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Typical German explanation :) Germans will go a long way explaining that not owning a house will make you rich, while owning a house will make you poor. I will

Typical German explanation :) Germans will go a long way explaining that not owning a house will make you rich, while owning a house will make you poor. I will not go into discussion why the math is wrong, the others already did that. I'll just note that that's the reason the median net worth of Germans is below the European average. Even poor(er) countries like Poland or Greece have bigger net worth than Germany. Rant: Now tell me that net worth number is not correct, since the state retirement system is not considered, while ignoring the fact that Germany is not the only country in the world with a retirement system.

FirmwareBurner 3y ago
Germany is the perfect example of how a country being very wealthy doesn't necessarily mean the people are equally wealthy as well. Someone else here called it "a rich country of poor people". You might have high salaries, but if all those high salaries get eaten up by various rent-seeking schemes and businesses along the way leaving you with no wealth to your name and only making the country and businesses rich.
- soco 3y ago
  Some time ago making businesses rich could have mean making also the people richer, trickling down might have been happening to some extent. Nowadays though with Bahamas and all the fancy financial tricks, those two things have been definitely decoupled.
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    It stops trickling down when all the wealth and productivity gains of workers end up in the pockets of shareholders instead of workers. And since German companies don't usually reward all their workers with stocks/RSUs, the purchasing power of the average German has been on the decline for the past 30 years.
johngladtj 3y ago
I'm not German, I just live here
- miroljub 3y ago
  Looks like you are good integrated :)
wink 3y ago
I'm more on your side than the person you replied to but buying stuff is just too expensive in most bigger cities, and even in commute range. Not everybody can work from home after all. Yeah, I probably could buy a house somewhere in Germany. Would it be anywhere close to where my wife works? Nope. Anywhere where I'd not still be annoyed at my 2-4 visits to the office per month? Also nope (but yeah, that's a bit tongue in cheek).

FirmwareBurner 3y ago

Germany is the perfect example of how a country being very wealthy doesn't necessarily mean the people are equally wealthy as well. Someone else here called it "a rich country of poor people". You might have high salaries, but if all those high salaries get eaten up by various rent-seeking schemes and businesses along the way leaving you with no wealth to your name and only making the country and businesses rich.

soco 3y ago
Some time ago making businesses rich could have mean making also the people richer, trickling down might have been happening to some extent. Nowadays though with Bahamas and all the fancy financial tricks, those two things have been definitely decoupled.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago
  It stops trickling down when all the wealth and productivity gains of workers end up in the pockets of shareholders instead of workers. And since German companies don't usually reward all their workers with stocks/RSUs, the purchasing power of the average German has been on the decline for the past 30 years.

johngladtj 3y ago

I'm not German, I just live here

miroljub 3y ago
Looks like you are good integrated :)

wink 3y ago

I'm more on your side than the person you replied to but buying stuff is just too expensive in most bigger cities, and even in commute range. Not everybody can work from home after all. Yeah, I probably could buy a house somewhere in Germany. Would it be anywhere close to where my wife works? Nope. Anywhere where I'd not still be annoyed at my 2-4 visits to the office per month? Also nope (but yeah, that's a bit tongue in cheek).