Miriam Davoudvandi - Das können wir uns nicht leisten

For a long time, Miriam Davoudvandi avoided getting close to guys - because she knew that sooner or later every one of them would have to see her apartment from the inside: a run-down social housing block surrounded by detached family homes, cramped rooms, a worn-out bathroom. The shame of having nothing to offer and not belonging had shaped her since her first day at school, and it has never fully left her.

Since then she has climbed the social ladder and earns more than her parents ever did. Her conclusion: money really does make you happy. But at what cost? And what traces has her past left behind? With honesty and warmth, Miriam Davoudvandi talks about what it means to be poor in Germany - not just the obvious faces of poverty, but also its effects on dating, friendships, starting a family, and mental health, on the role of the television set, and on life as the first person in the family to go to university. She also explains why poor people are disadvantaged even when it comes to dying.

Poverty can perhaps be measured. But numbers alone cannot convey what poverty feels like or what it does to people over time. That is exactly why Miriam Davoudvandi's story is worth hearing. She speaks for all those who have had no voice until now.