Especially when we think about what we experienced in the same areas six years ago during our hike, we notice one thing more and more clearly. It seems that in Europe, but especially here in Germany, there is a general impoverishment. But the poverty in Germany is not poverty in the sense of "People have no more money! From a purely financial point of view not too much has changed. Sure, the number of people living at the subsistence level has increased. Therefore, many things today seem to be much more neglected and run-down than just a few years ago. But you still see a lot of expensive cars on the streets and sometimes even three or four of them in front of a house. And there is almost nobody who does not have an expensive smartphone and an even more expensive mobile phone contract.

Mass housing bunkers like these are now mainly inhabited by refugees

Mental poverty in Germany

What is striking, however, is a certain degree of mental poverty in Germany. Even if we still have the same money available as before, we still feel that it is now worth less. We feel poorer. And just as people say that you are always as old as you feel, you are definitely always as poor as you feel.

Every man is the architect of his own misfortune

And this, in turn, leads us to make our lives poorer and poorer. It is of course a subjective perception of us, but we ourselves feel very strongly that things such as coziness, comfort and vitality are disappearing more and more. Many of the houses we visit are more like museums than homes. Even if the inhabitants are wealthy, it is difficult to feel really comfortable in them. On the other hand, we notice more and more how much village life is being lost. Where there used to be a cozy village center with a baker, butcher, café, post office and mini-market, there are now empty shop windows with "for sale" signs in them and graffiti on them. So the inner cities of smaller towns are dying out. And at the same time, those of the big ones are getting fuller and fuller and therefore also louder, more aggressive and more unpleasant.

Hidden behind tarpaulins we also have small slums

Where has all the joy gone?

To find smiling or even neutral looking people has almost become an art. It is a search game for which you need a lot of patience and watchful eyes. Sometimes you really feel a bit like Momo, where the "grey gentlemen" steal time, so that everyone lives more and more in stress and falls into a kind of lethargic indifference. When I think of how many people six years ago were completely out of their minds with excitement about the fact that we were planning to hike all the way to Santiago, it's hard to believe that it was the same country. Today, most people don't even flinch when they are told that they have been walking across the continent for six years.

Decreasing willingness to help as a result of increasing poverty

And the willingness to help is correspondingly low. Do not misunderstand! We still get along super well and we still come across real treasures of people every day, who brighten up our day and support us wonderfully. But they become less and less. Or at least they are getting harder to find. In the past it was enough to wander somewhere and talk to people on the street. If they talked to you for more than 2 minutes, you knew that you would definitely get a place to sleep. Nowadays it is sometimes hardly enough to call four or five days in advance.

Containers as living space are also increasingly seen in Germany

We don't even give away Internet access

All in all, it seems as if we are finding it increasingly difficult to share or help others. Why? Because we are afraid of being taken advantage of or of being left behind. Even with things that we lose nothing by sharing them. Like the Internet. Today, for example, we asked the house next door if we could use W-LAN to stay in contact with our programmers. But our request was denied, with the statement that we are very sorry, but one does not feel comfortable with the thought that someone else is using one's own Internet.

Poverty is an invention of our civilization

These are then again and again moments that make you sad. Especially when you consider that we would not even have a spark of poverty or lack in this world if we supported each other instead of distrusting each other and pushing each other away! You do not believe that? Then think about this: If we were to divide all the money that currently exists on this planet exactly equally among all the people, each of us would have about one million euros! But this way about half of all people live on the poverty line.

Without the waste of food, as in the case of tomatoes, there would be no hunger on earth.

And one more thing: if we were to make full use of the food we grow instead of throwing away around 70% of it on the way from the field to the end consumer, we could feed a good 21 billion people without growing even one gram more. So there is, in fact, no shortage on this planet, except the very food we produce ourselves. I know that's a bit clumsy to say in space, but just let the thought take effect on you.

The slogan of the day: You are always as poor as you feel