It feels funny that Germany is being marked as the prototypical socialist country. We don't think of us like that. It seems even in the US the state is paying

It feels funny that Germany is being marked as the prototypical socialist country. We don't think of us like that. It seems even in the US the state is paying for things (streets, school?), so the US is also socialist? It seems to me that by the definition that most US commentators seem to use, any country with taxes is socialist. As for the health insurance, note that it is only mandatory for employed people. If you are a freelancer or business owner/entrepreneur, you can drop out of the social insurance system for the most parts (except if the government decides to use taxes to compensate for troubles with the pension plans, which is outrageous to me). In fact, it is a problem to get into the social insurance system if you are not employed. While health insurance is expensive here, I don't think it makes us into a socialist country. In the real socialist and communist countries you were supposed to give up everything for the benefit of the state, and your idea of fun free time was hopefully voluntary farm work.