Realsozialismus 101

Because it’s really Realsozialismus, baby!: dumpster-diving for something to eat in humanity's most elaborate welfare state.

Many pensioners and unemployed people in Berlin are turning to an unusual means of supplementing their meager incomes: collecting discarded deposit bottles. They can return them to stores or supermarkets for a few cents per bottle. But as the activity becomes more popular, competition among collectors has intensified.

Otherwise you know they’re going to spin it this way:

His supplementary source of income is only possible because of German laws aimed at encouraging recycling and reducing waste

But in reality, just like the #Occupy “movement”, they end up competing with bums and winos for sustenance:

Those who in the past managed to make money collecting the bottles that other people throw away are now facing increasingly tough competition. Berlin residents describe a boom in bottle-collecting, and there are stories about unscrupulous collectors who hover over people drinking in public, waiting to seize their empties.