Germany has strong consumer rights. Yet they often remain effective only as long as the individual consumer blends into the crowd, stays unnoticed, and behaves like a silent beneficiary. But as soon as a company provides defective or inadequate service to an individual and that person stands up for themselves, the weakness of the democratic system becomes apparent.
Anyone who steps out of the crowd and asserts their rights quickly learns what it means to face a company with far greater financial power as an individual. In such situations, the state often leaves the individual alone. Instead of receiving effective and straightforward legal protection, the consumer is forced to bend and comply, because the retaliation of poor service providers and powerful companies can have lasting consequences.
The real problem is not the absence of consumer rights, but their lack of enforceability for the individual person.
As a collective, consumers are protected. But as individuals in a specific conflict, consumers are often alone, at a disadvantage, and practically without effective access to their rights.
The project Deutschland21jh.de is committed to changing exactly this situation. But changing a system that makes life comfortable for companies with poor leadership and poor treatment of individual consumers is extremely difficult in Germany.
For decades, citizens have been conditioned to behave exactly as companies want them to behave: bowing before poor service, always complying, always tolerating. People have learned that the state has little real interest in protecting or strengthening individual consumers when they find themselves in conflict with companies.
And yet I am taking on this thankless task, because I can no longer simply accept things as they are.
I have lived for more than 30 years as a consumer in Germany, and now, in a new era in which the real quality of life for individuals matters more than the comfort of the herd, we are facing serious difficulties in retaining highly qualified professionals in Germany.
I am approaching retirement, and this will become one of my central commitments. Many avoid me – even politicians. But I will not give up.
LinkedIn may block my account again. Companies in Germany may try even harder to make my life and my family’s life as a consumer more difficult. Whatever obstacles lie ahead, they will only strengthen my resolve to change this situation.
They call me an idealist. Yes, they are right – I am. But if I had not been an idealist, I would not have survived all these years in Germany as a citizen of foreign origin.
Germany is changing, but not fast enough. An outdated culture of poor service and consumer submission will cost this country its future competitiveness.
Politicians are elected by individuals – individuals who together form the whole. Candidates and elected officials expect to be treated as individuals, and rightly so.
Yet in everyday reality, consumers are treated like a herd – even though democracy is built on the individual.
Every citizen works hard, pays taxes, consumes, and pays taxes again – even through consumption. During elections, every individual takes the time to vote. We contribute as individuals, we carry responsibility as individuals, and we recognize politicians as individuals.
But when a company delivers poor service and an individual stands up against it, the state no longer sees the individual.
Instead, the individual is left alone.
Faced with the full power of a company, the individual is often pushed into a position where claiming their rights becomes practically impossible. The system, in effect, discourages resistance and rewards submission.
The state works to strengthen politicians and companies – yet it has failed to provide equally strong protection for the consumer as an individual.
In practice, individual consumers are too often treated as disposable within our business system.
This is unjust.
At the same time, many companies demonstrate poor leadership in how they deal with individual consumers. The message conveyed between the lines is unmistakable: anyone who challenges poor service in Germany will be confronted with the full force of the company.
This must end.
The individual must be equipped to fight back on equal terms – and we already have a proposal, including a draft law.