Citizens' concerns
- I don’t understand how the financial system works 🤔
- My savings are losing their value 💸
- I’m worried about my pension 💰
- The gap between rich and poor is growing 📈
- Housing prices are too high 🏘️
- Banks are corrupt and self-serving 🐺
- Local businesses will go bankrupt (once support is withdrawn) 🧾
- Prices are going up 🛒
- Unemployment levels are too high 🤖
- The economy is fuelling the climate crisis ⛽
- We will never pay off the public debt 💶
- Bankers have too much power 🕴️
Unemployment levels are too high 🤖
More and more people are out of work. With more people not working and earning less money, fewer people are buying things. This is having a knock-on effect for businesses, who are selling less goods and making less of a profit — forcing them to make even more redundancies. The jobs that are available are also lower-paid and on shorter contracts, leaving workers economically vulnerable.
→ Ⓓ The European Central Bank should support the economy and citizens more directly The ECB relies on private banks and other financial institutions to transmit its policies. These financial institutions, in turn, lend money to non-financial businesses. The ECB does therefore not determine who gets loans to expand their business and make new hires. This approach urges a debate on whether the ECB should interact more directly with non-financial businesses and citizens.
→ Ⓔ The ECB can’t do everything, governments must fully use their budgetary powers This approach discusses the differences between the ECB’s monetary policies and governments’ fiscal policies, and the ECB’s role in stimulating the latter. It invites you to reflect on whether governments should increase their spending during times of crisis, thereby boosting the local economy and employment.
