Aunty Bailout

If you've been wondering how Germany plans to bail out all those other Eurozone countries that have not been looking after their piggy-banks as well as we have, look no further. This Cupcake and others like me will be playing a major role! Yes, we are the bailout aunties and uncles of the Euro family where a couple of the cousins and nephews went out and spent their pocket-money all in one go and forgot to save a bit for Christmas, birthdays and the like.

Having made what seems now to have been a disastrous decision to become self-employed 11 years ago, I am available 24/7 for work and do in fact spend a great deal of those 168 hours working. My most recent record was last weekend when I spent 22 hours working. I did exceed that when I was younger and my children were very little and used to go to their father every second weekend. On those weekends, I used to work 24 hours.



You would think, and I can even hear you saying, yes, but. You must earn loads! Actually I am in a middle-range bracket. That's before the tax office gets to it. After the tax office has been at it, and after I have paid all the obligatory private welfare monthly contributions, I am in a low-range bracket and have less than an acquaintance who is a hairdresser. (Except she has additional tips).

I am now being taxed at 42%, plus Solidarity Tax, which is a few more %. I can't even be bothered to look up how much Solidarity Tax is. It just makes me cross! Back in about 1990 or thereabouts, Solidarity Tax was introduced in Germany to support our good friends in the ex-East Germany and build up the country (by the country I mean the Eastern part). The Solidarity Tax was introduced for one year.

Well it's now 2011, which by my reckoning is 21 years later. Before you ask, yes we are still paying the Solidarity Tax. There is no end in sight. The ex-East Germany looks all sparkly and shiny and the West looks like... the East used to look before the Solidarity Tax.

In Switzerland, which is just a short, fast journey down the road, they pay 23.5% tax. That is half, exactly half, of what I am paying. It's no wonder the Swiss can afford to eat all that cheese, do all that skiing, have all those nice banks and not worry too much about being incomprehensible because they are talking a dialect of German that many people, including myself, cannot understand without subtitles.

It would be much, much better for me to earn less. I would be better off and pay less tax. I might also get more sleep, have less stress and not moan so much. But then I couldn't be a bailout auntie. And we do need those. Heigh-ho, someone's got to look after the family, haven't they?