4 ms·

I agree, but from spending a fair bit of time in both countries, America has a lot of advantages over Germany as well. For the poor, working, and lower-middle c

I agree, but from spending a fair bit of time in both countries, America has a lot of advantages over Germany as well. For the poor, working, and lower-middle class, Germany is far better to live in without doubt, but for the well-off, it's a tougher comparison. I would rattle things off, but it's more like an aggregate of small things rather than big things like "free healthcare", and I don't want to seem petty and discount the critical importance of healthcare and education. But as one example, if you want to create a tech startup, there are many reasons why it's better to do it in America than in Germany. Other people's lives matter more than fulfilling one's "Uber for dogs" startup fantasy or something, to be sure, but people optimize for different things given their personal circumstances.

pessimizer 7y ago
So for 90% of people it's better. For the 10% who are always comfortable, it is still comfortable, but not as comfortable as possible.
- lotsofpulp 7y ago
  USA has many temporarily embarrassed millionaires (or billionaires these days).
  - dx87 7y ago
    You should look up the origin of that quote. Not only is it paraphrasing part of a story and not an actual quote, but it's referring to people that voted to enact communist policies and ended up poor, instead of creating a society where everyone had everything they could want. They didn't want to admit that they'd been fooled by the government, so they were the "temporarily embarrassed millionares".
    - meowface 7y ago
      Here's the original John Steinbeck quote it's paraphrased from, if anyone's interested: >"Except for the field organizers of strikes, who were pretty tough monkeys and devoted, most of the so-called Communists I met were middle-class, middle-aged people playing a game of dreams. I remember a woman in easy circumstances saying to another even more affluent: 'After the revolution even we will have more, won't we, dear?' Then there was another lover of proletarians who used to raise hell with Sunday picknickers on her property. >"I guess the trouble was that we didn't have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist. Maybe the Communists so closely questioned by the investigation committees were a danger to America, but the ones I knew — at least they claimed to be Communists — couldn't have disrupted a Sunday-school picnic. Besides they were too busy fighting among themselves."
- meowface 7y ago
  Pretty much, yeah. I think there are some advantages America has even for a good 50% of that 90%, but, again, they're small comforts compared to things like being healthy and alive or having an education. I like both countries and could see myself living in either place, but there is something in some parts of American culture that I seem drawn to. That said, we may not be too far off from a time where America has single-payer healthcare and some change in our education system (maybe free public university, online school, or trade school for all families making under $150k/year). Combine that with some police and prison reform (some of which is already happening), and I think America takes the clear lead. Maybe wishful thinking, but good to have something to strive for. Both countries could learn from each other.
  - andrei_says_ 7y ago
    All of these are a possibility But we need to significantly step up our citizenship game.
pvorb 7y ago
Unfortunately Germany gradually turns into the US: The "Soziale Marktwirtschaft" is slowly being replaced by predatory capitalism.

pessimizer 7y ago

So for 90% of people it's better. For the 10% who are always comfortable, it is still comfortable, but not as comfortable as possible.

lotsofpulp 7y ago
USA has many temporarily embarrassed millionaires (or billionaires these days).
- dx87 7y ago
  You should look up the origin of that quote. Not only is it paraphrasing part of a story and not an actual quote, but it's referring to people that voted to enact communist policies and ended up poor, instead of creating a society where everyone had everything they could want. They didn't want to admit that they'd been fooled by the government, so they were the "temporarily embarrassed millionares".
  - meowface 7y ago
    Here's the original John Steinbeck quote it's paraphrased from, if anyone's interested: >"Except for the field organizers of strikes, who were pretty tough monkeys and devoted, most of the so-called Communists I met were middle-class, middle-aged people playing a game of dreams. I remember a woman in easy circumstances saying to another even more affluent: 'After the revolution even we will have more, won't we, dear?' Then there was another lover of proletarians who used to raise hell with Sunday picknickers on her property. >"I guess the trouble was that we didn't have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist. Maybe the Communists so closely questioned by the investigation committees were a danger to America, but the ones I knew — at least they claimed to be Communists — couldn't have disrupted a Sunday-school picnic. Besides they were too busy fighting among themselves."
meowface 7y ago
Pretty much, yeah. I think there are some advantages America has even for a good 50% of that 90%, but, again, they're small comforts compared to things like being healthy and alive or having an education. I like both countries and could see myself living in either place, but there is something in some parts of American culture that I seem drawn to. That said, we may not be too far off from a time where America has single-payer healthcare and some change in our education system (maybe free public university, online school, or trade school for all families making under $150k/year). Combine that with some police and prison reform (some of which is already happening), and I think America takes the clear lead. Maybe wishful thinking, but good to have something to strive for. Both countries could learn from each other.
- andrei_says_ 7y ago
  All of these are a possibility But we need to significantly step up our citizenship game.

pvorb 7y ago

Unfortunately Germany gradually turns into the US: The "Soziale Marktwirtschaft" is slowly being replaced by predatory capitalism.