Der Spiegel: How German Electricity Became A Luxury Item.

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23. Did you even bother to look at the publication date?

The original title was “Das Strom-Phantom Wahl 2013”, a bit of word play and with some lament that their argument, as it was stated in the article, was rejected as part of the election narrative. It was an election screed written for, or by, the desperate conservatives who were days away from a complete defeat. Any self-respecting German would have seen right through it, as it’s chock full of lies, and half-truths, and inaccuracies.

And they did see through it. A few days later the FDP, AfD, and clueless Pirate parties all went down in complete defeat. The ex-physicist Merkel won, but everyone to the right of her lost, and they lost every seat. This article simply summarizes their energy policy gripes made during the campaign by the laissez-faire global capitalists, big banks, the wealthy investor class, libertarians, and all but the extreme right wing nuts represented by those parties.

Let’s be clear: those are the very people who never once gave a shit about the poor, or the working class, and have tried to defeat any right or expense that would aid them.

When it was rewritten into English a few days later, it was titled “Germany's Energy Poverty: How Electricity Became a Luxury Good”. The split title was obviously written with half UK and half American reactionary appeal in mind. Evidently it worked and the lack of truth didn't matter.

While the German public saw that the numbers and anecdotal stories were bullshit, the gullible Americans were left to take them at face value, just as you did.

Speaking of gullibility and the obfuscation by cultural divide, why do you think they choose the Berlin suburb of Neukölln for the anecdote? Do you think it’s a coincidence that it’s 40% Auslander, with a large Turkish, Arab, Kurdish, Romani, sub-Saharan African Population? There are absolutely no votes there for the FDP or AfD, and only small amount for the CDU. But every German would know. So it was a twofer for the authors; they got a not-so-subtle appeal to nativist support in the FDP’s own ranks and it’s also probably the only place in Germany where you could find someone still using an incandescent bulb. Adoption for LEDs and CFLs was above 90% six years ago. You can’t even get that level of compliance in a GD light bulb post on DU. The people of Neukölln wouldn’t know how to get support, and the FDP would be the last to tell them. You also know full well the FIT income goes overwhelmingly to the middle class, small collectives, and municipalities. The big four energy companies are getting almost none of it.

In small words spoken slowly, the point of the article is not about helping the German poor, it’s about saving taxes for the German rich.

So why carry water for the defeated German right? And on a progressive website no less.