Calendar week 14

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Weekly Review

More than my start to the week I had already reported here, on Tuesday things continued merrily at the university. As you can already see near Detlef Stern can read, the coffee thing didn't really work out. It's astonishing how quickly universities and schools can get out of hand these days, even though I love going there so much, feeling comfortable in a very tranquil environment. In any case, I used the freed-up time to see how the students were getting to my lecture. I sat there and observed. A lot of students try to get straight to the point, which I could understand if they had another event beforehand. But if that's not the case, the ironclad rule still applies: "Five minutes early is a student's punctuality!"

My lecture review session took place in the Soleo's outdoor pool, somewhat compensating me for the lack of coffee and the students' poor reading, listening, and comprehension skills. But then I thought about it a little more closely. How are the students supposed to be able to do this? It's hardly ever taught in families or even at school anymore. And so I hope that the students will acquire these skills by the time they graduate with a bachelor's degree.

I no longer worry about student participation; if you don't want to, you've had it. Two students accepted my offer to look at the solution to the problem. I suspect that the first student didn't attend my lecture, which could also be relevant to the topic of "Reading, Listening, and Comprehension," but the second student delivered a quite acceptable result.

Studying without participating is too much of a challenge for most students, and the same is true for citizens of any democracy. And so, on Tuesday evening, I was pleased that more regulars came to the table than Franz Schirm feared.

The middle of the week was busy with routines, although I did manage to indulge in a few dances in the evening. Towards the end of the week, there was a very enjoyable meeting with the Heilbronn Marketing GmbH team at the Harmonie—now the Europa Ball can begin!

The week ended with a pleasant evening with Ursula, Dan, and my better half in a nice restaurant with quite decent tapas. The next morning, we had a European breakfast, followed by a computer repair. Since I've shut down all my Microsoft computers, it had been a few years since I'd had the chance to delve into a BIOS. To my delight, not much had changed, and I was able to successfully complete the task. The evening ended with an impromptu barbecue.

And then I was inspired by Manuel Moreale once again a guestbook set up here on the blog; I'm curious to see if my readers will use it this time.

This week is coming to an end with more routines, including preparing for the upcoming lecture. And with a bit of luck, I'll have time for a dance class this evening.

wealth

Even if the CDU, CSU and SPD, after summoning the AfD ghosts together and now unable to get rid of them, want to make us believe that being poor is the new wealth, we should still think about it a little more closely ourselves.

Money, no matter what kind, whether in marks or euros, is no indicator of wealth. My great-grandparents had billions of marks in their wallets and were dirt poor. About 100 years later, things have changed again, and even a "millionaire" can no longer count themselves among the rich. Even today, one is only considered rich if one has a net annual income of more than one million euros. And so, homeowners, whose homeowners, incidentally, are only valued at the state's own expense so that they can really rip them off, shouldn't already consider themselves millionaires—that will backfire completely!

But according to recent statistics, there are indeed more rich people than ever before, only they are no longer millionaires or billionaires. Monetary wealth today begins with the multi-billionaire. People only recognize these people as such when they themselves have millions of dollars at their disposal and distribute them, for example, in a charity. Elon Musk Millions are like alms. The joke is that, put into perspective, the million a rich person gives away isn't even worth a single cent that others would throw at a beggar's feet. The real joke, however, is that you pay your own cent, whereas the rich person gets most of his million back from the state—and if he's really clever, he even earns money from it himself! And this brings us to the source of all wealth: you don't become rich by giving, but only by taking.

As we should all know by now, you're not rich because you own trillions of euros, dollars, or marks. Even your great-grandparents could tell you a thing or two about that! Leaving the Stoics and other "do-gooders" aside for a moment, you're rich because you own vast amounts of land, real estate, or means of production. In addition, you're rich if you employ a large number of people yourself. But in any case, all of that is still not quite enough if you don't also have the miracle cure for all wealth: access to the tax revenue and transfer payments of at least your own state. And it's been this way since time immemorial!

Not that I want to steal the wealth of the rich, or even begrudge it. Quite the opposite; I assume that humanity unfortunately only functions because some of us can become rich.

Now the big but! Even if we give every rich person the benefit of the doubt as long as they have not acquired their money through criminal means (Rene Benko, Carsten Maschmeyer and Co.), should begrudge their wealth, it would finally be time to limit their access to our tax money and especially to any transfer payments.

I assume that if we could at least get all democracies to stop being self-service stores, our economies and societies would recover all by themselves.

Ziplines

The newspapers have been full of it recently: Heilbronn is planning a cable car for public transport. To be more precise, the Dieter schwarz The foundation must solve the problem of how to connect a future park to the city in such a way that the desired employees might eventually find their way to Heilbronn. In Bad Wimpfen, the transport connection was already a complete failure, and in Bad Friedrichshall, the federal, state, and local governments must now make very costly adjustments to ensure that the future employees of the Lidl company there can find their way to work.

We citizens should also ask ourselves whether it's actually a good idea to entrust our local council and city administration with this task. They've already ensured that the Blitz Bridge and the bike house became a fiasco, and the originally good idea of ​​the Neckarbogen will also turn into a never-ending nightmare for us citizens.

And now the brilliant idea of ​​a cable car! What Stuttgart and Mannheim have already rejected as too over-engineered, if one wants to make it a success in Heilbronn, must firstly be placed in external professional hands and secondly be contractually financed by the Lidl empire.

Not that I have anything against the cable car! I, too, wish Heilbronn were a global metropolis, or at least that it would finally develop into a major city. Major cities are a bit more complicated and complex than an Aldi or Lidl supermarket, and so if you want to achieve something positive there, you first have to ensure you have qualified staff—as we can all see, relying on homegrown talent was a huge mistake!

Anyone who wants to develop a big city needs city dwellers and corresponding employees who already have experience with big cities and can demonstrate success in this regard.

The "Mi Teleférico" in La Paz and El Alto transports a good 300 passengers daily. We in Heilbronn can barely fill a single Red Bus! And as wonderful as a cable car is, one has to ask how many people use it day in and day out to make the operation even remotely worthwhile.

And if we still want to have such a railway, it is imperative that we clarify in advance who will cover the costs for the next 30 years. Knowing our local councils, taxes and fees for us citizens will soon be increased again.

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