That's (unfortunately) indeed an American perspective, that I totally share. Obviously nurses in Germany earn too little money. Obviously society would benefit

That's (unfortunately) indeed an American perspective, that I totally share. Obviously nurses in Germany earn too little money. Obviously society would benefit if the state would help in cases like these. Still it bothers me that this family is actually paying off its house, which means they are taking part in capitalism and creating capital for themselves, but rely on the state to do so. They decided that the benefit they are already getting (3 year job security, 14 months of wage-like financial benefits), which every American parent can only dream of, are not enough for their child. Germans don't invest in the capital market (4,14% of Germans have stocks, compared to 23% in the UK or 56% in the US [0]), Germans - especially women - choose their careers without considering how much they will earn. Being rich has a dirty connotation in Germany. If you are rich, you better be a doctor or a lawyer, then you get an excuse, other than that you probably did something shady or just benefited from other peoples work. Business school is for people who were too stupid to become engineers. They will earn more, but be worth less, because they won't be a Diplomingenieur (okay, this one is gone now, the Master of Science has much less reputation). When Germans finally realize that a bit more would be nice, they complain that the state is not fixing their situation. [0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktion%C3%A4rsquote https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktion%C3%A4rsquote