Poor in spite of work

 Fear is running high right now: After two years of a pandemic, with severe social consequences, we are now in the midst of inflation and an unpredictable energy crisis. One catastrophe follows the next. And once again, it is the poor who are hit hardest. Temporary jobs are becoming more and more the norm: Across Europe, the lives of almost a third of all employees are characterized by insecurity. What are the consequences? How long will this growing "poor class" put up with it? Increasingly, social protests are being used by right-wing populist parties for their own purposes. In our film, we get to know various fates from Europe who have one thing in common: they have always made an effort in life, given everything, and yet they are not allowed to participate in life as a matter of course. Despite working, they don't know how things will go tomorrow and are dependent on offers of help. Economist Guy Standing says that the prevailing neoliberalism ensures a redistribution from the bottom to the top: wages stagnate, jobs become more insecure, temporary employment is considered the norm. What is the explosiveness of the new class of the precariat? What is the state of Europe's social peace? And how could the great insecurity and the polarization of the political system be counteracted? Katharina Wolff and Valentin Thurn trace these questions in the documentary "Poor Despite Work - The Crisis of the Middle Class" and accompany young and old people from different European countries in their everyday lives in the "precariat".