Why Are So Many On Welfare

[Aractus]

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This way of keeping wages so low that employees slide into poverty and thereby into state welfare dependence whilest still being employed - would be considered as a abuse of state institutions here and would therefor have legal consequences.

We have something called "Kurzarbeit" in Germany, meaning that a company in finacial trouble can shorten the contracts and wages for a brief period of time to get the company back on track again. But it is bound by law to keep the wages on a level which will not let the employees fall into poverty.

Generaly there are minimum wages throughout the entire economy here. But they are not legislated by the goverment.
The law only bindes companies to form "Tarifparteien" such as labor unions and representatives of the management - which then have to engage in debate to determine the minimum wage - which is then signed into the contract (Tarifvertrag). - This forces managment and employees into debate and therefor hinders decisions being made ignoring the arguments and needs of one participant.

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You have the same problem as the USA, except for the fact that your country has reasonable average wages. It doesn't change the fact that businesses can pay their workers tiny wages.

Although you have the much bigger problem of being a part of the EU. Grouping together States with such radically different fiscal situations was always going to lead to the problems that have been created by it. This is the problem the USA has, except that it has had the same problem for a much longer time. Their country shouldn't have one economic model because their states are so diverse. The EU certainly shouldn't have created a single economy for countries that had such different economies to begin with.

Have fun bailing out Greece.

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Generally, that's what already happens. Local minimum wage laws in places like San Fransisco or New York City have the minimum wage set much higher than the federal minimum wage. The reasoning behind it makes sense, too: it costs more to live in places like that then it does to live in suburban Oklahoma.

That being said, I'd love to see the minimum wage set to index based on inflation/cost of living and for that index to be somewhat regional. But I'm one of those leftist, pinko socialists.

What the USA considers "hard left" is anything from centre-right to the actual communism/socialism left. Class divisions are what created the 2011 riots in London. They lead to further problems for society - welfare dependence as mentioned is one, but the USA provides shit-all welfare anyway. Violence and crime is another one. Black markets, loan sharks (or pay-day-lenders/unsecured-loans), etc.

Oh and what I find most disturbing of all is that your so-called conservative parties are anything but fiscally conservative. The level of federal debt in the USA is totally ridiculous, why do you want to spend your children, and your grandchildren's money instead of leaving them an inheritance????

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The thing that surprises me about America is so many people who are working full time jobs are really struggling.

We have lots of people who are struggling in Australia, however a lot of them aren't not working and are dependent wholly on social security benefits. However it is unlikely for people with full time jobs, even in minimum wage jobs to be really struggling in Australia.

Define "unlikely"? Australians generally don't have a large expendable income to start off with. Gambling addiction, Alcohol dependence, Drug addiction, etc, can all play a significant role into forcing families to struggle. We have a very high cost of living, often people move from one state to another, are left with no money and then find it difficult to find the work they were expecting. With a family this can cause great struggles. Medical expenses can also cause a family to go into great debt. Being unable to work due to medical reasons or injury. Loosing your job, and being unable to find another that pays the same wage. High property prices combined with our high interest rates can cause families to struggle to make ends meet. Rising cost of living (unexpectedly higher utilities bills), high cost of groceries, expenses at Christmas can all contribute to cause families to struggle. Uninsured vehicles being totalled. We have a huge variety of avenues that cause people to struggle.