policy of the federal and state governments during the corona pandemic than people with less income. This emerges from a representative analysis of the union-related foundation. Low earners also tend to assume that crisis management is used to strengthen the interests of the wealthy.
According to this, just under half of those who have to live with a household income of less than 1,500 euros per month stated that they were satisfied with the anti-crisis policy of the federal and state governments. In contrast, for people with a net income of more than 3,200 euros, approval was 72 percent.
If everything is added up, it shows that at least two thirds are rather or fully satisfied with their government's corona management. However, just under 40 percent believe it is possible that the pandemic "will be used to assert the interests of the rich and powerful". Among people with low incomes, 50 percent agreed with this assumption.
Fewer people fear becoming unemployed
On the one hand, these different assessments could be due to the fact that people with lower incomes are often hit harder by the corona crisis. For example, employees who earn better and who are also covered by collective agreements have received higher short-time benefits from their employers more often than others. Low-income earners also suffered less income losses than high-income earners. For those earning a maximum of 1,500 euros a month, this even affected 40 percent and only 22 percent in higher salary levels.
However, the proportion of those worried about losing their jobs or their economic future has declined. The political system has thus proven to be stable overall, said the scientific director of the Economic and Social Sciences Institute (WSI) of the Hans Böckler Foundation, Bettina Kohlraus. "But our stability is fragile. It can tip over if those who were previously poor financially and socially fall back even further during the crisis." For the study, more than 6,300 people aged 16 and over were interviewed between June 18 and 29.
