page_title: Social issue
section_title: Poverty
hierarchical_section_title: Social issue / Issues By country / Germany / Poverty
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Oktober 1960 Bremen-Vahr Sozialer Wohnungsbau
context_page_description: A social issue is a problem that influences many citizens within a society. It is a common problem in present-day society and one that many people strive to solve. It is often the consequence of factors extending beyond an individual's control. Social issues are the source of a conflicting opinion on the grounds of what is perceived as morally correct or incorrect personal life or interpersonal social life decisions. Social issues are distinguished from economic issues; however, some issues have both social and economic aspects. There are also issues that do not fall into either category, such as warfare.
  There can be disagreements about what social issues are worth solving, or which should take precedence. Different individuals and different societies have different perceptions.
  In Rights of Man and Common Sense, Thomas Paine addresses the individual's duty to "allow the same rights to others as we allow ourselves." The failure to do so causes the creation of a social issue.
  There are a variety of methods people use to combat social issues. Some people vote for leaders in a democracy to advance their ideals.
context_section_description: Unemployment rates vary by region, gender, educational attainment, and ethnic group.
  A growing number of Germans are poor and dependent on welfare. In 2007, one in six children depended on welfare. That is up from only one in seventy-five in 1965. Poverty rates vary in different states. For instance, only 3.9% suffer from poverty in Bavaria, while 15.2% of Berlin's inhabitants are poor. Families that are headed by a single parent and working-class families with multiple children are most likely to be poor.
  There is a discussion going on about hunger in Germany. Reverend Bernd Siggelkow, founder of the Berlin-based soup kitchen "Die Arche," claimed that a number of German children go hungry each day. He blamed the lack of jobs, low welfare payments, and parents who were drug-addicted or mentally ill. Siggelkow has been criticized by a number of people who said there was no hunger in Germany. SPD politician and board member of the German central bank, Thilo Sarrazin, said it was possible to live on welfare without going hungry if one did not buy fast food and cooked from scratch instead. He was criticized by The Left politician, Heidi Knake-Werner, who said it was not right "if well paid people like us make recommendations to poor people about how they should shop."
caption: Housing project in Bremen-Vahr in the 1960s, back then most tenants living in housing-projects were two parent families with at least one parent working. In many housing projects the composition of tenants has changed since then and now many tenant-families are headed by a single female or an unemployed male
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