1. More workers should be able to choose between more money and more free time
Many people today are looking forward to a few days off work, but is this enthusiasm for leisure really good for our country and ourselves? My colleague Markus Dettmer is today analyzing the apparently newly awakened desire of many Germans for the four-day week after there was a collective agreement for 35 hours of work per week for railway employees. He asks: »Is Germany on the way from a can-do republic to a leisure paradise? Regardless of the sources of his wealth?”
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Ver.di warning strike in local public transport: The 40-hour week is reaching its limits
Photo: Hanno Bode / IMAGO
Germans' relationship to the value of work has changed. In the 1950s, the wonderfully arrogant poet Gottfried Benn, whom I admire, wrote quite rightly: "Being stupid and having a job: that's happiness." At that time, the Germans pounced, not to think too much about the crimes they were responsible for have to work in an often mindless way. Today, it's not just people from the younger generation who are taking it easy. In a society in which the ideal is that both adult partners in a family work, the 40-hour week is hard if you want to somehow combine family and work.
»The question remains about the four-day week with full wage compensation. Is it possible for everyone? Rather no,” writes my colleague Markus. The cancellation of a working day with full wages means a salary increase of 20 percent. That means: Employees would have to increase their productivity by 25 percent in a shorter period of time so that companies can create the same amount of value. That won't work. Of course, there are some industries that could significantly increase their productivity through intelligent work organization. "But in the daycare center or hospital, every worker who works one day less has to be replaced by another that day in order to ensure care."
It would certainly be good if more employees could choose between more money and more free time. My colleague believes that because the labor market is lacking workers and skilled workers due to demographic change, companies need to advertise themselves with better working conditions. “This is about good salaries, attractive working conditions and working time models.”
Read the whole story here: Why we will work less - but the four-day week doesn't suit everyone
2. Prosecutors are chasing the fraudulent Corona subsidy billions
The pandemic is over, and it has also left its mark on the judiciary. To help companies and the self-employed, the state distributed more than 76 billion euros during the pandemic. That is about as much as the EU and its members have paid in aid to Ukraine since the Russian attack in 2022. But numerous people have enriched themselves from the crisis and have ripped off the state with mask deals or corona test centers.
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Photo: Kilito Chan/Getty Images
My colleagues Jörg Diehl, Lukas Eberle, Tobias Großekemper and Gerald Traufetter report in the current SPIEGEL issue how the authorities are now chasing the lost Corona billions.
Taxpayers' money helped thousands of companies and saved many from bankruptcy. The state became the savior – and the victim. In numerous cases, the subsidies ended up in the accounts of criminals who took advantage of the fact that the authorities did not look closely enough when examining the applications. Now the authorities and the judiciary are trying to get some of the money back and to let as few fraudsters as possible get away with it. The Federal Ministry of Economics expects repayments of 4.8 billion euros for emergency aid alone.
»The state wanted to help during the pandemic quickly and unbureaucratically, which was understandable. But unbureaucratic is different from uncontrolled,” says my colleague Lukas Eberle. At the beginning of the pandemic, the authorities were only able to examine around one in ten applications for corona subsidies in more detail. This attracted fraudsters, especially since huge sums of money were involved.
“Many people inside and outside of politics are rightly calling for a review of Corona policy these days,” says Lukas. "In my opinion, this also includes a critical look at the subsidies and the system in which the authorities approved and paid them out."
It cannot be ruled out that at some point there will be another crisis as big as the one during the pandemic, in which companies and the self-employed will again be dependent on help from the state. "In such a case, there should be a system that makes fraud much more difficult - even if that means that the authorities cannot pay out the subsidies overnight."
Read the whole story here: How the authorities are chasing the lost Corona billions
3. Human rights activists protest against the use of facial recognition technology
Philosopher Ernst Bloch claimed that the language of the human face is the only one that every human being understands. But so-called artificial intelligence apparently understands facial language even better than humans. In many countries around the world, cameras and facial recognition are used to search for people who want to be caught. Today it became known that Israel wants to expand its surveillance in the Gaza Strip and use it to track down people with connections to the terrorist organization Hamas.
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Israeli checkpoint in Qalandia in the West Bank: “Facebook for Palestinians”
Photo: Zain Jaafar / AFP
My colleague Oliver Imhof reports that there have already been several mix-ups, including false arrests. An expert from the organization Amnesty International also considers Israel's use of facial recognition to be worrying because it could lead to "a complete dehumanization of the Palestinians." Facial recognition technology has also been heavily criticized by other human rights organizations. Human Rights Watch is calling for a general ban in public spaces. Autocracies like China and the United Arab Emirates use the technology to monitor their populations, but democracies like Great Britain also use it to fight crime. The EU has so far banned the use of detection software for mass surveillance.
Studies showed "that the software has problems recognizing dark-skinned people, which repeatedly led to mix-ups," writes my colleague. “Ironically, espionage also suffers from technology. The American secret services, for example, have problems maintaining the cover identities of their spies because facial recognition and AI draw attention to their digital footprint and thus their true self.
Read the full story here: Israel's controversial use of facial recognition
What else is important today?
Macron wants to completely renegotiate Mercosur:
Macron duped his Brazilian hosts with clear words: In São Paulo he called for a new agreement that was "based on reality." Domestically, he is under great pressure because of Mercosur.
René Benko's private family foundation is insolvent:
René Benko has already filed for bankruptcy as an entrepreneur - now the real estate investor's private family foundation is following suit. A corresponding application was submitted to the Innsbruck regional court.
New York decides on a city toll:
It would be the first city in the USA with a city toll: From June it will cost 15 dollars to drive to the southern part of Manhattan. However, lawsuits are still pending against the New York Transportation Authority's decision.
My favorite story today: Movie about Union Berlin
I have been interested in the work of documentary film director Annekatrin Hendel for a long time, for example her film about the “Brasch family,” who became famous for her writing, among other things, or “Beauty & Transience,” a portrait of the Berlin bouncer and photographer Sven Marquardt. Hendel has now made a film about Union Berlin.
My colleague Peter Ahrens finds the documentary “The Best of All Days” almost a little too sunny because it talks about the football club's numerous successes. "For almost two hours, people keep falling over each other's necks, and that much merriment is a little tiring in the long run," he writes. »Sometimes in the course of these two hours you would have wished for a break, a conflict, for there to be some rumblings and doors to slam. But that doesn't happen, people here just love each other too much." But this impression is by no means the fault of the film or the director. You can't show what isn't there. “There is no reason to be in a bad mood,” is a central sentence in the film. The director, says my colleague Peter, is "setting up a monument to those who are still there when coaches are fired and sports directors have to leave when players are transferred." Those who act according to the motto: “Right or wrong: My Club”.
Read the whole story here: In the Köpenick feel-good zone
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL+
“It helps to see Evan smiling in the photos in court”:
Moscow has been holding Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich for a year. His big sister Danielle talks about how she endures the uncertainty and why Evan loves Russia despite everything.
A bandit fireworks display as a farewell:
The tough fight over the house is over: 130 police officers cleared the house in the Berlin district of Neukölln, the Rammos are gone. What did the clan leave behind there?
“The microwave is the most efficient way of cooking”:
The climate crisis is causing many people to despair. Not Hannah Ritchie. The data scientist is convinced that never before has humanity had so many opportunities to live sustainably and in an environmentally friendly way.
Which is less important today
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Photo: Vatican Mediai / cpp / Independent Photo Agency Int. / IMAGO
Papal cinema ambassador:
Martin Scorsese
,
81
, a Hollywood director who failed out of seminary at a young age, is working on a new film about the life of Jesus Christ and is preparing an entire series about Catholic saints. According to Scorsese
, the idea for the pious filmmaking jobs came to him in a conversation with
Pope Francis
, whom he met last year: "I followed the Pope's call the only way I know: to write a script for a film about Jesus write."
Mini concave mirror
You can find the entire concave mirror here.
Cartoon of the day
And tonight?
In anticipation of Good Friday, could you watch the play “Miss Julie” by August Strindberg, which is about moral pressure, chastisement and submission. There is an elegant, very musical production in the Hamburger Kammerspiele with the actress Judith Rosmair and Dominic Horwitz, whom I greatly admire, which I saw last night. And if you don't live in Hamburg: There is a great version on streaming services with Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell, which was directed by the famous actress Liv Ullmann. (Read my 2015 review of it here.)
A lovely evening. Heartfelt
Yours, Wolfgang Höbel, author in the culture department