generations, number two, security and safety, number three identity. we're going to start with generations. we are going to probably start with the small video to start the discussion. here's the video. ♪ ♪ >> translator: living together in germany is getting more and more diverse. of course, the family is the key to personal luck and change. but the family is changing. for me, the family is to be together, to support each other in tough times. belonging. that's a big part of my family. i think that it's no use having children.

you have to work so hard to eek a living and having children on top of it, no way. the requirement for modern life are changing. very often it's at the expense of the family. expense of the children to -- very often existing families have a hard time. the birth rate is getting lower and lower and we have less and less children. life is getting faster and faster. there's more and more to do in our profession. we have less and less freedom. more and more families are out of breath, let's say. and now they are in a new stage where people establish partnerships, have children, but everything is difficult.

it's difficult to reconcile everything. older people who have a lot of social skills and would like to help very often live alone or in old folks home. so how can we overcome all these obstacles to a family life? how can we bring young and old together? what structures should we build for the next generation and be responsible for each other? >> translator: dialog about germany's future, first the theme generation. who is responsible? who takes responsibility? who commits one? we're going to start with this gentleman here, microphone is coming. wait. and then this gentleman with the red tie. >> translator: mrs. chancellor,

times are hard. there's a lot of conflict. i think there's a lot of unemployment. i think that what we should have is something which is going to make life better and is going to make us safer. what can we do about that? well, thank you. what was your name again? >> wait for the mic, please. >>. [ stating name ] >> for the last three years, i've been working about the crisis socially. so you think we should all have a common solution. >> i've seen on the internet,

your topic the one you're working on is a basic salary for any citizen is a topic that is discussed all over society in germany today. it's a theme for today. but of course, for that, if we were to give a basic salary to everybody, would have to increase taxes. but it's a question. and of course, some people could work on top of that and earn more and others would not go to work. because they have a basic income. of course, it would be something for the safety of your life and your living. but i mean, it's something to be debated. >> translator: the gentleman with the red tie. who are you please? introduce yourself. but you think we would live better with the basic income, yes? i'm a farmer.

i'm coming from 70% of the population in this state live in the countryside. we work a lot in agribusiness. i think it's the second largest industry in the land. there's a lot of potential in the countryside and people don't pay attention to it. why? for instance, we could extend a greek culture. we could use more land. we have the land. we do not have enough cattle, for instance. we could grow the agriculture, we could use the renewable energy that comes from agriculture. and we could probably reform the old farms and give jobs for the old generations.

because there's quality of life in a countryside. what really is close to my heart is that in the future, since we're talking about the future today, how do we live together in the future? we should not neglect the potential of the countryside. more than we did until now. i fear that, among all the big problems in the world, this is not one of the big ones. you're right, you're right. it is true that at least half the population of germany lives in the countryside and of course, this is a question where to see how they can go shopping, what is the quality of the communication network. how can we improve with the internet coverage for instance their quality of life. i think we're going to take aboard your proposal. let not forget about the

countryside. of course, if people were to leave the countryside, this would have terrible consequences for the big cities. >> translator: lady -- >> marion zaba. i'd like to talk about volunteerism. i'm coming from the old tradition of volunteers. it's a commitment of mine. and we have problems when we're volunteers. especially when we're talking about generation. i have learned to be a volunteer. and very often young people are not attracted by volunteers. i think we should have different generations. we should push people to be volunteers in all different

ages. we should create the conditions for that so that young people are more recognized. we should not jupe we have a lot of volunteers in our town. we have even a foundation for volunteers. but the structure is extremely heavy. i used to work for an administration and the laws are so complicated that people are not interested in becoming. >> translator: sir, you would like to make it easier to be volunteers. >> translator: yes. i don't know if it's possible t but could we take into account the different skills. for instance, people have federal jobs for volunteers, that was a but we should have more security

if we are volunteering. there is, for instance, paragraph 26 about responsibility in germany. i think that we would gain, if we were to simplify, to streamline the rules so that we would be more protect itted generally and we could be volunteering without all this difficulties. for instance, you could give us a tax holiday for 100 euros if we >> translator: the tax code, the rules and the law in order to protect your responsibility and thirdly, the fact that we should probably intervene also in the pension laws toogni, for instance, your professional career. >> translator: the two young ladies. you wanted to say something? you have a proposal to make for the chancellor?

student in erfurt. i'm in 12th grade and i'm interested in education. i talk to a lot of people. i took part in the online dialog and i see that in germany a lot of people say that we should have federal education. of course, this would be a huge change in the country if we have federal education. since we're talking about the future, i think that it's something that we should finally come to. what you expect from that. if a federal government makes a mistake, all the german students are affected by the federal mistake. it's better if the state is making a mistake, it affects less people. >> translator: as long as i'm a chancellor, we can talk about mistakes of course on the

federal government that i was -- when we move from one state to the other, there's no equivalency? >> yes, we don't have equivalency between states. when you move from one state to the other, you have a different school system. and curriculum has changed. and when a new party takes power in the state -- so costs a lot of money. i think we can save tons if we had uniform education system. uniform for the whole of germany with one source of experts who could tell us what to do in the future. that would encourage informationment i'm taking your advice, but of course we have to talk with the different states and especially about the equivalency for a start.

okay. >> next? >> and you complain also that education is changing. there's a new program every day. well, not every day. but it is true that the curriculum is always changing. and it's not always very useful. and i think what's important is to take care of the local conditions. yes, they decided to keep the same curriculum for ten years. at least one generation is not going through constant changes and it's not an all new curriculum. it has to do with living together in the school system. >> translator: you look this way. you over there. in the back there. in the back. let's not forget the people in

the back. in the front then, we're going to go to the back over there. i have prepared awell, written . leave your paper aside. just talk. talk without your paper. no, no, it's better for me if i can read my paper because i worked on it. it's very complex. i ot my paper. i'm an architect. i spent the first half of my life in india and second half of my life in europe. how do we want to live together in the future? the family will decide on the future of our society. for 7 million children, there's a risk to live in an unstable

life. there's 4 million out of wedlock children and 3 million illegal children. and we're not taking into account the reality. we should have a law that takes into account the quality of parenting. and also we should encourage the parents to be parents. i have a model that i would like to propose to you. number one, the heart of the family in my model is a new law for parents and giving rights to the children and equal rights to the parents and the children. number three. we should have philosophy that ensures that we maintain children's rights. then the role of the family

should be at the heart of society. we should give optimum living conditions to the family. the children must be protected within their family also. the old laws only protected 2 million children. and i think that we should use my model that would protect 14 million family communities and that would cover the 7 million of children who are not covered now. the chancellor, i know that a lot of people have thought approximate that. but i would like to send youhe f the coalition to help them with the drafting of laws and i would like for you to support my

proposal for this model, and for this i need support from the experts who are on top over there. >> translator: goodment send that to me. i think this is a complex theme that takes care of a lot of people and touches a lot of people. it's true that life has changed. a lot of the situations. but it's good to cover the children and the parents. but we only have 100 people, we only have 90 minutes. we don't have a whole lot of time for everybody. it's the rights of children. okay. let's go on. this lady over there next to the gentleman with the very nice mustache. the lady that i'm talking to. >> i think it is well-known that

large families no longer exist. and what we should encourage is houses where we can gather generations. we should do a lot more about that. we should make it public now. we should give every town, every city a home for several generations to meet. >> translator: is this the most important subject for the future? >> translator: yes. i see very often that old people are living alone but they have such a huge potential. they could communicate so much to the new generation. and there are people who are idle. i think where to go, where could young experience the skills of

the old people. this could really change their attitude and old people could be very active. no, no. i agree with you. we have had a good experience with the homes for several general races. but it's not everywhere in germany. it could take place in town hall or -- we have thought about it. as you said, perhaps it shouldn't be part and parcel of the administration of whether local or regional but what we need perhaps is that we probably need a citizen home where the citizen could get together. i would be in favor of that. a home to gather several generations, i think, yeah, that could be good. we could do something both for the old and the young. i'm quite in favor of that. of course, we have to think about that. still on the family.

anybody wants to add about families? yes? good evening. greetings from my daughter. you are a strong woman. my problem is that we should no longer split families. i'm working on the construction job. i have to commute between the east and the west. of course, it takes a huge amount of time. also, in west germany our wage is 13 euros. in east germany it's 10 euros an hour. right now, east and west are not equal. if you paid only ten euros an hour, this is not a whole lot. you can't live with that.

so for the same job, in the same industry, we should be paid the same. so that we don't have to commute between east and west all the time. [ applause ] the time. you're making the proposals. and, of course, you know that i don't make the policy in terms of wages. it's between the employers unions. but it is true. there's pressure now to bring the wages at the same level of east and west. it's true. commuting is a big challenge for families. and how much time you have left for your family if you keep commuting on free throw way every day. and leaving at 3:00 a.m. on monday. i mean, of course, nobody pays my commuting.

i'm at 7:00 on construction and i leave the site at 7:00 p.m. and i have three or four more hours commuting and my daughter is in bed. yeah, my daughter, fortuna thtu is grown up. and i'd like to ask a question about generation. we are saying that people don't have children. but i have another problem that is to say it would be good to live in the countryside. it would be better to raise children. but the children need adults in the countryside to take them everywhere, to sports, to the doctors and, of course, the old people also have to be taken to the doctor. and the road infrastructure is not there for them. yes. so the second person was talking about that. it's an important topic for us.

here we promise to go on this side. my lord, you almost took the words out of my mouth when you said that you were saingle father. i'm director of grandparents service. we have 8,000 old people and we have a lot of single mothers also. and i see that these people are falling through the safety net after a while. because they have to work part time. they work 22 hours a week, for instance. and, therefore, the children of single mothers fall under the poverty line. the women cannot make it anymore. so we should take care of that aspect of the family. what do you propose? >> i think that we should have a social net that is stronger.

we are trying to protect single mothers. we guarantee childcare with old people. and we are trying to find volunteers who could spend eight to ten hours a day with childcare. but it's almost impossible. and so the poverty spiral starts for single mothers. and you were saying the children are our future. but we should really mean it. and the fathers, the fathers, the last part? the grandparents? no, we have 44 grandparents who are very active. and how many fathers are helping? two. for erhaps we could make a your volunteer group. yes?

no. i just want to look. it's always the same in this type of meeting. some people come just to look, to watch. this gentleman here. thank you very much. it's our future. we have to follow the swedish model. they do a lot more for children. there are so many social services given to families that the children are now living in socially secure conditions. we don't have that. we don't have that. otherwise we're going to lose all the innovations of the future if you don't take care of our children. so you think that the children

go hand in hand with the restructure? yes. we have to restructure education, the place of parents and they need socially secure relations. we have to finance more the parents and especially single parents. yes, we all agree children are the future and we'll have less children in the future. therefore, it is very important to give the right education to children if you want to have them as good innovators, for instance. no. no. we'll have more children, not less children. yes. in the future we'll have more children. but right now we have to say that there are less and less young people to be clear. this lady and then the lady next

to her. you talk about education. i'd like to talk about education outside of school and talk about the continuity of education projects. because it is becoming useless. we have a project for a year. then we want to extend the project for another year. and either they change the content or the budget is no longer there. so i think our projects for continuous education should be much longer than one year. what would be the ideal time? two years? three years? what would be your -- >> no, i don't think we can say that globally. but i think at least three or four years and especially if we want to be useful and if we want these projects to have any

action. i'm taking note of that. we discussed that also with the government. we have to see what works and what hasn't worked. of course, after a year you can't see anything. but after three, four, five years, and also we must have the courage to see to it that what has not worked is stopped, is canceled. and in our society that is very, very difficult. otherwise, it all piles up. perhaps you. one or two. please the mike. i live in germany for seven years. i would like to go back on children. we need to have more children. i think we are scared to have children. we're scared to have a lot of children because immediately people think about poverty, think about small housing,

normal freedom. this is because of ideas we have in our mind. we want to have this and that for the state. no. i think we have to start having another image, starting with the media, having a lot of children is good. and, for instance, look at smoking. through the media, through publicity, we manage to cut down a huge number of smokers. smoking is no longer cool. perhaps we could do the same thing wiav more children. you're talking about a very important point. how can we change society if we have five, seven children, we should scare society. ve in an apartment next to a

family withmanykids. can i keep my career if many ch? no, you're right. myself, i come from a very large family. we were ten people in my family. one left the family since. but we live in one apartment on two floors. and we have tried to overcome all the problems. but, of course, it's not easy. it's difficult to find an apartment. it's a lot of difficulties we have as a large family. but at home, i mean, we don't have any problems because we have so many children. it's the opposite. it's very nice. we have parties and family gatherin gatherings. we have more fun. >> but, of course, if people see that you have so many kids, people are scared, right?