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Sahra Wagenknecht settles accounts with Merkel and Co. - "Germany celebrates itself naively for Corona successes, but ..."

2020-08-26T15:05:05.481Z


In her column, Sahra Wagenknecht reflects on the winners of the corona crisis. German politics is not doing well.


In her column, Sahra Wagenknecht reflects on the winners of the corona crisis. German politics is not doing well.

  • Sahra Wagenknecht wants to have identified the winners of the Corona * crisis .
  • In your opinion, people in Germany celebrate themselves “naively” for success.
  • Meanwhile, according to Wagenknecht, power is flowing elsewhere.

Munich - The corona crisis still has the world firmly under control. The rampant pandemic is still keeping Germany in suspense. After all, rising case numbers are by no means the only problem that needs to be dealt with. The economic consequences are serious: over twelve million employees were already on short-time work this year .

Wagenknecht against Merkel and Co .: "Naive celebration of advancing digitization"

But there are also some winners in the Corona * crisis . Sahra Wagenknecht (Die Linke) writes in her column for Focus.de that these are mainly large US corporations from Silicon Valley such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft , Facebook and Apple . Their sales have grown massively in the Corona crisis, in which there is an increased need for digital services . But the real problem is that it increases their power significantly. “While politicians naively celebrate the advancing digitization, the current development for Europe means one thing above all: increasing dependency,” said Wagenknecht. This statement can be understood as a clear criticism of Chancellor Angela Merkel * and other politicians.

The member of the Bundestag sharply criticizes the fact that the digital infrastructure that is indispensable in the 21st century is left to the US giants. You gamble away the chance of sovereignty and a policy for Germany and Europe that is based on your own interests .

Wagenknecht: US internet giants as big winners of the corona crisis

Since hardly anyone can do without Zoom Meetings, Microsoft Teams or Google services at the moment and the demand for digital content on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Co. has also risen sharply, the associated corporations are profiting from the current situation. Wagenknecht's claim can be backed up by numbers. In August, for example, Apple's market value rose above the two trillion dollar threshold for the first time . A US company has never traded this high. The internet giants Facebook and Amazon have also benefited significantly: They were able to double their quarterly profits. Both companies reported profits of $ 5.2 billion each for the second quarter of the year last Thursday .

Jeff Bezos is now worth a record $ 199.7 billion https://t.co/XSEq5m7EIz by @DenizCam pic.twitter.com/6OvGa3U26i

- Forbes (@Forbes) August 25, 2020

According to Wagenknecht , the companies earn a large part of this enormous turnover by collecting and analyzing user data . Wagenknecht calls it “surveillance capitalism through the five IT giants”. However, she admits that we cannot do without the technology behind it. Alternatives to the US corporations are needed .

Sahra Wagenknecht calls for alternatives to data collection from the USA

The former parliamentary group spokeswoman for the Left does not suggest the Chinese competition , but rather "non-commercial digital platforms with publicly accessible software that simply can no longer store individual behavioral data and thus can no longer misuse it." It also needs laws to save it to prohibit individual behavioral data.

Only in this way can there, according to Wagenknecht , an opportunity for digitization * that promotes freedom, competition and democracy instead of undermining all these values. (mam) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network

In the video: That's how much Amazon boss Jeff Bezos earned during the Corona crisis

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-08-26

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