Marketable People

Theatrical Release Januar 16, 2020

24 hours streaming opportunity with subsequent discussion (if desired) with the filmmakers
register under film@marketable-people.org

Synopsis

Europe is in a transition. Since the start of the new millennium and after the financial crisis a new course has been set. The social market economy, social solidarity systems which took decades to fight for are being undermined. The labour market in particular is changing rapidly. This is where the film „Marketable people“ is particularly positioned.
Just 20 years ago two thirds of those employed in Germany had a full time job with social insurance. Today that figure is just 38%. At present already some half of those employed are in internships, rotating temporary employment, in work contracts or temporary work through an agency. Completely unsecured work such as „crowdworkers“ (via the internet) and commissioned work through an App are rapidly spreading and undermine the minimum wage. Some well educated people need to do 3 jobs to be able to survive. Every one is his or her worker-entrepreneur. Whoever wants to survive in this society must be prepared for this right from the beginning. This competition is already inherent to most of us.
This development is not God given but made by man! The neoliberal ideas of a lean state and a global Market without borders were first introduced into the US and England. In Germany these policies were taken over by the red-green government of Schröder/Fischer. Through the reduction of corporate taxes and the deregulation of work they managed to provide German companies enormous sustained cost advantages. Simultaneously real income sank between the years 2000 and 2010 on average by 4.2 percent. Employees in the lower half of the income pyramid had to cope with a reduction in real wages of between 13.1 and 23.1 percent.
Ruinous competition The one sided lowering of the wage costs in Germany in the newly created European currency block had catastrophic consequences. It created crucial competitive advantages for the German export industries – however for all other countries in the Euro-zone increasing disadvantages for their own industries. With the argument that they must maintain competitiveness the other countries have come under enormous pressure to do the same as in Germany. In the financial crisis Greece, Spain, Portugal and even Italy were forced to dilute their labour rights. „I have delivered“ said Matteo Renzi during a state visit to Berlin. He had delivered the dilution of labour rights. Greece, Portugal and Spain had already delivered. But the unemployment figure has not dropped anywhere due to that. However almost all people in Europe have lost some social security and were sent into the competitive arena which encompasses increasingly all aspects of life.
Many people have a gut feeling that something is going wrong. They feel themselves defenseless because they do not understand the mechanics of deregulation. But the development is in no way „without an alternative „. Democracy only has a chance when the citizens begin to recognize their interests. „Marketable people“ will be one tool to this end.

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