8 ms·

Programmer in Berlin: Culture

114 points by jnord 2y ago

fedeb95 2y ago
from EU: left and right are pretty volatile concept, they don't apply the same worldwide. Simply because all parties (nearly) accept public healthcare in a country, doesn't mean that country is more "left" than another.
- nelox 2y ago
  Indeed, you touch upon a crucial point that is often overlooked in political discourse. The simplistic transplantation of ‘left’ and ‘right’ labels across different countries is not just misleading; it’s intellectually negligent. The political spectrum is not a one-size-fits-all template that neatly categorises societies based on a single policy like public healthcare. In many European nations, universal healthcare is a settled matter - a consensus that transcends traditional partisan divides. To assume that this places a country further to the ‘left’ ignores the complex historical, cultural, and social nuances that shape each nation’s political landscape.
  - uniqueuid 2y ago
    Although you probably agree: If someone wants to describe politics with a one-dimensional scale, left-right is not so bad. And that's why and how it developed.
- drooopy 2y ago
  Depending on who you ask, the EU is both a far left, communist hellhole and a far right neoliberal, capitalist hellhole.
  - devjab 2y ago
    Most of Europe is varying degrees of Social Democracy. We pretend we have conservatives, socialists, “climatists”? communists, neoliberals, populists and so on, but for the most parts it’s all just Social Democratic parties with a flavour.
    - kybernetikos 2y ago
      As far as I can tell, In the not so distant past, you were either in favour of rule by the monarch and the aristocracy or you were a Liberal. Pretty much every party in a modern democracy is a flavour of Liberal. Its only because liberalism comprehensively won that we find it useful to separate out the different strands.
      - devjab 2y ago
        We had a lot of worker reforms when people got fed up later which formed very strong unions which then lead to the modern social democratic ways.
    - Ekaros 2y ago
      Not to forget farmers. Which technically are often right-wing as land owners, but with different goals that industrialist.
- onetoo 2y ago
  Also from EU, additional tidbit: Not being a first-past-the-post two-party system allows for political parties to be more nuanced than a simplified left-right spectrum.
  - Wytwwww 2y ago
    > Not being a first-past-the-post two-party It depends on the country though. France is effectively first-past-the-post. Technically (rarely in practice) you can even get 3-4 candidates in the second round if the turnout is very high. Two-round is not fundamentally a huge improvement and de facto is what US has with party primaries (of course unlike in France third parties can't really survive in such a system). Arguably of course having a three way stalemate might be occasionally preferable than 1 party having near absolute control because of controlling 50%+1 seats. Thankfully US has all sorts of checks and balances and it might take a while for a single party to get control of the House, Senate, White House and the Supreme court (for instance in the UK where there are basically no checks an balances and the parliament has absolute power if a pseudo-Fascist party somehow managed to win they could more or less do anything they wanted and they'd only need 30-40% of all votes for that). IMHO electoral systems matter but extreme polarization is the real problem. Back in the 70s even a Republican president like Nixon could somewhat effectively work with the Democrat controlled congress. Yet now a split congress can't even pass legislation that technically both parties support (e.g. the border billy)
    - onetoo 2y ago
      > Thankfully US has all sorts of checks and balances and it might take a while for a single party to get control of the House, Senate, White House and the Supreme court The fact that "it is good when government is deadlocked and ineffective" is an actual argument people use is baffling to me, but for the sake of the argument and out of assumed mutual respect, I'll do my best to stay objective for following: > IMHO electoral systems matter but extreme polarization is the real problem I absolutely agree that extreme polarization is a major issue. I believe that FPTP inevitably leads to extreme polarization, when given enough time: FPTP inevitably converges to a two-party system (due to strategic voting), and a two-party system inevitably leads to extreme polarization (due to strategic politicians playing into strategic voting). The argument for the latter goes something like this: Disenfranchised voters can be coaxed to vote for a least-worst option when the most-worst option looks worse enough. So it becomes more politically effective to demonize your opponent rather than argue your own politics. Additionally, it is politically beneficial for you when things stay bad while your opponent is in charge, and especially so if things get worse. You can use their perceived incompetence as ammunition to further demonize them. So it becomes beneficial to use what government power you might have in order to hinder your opponent's attempts at improving things, even if what they're trying to do is something you agree with and would yourself do if you were the one in power. Depending on your preferred political party, I'm sure you can think of examples of the above.
- devjab 2y ago
  It’s more of an American concept which has unfortunately spread. Which is sort of silly considering that virtually every European country has several political parties, some is which sometimes form government coalitions across “the middle”. In Denmark we currently have a government formed of what has been the two major political parties in Denmark for the past few decades + a third. During the election one would be leading the “blue side”, the other leading the “red side”. So it was sort of hilarious when they joined to form a government and the media graphics didn’t work. Of course after a couple or days they just kept the “red” vs “blue” thing and started talking about when it would fall apart and how they were still “enemies” despite being in a joint government. That being said, it is sort of true to say that most European countries are much more “left” leaning than the US. In Denmark the US Democratic Party would be to the far right of 94% of the votes for political parties cast here.
  - Certhas 2y ago
    Left and right as concepts actually originated in the french revolution. When seating the parties in an assembly you have to go with some order from left to right. Of course what the political tribes are, and what their actual positions are changes. Republicans went from the party of Lincoln to the party of Trump.
  - crote 2y ago
    > So it was sort of hilarious when they joined to form a government and the media graphics didn’t work. In The Netherlands the media solved this by calling it a "purple government". They ruled from 1994 to 2002.
- wheels 2y ago
  I'd actually say the US is moving in the direction of Europe -- historically "left" in the US was social-democratic, whereas "right" was classical liberalism (again, these labels get wonky across cultures -- what Americans call libertarianism). That US picture does at least point to two different ends of something that's basically the same spectrum. In Europe "left" mostly means socialist, and "right" mostly means nationalist. But socialism and nationalism aren't opposites, and can often go together, so you see things like the author of this article pointing out that the "right" doesn't want to completely dismantle the social safety net. The US is, however, in the process of realigning to the European style.
  - jltsiren 2y ago
    In Europe, "right" usually means EPP, or center-right. Their member parties may call themselves conservatives, christian democrats, the national coalition, or something like that. They tend to be economically similar to US Democrats but often less progressive. Then there is S&D, or center-left, with their members typically calling themselves social democrats or socialists. They are another big traditional mainstream group. And even the ones who call themselves socialists are more like social democrats. The third traditional mainstream group is currently called Renew Europe, which consists mostly of various centrist / social liberal parties. Some of which are socially quite conservative. Then there are usually two center-left to left, mostly progressive / liberal, mostly environmentalist parties. The differences between them vary from country to country. Their current groups at the EU level call themselves Greens and The Left. Some actual socialists exist within these groups, but they tend to be mostly harmless weirdos who didn't get the message that the 80s already ended. The conservative / nationalist right mostly emerged in the last ~15 years. They often resemble US Republicans. Their EU level groups tend to split and merge all the time, because they often make very different conclusions from the same ideological positions due to historical and geopolitical reasons. Such as whether Putin is a good guy or a bad guy.
  - Wytwwww 2y ago
    Historically most countries Europe had generally been "tripartite". With progressive and/or classical liberals in a weird spot between left-right. But even then I think it get's very messy when we leave Britain. Traditionally in most continental countries you usually had two major (social-capitalist/paternalist) Christian Democrats and some Social Democrat style parties. But in reality they often shared more with each other than with various fringe left(Communist, radical-socialist), right(reactionary conservative but almost (pseudo-modernist) Fascists) parties all of which usually had some weird-missmash of traditionally left and right policies. e.g. Weimar Germany was an extreme example republic where it was Christian Democrats + Socialists + Liberals vs everyone else regardless of exact social/economic policies. But modern France, Italy and Germany are kind of similar (of course both the fringe and the centrist parties are still thankfully a lot more moderate). I guess you can fit all of the on a single left-right axis if you squint hard enough but you'd really need 2-3 axes to get a somewhat accurate/meaningful picture.
- mytailorisrich 2y ago
  Left and right are political concepts that have broadly held since they were created in the French Revolution (with the names originating to where the people were sitting in Parliament) and still shape politics today. In France, the main change occurred during the 19th century that started with the right being more Monarchist and the left staunchly Republican and ended with basically everyone being Republican. But overall, right and left do mean something and that is still the case throughout Europe and the world and the difference are mainly relative to the centre.
lnsru 2y ago
An error: maternal leave pay is capped around 1800€. So it’s rather 1/3 of salary for white collar worker. This feature makes having kids for middle class even more expensive. A year later comes the nightmare with not enough kindergarten places. It’s a good time to start looking for kindergarten during pregnancy.
- niemandhier 2y ago
  We feared the same, but since the family income reduced so did the tax burden and in addition we received tax benefits for having kids. In the end we had about the same disposable income. Also: It’s free money? You are legally entitled to childcare for kids 1-3 and can sue for loss of income. Also consider a “Tagesmutter”, finding the right one can be difficult but for high income people it’s usually not too much of a problem. If you have lots of space an au-pair might be sensible, the costs can again be tax reduced to some extend.
- froh 2y ago
  I'd like us to take a little nuance when it comes to "middle class". tech workers rarely are "middle class". not even "upper middle class". We tend to have a contorted idea of real income percentiles. https://www.arm-und-reich.de/alle-rechner/ https://www.arm-und-reich.de/alle-rechner/
  - mgraupner 2y ago
    Try buying a decent house in Germany with 4000€ netto, which puts you in the top 10% income bracket. Then come back and tell me, you're a rich person.
    - mathverse 2y ago
      German companies pay peanuts to tech workers and lost the tech decade. No surprise here.
      - mrmlz 2y ago
        And German salaries are better than Swedish salaries ;(
dakiol 2y ago
> The real solution is to book a trip to Spain in February, but that isn’t an option for everyone. Another solution (to the minimal amount of daylight in winter) is to simply not change the time (DST) in October. Let the sun set later, not at 3pm FFS!
- raverbashing 2y ago
  But then you don't get daylight up until 10am (which also sucks)
  - dakiol 2y ago
    It sucks less, I’d say.
  - seth123456 2y ago
    The number of hours of daylight remains the same, so it depends on the individual attitude towards what hour on the clock is an acceptable time to wake up and go to bed. It does become more difficult of course if you have obligations in the morning or evening based on the specific time on the clock.
- nowisee 2y ago
  Standard time is considered the best option for health and well-being because it aligns most closely with our natural circadian rhythms, which are regulated by exposure to morning light. Research shows that standard time improves sleep quality, reduces stress, and decreases the risk of various health issues like cardiovascular disease, mood disorders, and even certain cancers. By maintaining standard time year-round, we support our bodies' internal clocks, which helps promote better mental and physical health. Leading sleep and health organizations advocate for standard time to minimize disruptions caused by the biannual clock changes and reduce the health risks associated with daylight saving time.
  - throw-the-towel 2y ago
    No one's day is aligned with the sun. At noon plus 8 hours, there's a lot of stuff happening. Noon minus 8 hours? Everybody's still asleep.
Semaphor 2y ago
> A friend once commented that they didn’t “feel European” I see myself as 1. A Schleswig-Holsteiner (The norhernmost state in Germany) 2. European 3. German. There was an interesting map posted on reddit a while ago [0], showing which of the three different things people feel most attached to, I am apparently in the majority with my #1 pick up here. I do feel European, but it’s just too abstract to be a primary identification. [0]: https://i.redd.it/5iybkit5lf5b1.jpg https://i.redd.it/5iybkit5lf5b1.jpg
- jwr 2y ago
  Nothing makes you feel European like spending several months in the US.
  - mathverse 2y ago
    Quite the opposite. It made me realize that if the US took better stewardship of Eastern Europe we would all be better off. I feel more connected to americans and their way of life than Germans.
    - jwr 2y ago
      Hey, if you feel more American, that's fine! My point was just that staying outside of Europe makes you realize that all these EU countries have much more in common than people think and that divisions between countries in the EU are largely artificial (and hyped/inflated by politicians, who want to preserve their seats and power).
      - mathverse 2y ago
        History, traditions and current struggles are more common that's for sure but the attitude towards life is different.
    - shepherdjerred 2y ago
      As an American, why do you say this? I feel like most Europeans strongly dislike the US/Americans.
niemandhier 2y ago
On tipping: Try giving a tip to people not regularly receiving one e.g the “Dönnerperson”. Since tips are non obligatory these people usually are extremely happy about it. In tested the hypothesis that Dönner is larger when visiting a place where I tipped before and measured 10%-15% increase in weight ( 5 places, 3 Döner each, weight difference between fist and third).
- onetoo 2y ago
  Not from Berlin, but I imagine it is similar: It is usually the case that the more shady your "kebab pusher" is, the more delicious the kebab is. If the sign says one price, the cashier says a second, and the cash register says a third? You've found the best kebab in town.
- anal_reactor 2y ago
  > Try giving a tip No. Tipping is bullshit and you won't convince me otherwise. When I go a restaurant I want to have a nice experience, not deal with a pushy waiter begging me for a tip like a Syrian refugee begging for a coin because he hasn't eaten in days. "But if I tip I get a bigger kebab" yes, and you ruin the experience for everyone else because you teach service providers that displaying one price but actually charging another is a good business practice. If you want a bigger kebab, why don't you just pick it from the menu?
  - mrmlz 2y ago
    They should give me a discount for being well behaved in their restaurant. Tipping culture is horrible.
    - anal_reactor 2y ago
      Exactly! "The customer didn't smear shit on the wall - 10% discount"
    - LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
      Nosedive into the Black Mirror! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive_(Black_Mirror) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive_(Black_Mirror)
lifestyleguru 2y ago
It's funny when someone measuring temperature in feet and distance in football fields starts to "explain" meters, liters, and Celsius degrees. When I hear "leftist" I immediately imagine oakley sunglasses, baseball hat, new balance running shoes, and cargo shorts. It's disgusting that the American political vocabulary was adopted in may EU countries. Then yes, customer service in Germany is rude, useless, and expensive - there is no plot twist or inside joke, it is what it is.
icemanx 2y ago
[flagged]
mikojan 2y ago
> Promoting Nazism is banned. It’s not a slippery slope, and the country hasn’t devolved into authoritarian groupthink. But it is and it has. E.g. Germany is cracking down on the Palestinian solidarity movement. Banning slogans, symbols, events wholesale. Currently trying to sign IHRA Antisemitism definition into law and shut out groups critical of Israel from cultural funds every body else has access too (including right-wing extremist Israel solidarity groups).
- flohofwoe 2y ago
  Ideally Germany should be cracking down on any form of extremism, doesn't matter if from the right or left. And tbh, especially West Germany has turned a blind eye towards extremism from the left for far too long (there's this weird fascination and solidarity with the RAF in West German intellectual "Alt-68er" circles). That Israel has a bit of a special status in Germany shouldn't come as a surprise considering Germany's history between 1933 and 1945.
  - aguaviva 2y ago
    But that special status should not extend giving Israel a pass for its policies of territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing, considering Germany's history between 1933 and 1945.
  - mikojan 2y ago
    Yes, if you do not care about freedom of speech this certainly is not an issue.
  - computerthings 2y ago
    > That Israel has a bit of a special status in Germany shouldn't come as a surprise considering Germany's history between 1933 and 1945. It absolutely must. That history involved concentrating, starving, murdering people en masse, and blaming them for it in huge media campaigns, after all. Genocide isn't about about Germans that to Jews, and it's not okay to treat it this superficially. Taking German history seriously and trials for Netanyahu and the people who supplied and supply him with weapons are inseparable.
gman83 2y ago
> Gas prices are double or even triple what they are in the US. It’s ok, the economy isn’t collapsing. The Economist about Germany's economy: "a national business model build in part on cheap energy from one autocracy and abundant demand from another (China) faces a severe test". Combine the cutting off from Russian gas with shutting down all nuclear power plants, and you do have something like a collapse of the economy, at least a significant decline in its industrial output.
- ilikerashers 2y ago
  Germany is in serious trouble. The US and China are in protectionist markets. EU is starting to realise their labour and manufacturing are expensive and not unique anymore. The business model is broken.
- Micanthus 2y ago
  I think the author means gasoline/petrol for cars, not natural gas
- Topfi 2y ago
  I believe the Economist talking about gas as in LNG and the author is talking about gas as in gasoline/petrol, likely pocking at this indicator role for economies state the latter tends to have taken on in wider coverage [0] both because it does indeed impact nearly all transactions even before we talk about individual transport, but also because it is one of the few commodities whose price the average person is faced with regularly. Here in Central Europe, no matter how our vs the US economy does, we have always been paying multiples for our fuel, though that didn't automatically mean collapse even if it feels that way to some. Point of the author being, higher gas prices can't be directly compared between economies and all that so shouldn't be used to paint EEA members as these economic hellscapes (which always get a chuckle from me), though sudden and severe upward or downward movements could hint at a wider trend. As someone from one of the DACH countries, it was honestly a nice read and I get their points on concepts like Überweisung, though I will say, if the author was surprised how one opens a Ritter Sport, they should take a look at the official way to open Haribo [1]. Then there is Mannerschnitte [2]. Also, yes, publicly founded mental health care requires significant improvements. [0] https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0511/how-gas-prices-affect-the-economy.aspx https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0511/how-gas-pri... [1] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a45SHoe6fPM https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a45SHoe6fPM [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNmsiuGe4_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNmsiuGe4_s
arlort 2y ago
For americans minimally well versed in their history a much better analogy to understand the EU is not the UN but the pre-constitution US in terms of politics and the pre-civil war US in terms of institutional setup. And somewhere in between when it comes to actual powers
herdrick 2y ago
It's perfectly safe to eat rare pork in the United States. Trichinellosis hasn't been an issue in commercial pork for some time. Wild pigs and backyard pigs should be assumed to be infected.
perching_aix 2y ago
The washing section blew me away. I did not know washing machines in NA were not electric. Like what? Really comprehensive post, great material for exploring cultural differences. One thing I missed maybe was calendars, that here in Europe the week starts on Monday instead of Sunday.
- Beretta_Vexee 2y ago
  The 110V AC network does not allow you to easily power a washing machine or an electric water heater, so you need a very unusual three-phase electrical outlet. Most homes therefore have natural gas installations, which involves a fair amount of plumbing and ventilation. That's why the machines are very different in design between Europe and North America (and the space available). Miele-Waschmaschinen sind die besten der Welt!
  - morio 2y ago
    The majority of US homes use a split phase setup. So 240V is readily available and in fact the only way you can run central AC. Nominal voltage of a single phase is 120V. Technology Connections has an entire video about it.
    - sam_lowry_ 2y ago
      Not sure about the majority of EU homes, but many have 3-phase 480V, 240V is single-phase. Car chargers, electric stoves and sauna heaters work off 480V when possible.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - jansan 2y ago
    "Miele, Miele" sprach die Tante, die alle Waschmaschinen kannte. Having said that, the drum of our Miele dryer disintegrated after ten years, which was a bit disappointing.
    - 2y ago
creesch 2y ago
As someone from the Netherlands this was interesting to read. My one nitpick is that the author seems to switch between Berlin/Germany and the EU as a whole a few times making the reader think that some things might apply to the entire EU. Which isn't the case, this article is mostly about Germany and really specific to Berlin as well. Some examples: - Sunday shopping: Totally a thing here in the Netherlands. - Smoking: A lot of people smoke here, but it certainly does feel like a lot less people than in Germany, and it certainly is allowed in fewer places. - Alcohol: Yes, in the Netherlands you can also drink on the street. In Germany and Berlin specifically, it is also part of the drinking culture, it seems. Certainly Germany has a different drinking culture where there is much more strong liquor available in supermarkets where in the Netherlands you need to go to liquor stores or a special closed section of the supermarket. Again, mostly nitpicks but worth enough to point out imho.
- sebtron 2y ago
  > - Sunday shopping: Totally a thing here in the Netherlands. I guess it varies significantly by city then, because until a year ago or so the main shopping street here in Leiden was 90% shut on Sundays. More recently I have seen more and more shops stay open on Sunday too, not sure why they changed, but I am glad they did :)
  - raxxorraxor 2y ago
    I thoroughly enjoy the silent Sundays. I don't know why so many people require Sunday to be open, especially if so many of them allegedly suffer from stress and a too "fast" lifestyle. Going out on Sundays here is awesome. Yes, of course that requires people working too. Perhaps not fair for the many that need to work, but there are a few advantages.
    - keiferski 2y ago
      Yeah at first, the rules like closed shops on Sunday seem annoying, but as time goes on I now enjoy the forced quietness. If only because it adds some flavor to the week, making Sunday not just another day indistinguishable from every other.
hoseja 2y ago
>and the country hasn’t devolved into authoritarian groupthink doubt
- throw-the-towel 2y ago
  Care to elaborate?
  - hoseja 2y ago
    just look at the germans At least OP seems like a good fit for Berlin. Happy for them.
  - sebst 2y ago
    Not OP but I see two points: First there are some societal standards just settled. Universal healthcare as an example which is mentioned in the article, but also the broader spectrum of social democratic policies as mentioned in other comments. While that gives you some stability in society, it could be seen as “groupthink” Second, there is a tendency to (informally) label right-leaning policies, libertarian ideas and patriotism as Nazism. That’s not a problem of the “far right” but also the “far left” as criticism on Israel’s current policies could be labeled antisemitic. The slippery slope here is that outlawing one thing (nazism) is socially accepted but assigning the label of what actually constitutes “nazism” is the actual problem.
hollowturtle 2y ago
Universal healthcare is something will be soon be revisited imo. At least reviewed and shrinked, here in Italy too much money is spent on a system that’s collapsing. It’s not sustainable in the long period. The author in the article keeps saying “yet the economy isn’t collapsing” Economies don’t collapse in a day, it’s a slow process, Germany, and EU in general, are on a dangerous path. Crazy political decisions like shutting down nuclear power plants in Germany will resonate badly over time(partly already are) not just in a day or two. Some other crazy stuff: going full electric in all of the EU by 2030, be totally dependent from the US defense, counting nothing in a war we have at home, not having even a chip in the race for ai or technology in general, what we got left? Trains?
begueradj 2y ago
Good article although the title is misleading as it has nothing to do with programming/a programmer in Berlin/Germany. The right title would be something like: "an expat/a foreigner in Berlin/Germany"
sebtron 2y ago
As a European I enjoyed reading this, I think it is a nice illustration of some of the differences between Europe and the US without falling into the silly "US bad" or "Europe weird" rethoric. But one thing struck me as very odd: > One thing I found unusual was how many people regularly smoked in Europe. [...] I guess that’s one of the few downsides of universal healthcare. The idea that people living in a country with universal healthcare would more easily indulge in risky behavior because they would not have to pay for medication or hospitalization is, frankly, nuts. It's hard to imagine Americans smoke less not because they are scared of dying painfully of lung cancer, but because they could not afford the medical expenses in case they do get cancer; but maybe this is the case? All I know is that the idea of not having to pay for healthcare is not at all reassuring when I think about the risks associated with something I'm doing - be it smoking, driving, drinking or anything else.
- theclansman 2y ago
  The conclusions a lot of people draw from universal healthcare are, frankly, insane most of the time. I've seen people saying that people in Europe are happier because of free access to therapy (as in, mental health), which implies a lot of things, but is not even true. Going to therapy here in Norway is extremely expensive. The idea that someone would indulge in risky behavior just because a doctor will "fix you" for free is also ridiculous. This person clearly didn't think too much about it considering how people eat in the US.
- Wytwwww 2y ago
  Statistically it's not that massively different though. e.g. ~12% of all Americans smoke cigarettes vs ~18% of EU citizens. Over 20% of all Americans still smoked as late as 2014, so IMHO it's mostly social/cultural and Europeans are just slightly behind on the curve (and have less socially acceptable alternatives like Marijuana) https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Tobacco_consumption_statistics https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php... vs https://news.gallup.com/poll/509720/cigarette-smoking-rate-steady-near-historical-low.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/509720/cigarette-smoking-rate-s...
  - 2y ago
cjs_ac 2y ago
[flagged]
- keiferski 2y ago
  I don’t think it’s really weirdness or some unique cultural flaw, it’s merely that America is huge and you functionally don’t need to care about the rest of the world if you live there as an average person. The same is largely true in say, China or India. Australia is a small country far away from most places so it’s natural that it is forced to integrate more.
  - cjs_ac 2y ago
    I saw plenty of American television while growing up in Australia; there's a lot of it on in the UK, even though the UK is a television powerhouse in its own right. In America, learning about other countries is a choice; in the rest of the West, it's mandatory.
- reedf1 2y ago
  My father is from yorkshire and my mom is from texas. I've lived up and down the UK for 20 years, been all over europe and asia. One thing I've learned is that basically, america is not unique for this. The paradigm you are describing is between rural and metropolitan. Metropolitan londoners move with culture at ease, and so do parisians, berliners, etc. But ask the opinion of a brit in benidorm and you will get similar confusion on local customs, a similar feeling that "the UK is the only place that exists, the rest of the world is a holiday spot". The provincial sort, people who live in small town or city, people who are not well travelled; their entire world view can be defined within a country. And also, for the record, the school uniforms do still baffle me a bit. I tend to play UK apologist in the US and US apologist in the UK. So for full balance, the lack of electric kettles in the US also baffles me. Trust me, Brits who visit me in the US are just as vocal about their bafflement with the local customs as the inverse...
  - jolux 2y ago
    The US has electric kettles and I think they’re becoming more popular, they’re just a lot less convenient than in the UK because boiling water with 110v is slower.
gopheryourshelf 2y ago
>dryers weren’t common I am in the UK and dryers are getting more common. Now I have one in the house but rarely use it. I have moved on to using dehumidifier. Do the laundry in the evening and hang it with dehumidifier at 50% humidity auto. But morning most clothes are well dried without them going through the heating cycle of a dryer. Clothes last longer and retain their natural colours better.
- mathverse 2y ago
  Germans are just anti-technology in general. If Eeastern Europeans had the chance to flourish and were not getting abused by both Germany and Russia for most of their history they would be in an entirely different tiers of countries. As EE is getting richer they embrace technology at must faster rates than DACH. Dryers, ACs, payment tech is much more common and widespread here.
  - lifestyleguru 2y ago
    > If Eeastern Europeans had the chance to flourish and were not getting abused by both Germany and Russia for most of their history they would be in an entirely different tiers of countries. To my knowledge for at least last few decades all countries from Poland down to Bulgaria have been happily corrupted and pillaging their own populace and pushing out their working age populace into emigration. Now with their demographics there no one left to even emigrate anymore.
    - mathverse 2y ago
      That's a relict of Soviet occupation and mindset. pre-war Czechoslovakia was one of the most prosperous countries in the world.
      - lifestyleguru 2y ago
        Pre WWII?! That's loong time ago. Many countries live by their pre-WWII, or even pre-WWI "glory days".
rglullis 2y ago
"Right before left" is totally a thing in Brazil as well, and IMO quite sensible if you treat it as conflict resolution method: if you are crossing or merging onto a "faster" road you yield, if you are on the faster road you have priority, and "right before left" is just a tie-breaker in case you are on a road or street of the same class. Things I am a bit surprised which were not talked about: "right turn on red" is a totally American thing that used to trip my (US resident, car loving) mom, and the amount of cars parked on the curb.
- dchest 2y ago
  This rule is part of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, so it applies to many countries indeed (including Brazil, which is a signatory).
keiferski 2y ago
I think the best analogy to American-European identity is: there exists a certain class of well-off, well-traveled people that indeed thinks of themselves as being more European than [nationality], and they tend to be centered in the Netherlands, Belgium, etc. and radiating outward from there. However is is a very small group and probably about the same size as the group of people that live in both New York and Florida/California and think of themselves as not really a “local” (in the negative sense, from their perspective) of either place. The average person in Europe absolutely doesn’t think of themselves as being a member of Europe first and [country] second, and I think people would be surprised how actual little interaction and cross-language discussion there is between say, France and Poland, even though both are in the EU. There is much more of a French cultural universe, German cultural universe, Polish cultural universe, etc. The current structure of the EU pretty much caters entirely to that first group identifying as European first (at least in an identity-forming sense - I don’t mean economically) and so the prospect of a bloc-wide identity like “American” is in America seems extremely unlikely to me. In fact I think they are closer to being Americanized culturally than Europeanized.
- raxxorraxor 2y ago
  Even people very convinced of the EU don't really think of themselves as European first. Try to ask them where they come from when the EU is not a topic and you get the real answer. There is no overreaching European media that could form stronger bonds. Cultures and languages are too diverse and that is probably the main difference to the US.
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    I think there is thinking of European as continent level. That is Europeans are not say Asian or African, or neither Americans. So at global scale, we are one group distinct from other continentals groups. If those continents even have any shared belonging in a group. But we certainly are not them.
- lifestyleguru 2y ago
  > there exists a certain class of well-off, well-traveled people that indeed thinks of themselves as being more European than [nationality], and they tend to be centered in the Netherlands, Belgium Ah yeah, the "Trust Fund, 6’5, Blue Eyes" blokes and their fiancees. Hopefully they'll choke with Masdaamer during techno party on their yachts.
kwanbix 2y ago
100 cms is a meter, so, if meters equal yards, 1 cm is 1/100 of a yard.
- rglullis 2y ago
  1 yard is 91.44 cm, so a better approximation for yards to meters would be "add 10%"
  - kwanbix 2y ago
    You are right, but the article says that 1 yard is 1 meter. Which is not that far for a simple calculation. For anything more serious, I would use some sort of calculator.
nox101 2y ago
Many of these do not match my experience or knowledge Crime: Berliner's tell me "don't put your backpack between your legs while sitting at a restaurant, someone will sneak up behind and steal it". I don't know where in the USA that kind of theft is common. Washing: While I do have a dryer, my American apartment has a Whirlpool HG washer. It's quiet and spins the water out to the point I often feel I don't need the drier Service: My experience has been if there's a problem that clearly the fault of the company the person you talk to will immediately not take responsibility "Not my fault". It might not be their personal fault but as a representative of the company they should take responsibility on behalf of the company IMO. Dating: I've been told my many Germans that dating in Germany is more serious than is at least depicted in US movies/tv-shows. I don't have specifics except being told that it's not as casual. Alcohol: Claims it's better in Europe but is making a generalization. Sweden you can only buy Alcohol from government stores. It's super expensive and they close early (3pm IIRC). So if you wanted some beers for party or a bottle of wine for dinner you're S.O.L. if you didn't buy on your lunch break. Bread: Claims the choices are limited where as Germany claims to be the bread capital of the world with over 3000 kinds. I'm not saying I agree or disagree that Germany is the bread capital. Only that apparently the author is in a bread desert if their bread choices are limited. https://www.google.com/search?q=germany+the+bread+capital https://www.google.com/search?q=germany+the+bread+capital
- keiferski 2y ago
  Berlin is weirdly very bad at bread, and I don’t know why. Even the fancy hip places are terrible. Source: went from Paris to Amsterdam to Berlin to Warsaw this summer, and thought Paris (obviously) had the best bread, followed by Warsaw and Amsterdam, with Berlin way, way behind.
- alkonaut 2y ago
  > Sweden you can only buy Alcohol from government stores. It's super expensive and they close early (3pm IIRC). So if you wanted some beers for party or a bottle of wine for dinner you're S.O.L. if you didn't buy on your lunch break. I think the article makes the mistake of generalizing things that doesn't generalize across Europe, or even the EU. It's a common mistake among Americans to think of Europe as a very similar area and not wildly different countries. Germany and Sweden I'd say are much less similar than say Canada or the US in most respects. Not least when it comes to bureaucracy, the use of paper, formal titles etc. Completely different. Alcohol can be bought in store until 7pm or 8pm in Sweden (but closes earlier on Saturdays and is closed on Sundays). Weird rules are everywhere though. Americans don't tend to find it strange they can't drink in bars at 18, for example. > Berliner's tell me "don't put your backpack between your legs while sitting at a restaurant, someone will sneak up behind and steal it". I think this is more a representation of how cautious people are of a particular crime, than how common a particular crime is.
dinoqqq 2y ago
> I think one weird aspect of living in Europe, or at least Germany, is that all the stuff that US politicians told me were “too expensive” apparently aren’t! If you look at the spending of the countries' governments, you partly can explain why these social services, health and public transport are considered better by the author. One outlier worth mentioning is the big spend on "Defence" by the US. Of course, Europe benefits from that to in terms of protection in NATO. https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/general-government-spending.html?oecdcontrol-b8a601814c-var6=SOCPROT&oecdcontrol-38c744bfa4-var1=USA%7CBEL%7CDNK%7CDEU%7CIRL%7CNLD https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/general-government-s...
TrueGeek 2y ago
I'm also an American working as a developer, but in The Netherlands. One thing that really surprised me (but maybe it's because it's right around the election) is how much time we spend during user groups talking about US politics. I even had a native Dutch person tell me "I heard in the US it is legal to do post birth abortions".
- Wytwwww 2y ago
  I guess it's partially a symptom of some sort of an inferiority complex. Europe has been almost entirely left behind economically (at least in any emerging sector) yet being able to keep pointing out how superior they are in certain aspects (often quite rightfully so) to Americans makes it easier to mentally ignore the fact that European economies are stagnant and keep falling behind.
- GJim 2y ago
  > I even had a native Dutch person tell me "I heard in the US it is legal to do post birth abortions" Americans really do not understand sarcasm; no matter how much you may claim to do so!
jansan 2y ago
I would add a "Paypal" section. It is not quite as common as WhatsApp, but incredibly popular and used by many people use for small private payments or to pay on second hand markets.
in3d 2y ago
> It’s ok, the economy isn’t collapsing. Nobody said that Germany's economy is collapsing, but it's certainly underperforming. It had a recession in 2023 (-0.3% GDP growth), stagnated with 0.1% in 2024, and is expected to grow by just 1.0% in 2025. https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-surveillance-eu-economies/germany/economic-forecast-germany_en https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-surveillance-e... > The trains, despite all the ineptness of Deutsche Bahn, are generally pretty good!. They're awful. "In 2023, just 64% of long-distance trains reached their destination on time" "Germany accounted for six out of the 10 worst stations for passenger convenience in Europe" https://www.dw.com/en/how-does-deutsche-bahn-compare-with-european-rail-firms/a-68091079 https://www.dw.com/en/how-does-deutsche-bahn-compare-with-eu... > Promoting Nazism is banned. It’s not a slippery slope, and the country hasn’t devolved into authoritarian groupthink. You just can’t publicly support Nazism. "No national figures exist on the total number of people charged with online speech-related crimes. But in a review of German state records, The New York Times found more than 8,500 cases." "After Mr. Grote later made remarks admonishing others for hosting parties during the pandemic, a Twitter user wrote: “Du bist so 1 Pimmel” (“You are such a penis”). Three months later, six police officers raided the house of the man who had posted the insult, looking for his electronic devices." https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/technology/germany-internet-speech-arrest.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/technology/germany-intern...
- throw-the-towel 2y ago
  You may think that the trains are awful, but the OP was comparing with the US which basically does not have passenger rail at all.
- ipnon 2y ago
  Yes, the Berlin-centered, foreigner-dependent tech industry is one of the few growing sectors. It seems a little myopic to me to extrapolate a few thriving communities into a vibrant national economy.
- aguaviva 2y ago
  Perhaps it may be more instructive to look at not just the past 2 years, in which there's been a global mini-recession (due largely to the Ukraine war) - and more broadly, how Germany has been doing compared to other countries over longer time periods? According to these two graphs, German GDP fluctuations are pretty evenly matched with those of the US (and in some years, such ast 2016-2017 they did significantly better than the US): https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/gdp-growth-annual https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/gdp-growth-annual https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth-annual https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth-annual Germany has been hit worst in the past 2 years, but there's an extremely obvious reason for that -- again, largely due to the war. Not because of the country's social system or how it manages healthcare or fuel prices. They're awful. True, but (1) only in the last 10 years, and (2) Germany's "awful" is still an order of magnitude better than the land-based public transit system most anywhere in the US. Go back 20 years - Germany's train system positively rocked, while the US was still going around invading random countries for no particular reason other than to distract its population from its decaying infrastructure, rising inequality and its own slow drift toward fascism.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
helge9210 2y ago
> It’s not a slippery slope, and the country hasn’t devolved into authoritarian groupthink. Society position on COVID-19 and (more recent) Israel-Gaza situation (the word is deliberately wrong, but this is not the main point here) really walks and quacks like groupthink.
helge9210 2y ago
> There is no right to firearms in the way there is in the US. You don’t really have school shootings out here, and society seems to be ok? Nobody seems to want to band together to make a militia. Nobody in Germany is like, “we need more guns to prevent government overreach.” There are people that want to make a militia for exactly this reason. Just very few of them. In general, the country feels like a modernized fragment of Holy Roman Empire. The feudal system was painted and polished, but the divide between nobility and serfs is still visible under a proper angle.
joduplessis 2y ago
I lived in Hamburg for a few years. The single most jarring thing was always healthcare - expertise & availability. My personal opinion was that physicians seemed to be overly dependent on tech/equipment so their clinical diagnoses skills really suffered (that or just being scared of making a mistake maybe).
rumplecat 2y ago
I am an American, living in Berlin for 7 years. The idea that the healthcare system here works should be taken with a huge grain of salt. The Good: - Virtually no medical bills. For a family of four, with two pregnancies behind us and now two kids, that is no small thing - When my daughter snapped her femur in two at the tender age of 2, the system sprang into action, put her back together, and looked after her until she was fully healed. The Bad: - Receptionists see it as their job to turn away any new patients. They can be very nasty. - The pediatricians offices are overrun. Good luck getting an appointment. If we need our child to be seen that day, we have to spend up to an hour calling on the phone trying to get through to the reception so they can give us a time slot for that afternoon. Our pediatrician also doesn't offer services that usually should be offered, such as checking pin worm strips for signs of pin worm. - When I got seriously depressed last autumn (yes, people, sh*t happens), I couldn't find a psychologist or psychiatrist. They were all full. The problem festered for months. Eventually I got into a group therapy for depression. I now pay (a lot, 100%) out of pocket for a psychologist in California (via zoom). The psychiatrist I found to subscribe me an antidepressant (my primary care doctor refused), is the aunt of a friend of my wife. She is retired, so there is no insurance coverage - I pay 100% out of pocket for our consultations and the medication, and she lives 4.5 hours away. I drove once to see her, so that she would take me on as a patient, and now we do phone consultations as needed. I still call psychiatrists practices now and then, only to be told they are full, and I don't have a chance of ever getting an appointment. - I wanted to make an eye appointment last week, and at a practice that is closer to where we recently moved, and where my wife goes to. I dreaded calling them up and trying to convince them that they should take me on as a new patient, or that since my wife already goes there, I'm not really a new patient, etc etc. I instead opted to get the next available appointment at my old eye doctor, far away in Berlin, and that appointment is in mid January. - When I first was in Berlin years ago, my eye was hurting me. I called the eye doctor to make an appointment, and got one for 4 weeks out. I told them it was urgent, and they said that I should go to the ER if that is the case. I went to the ER, and they sent me away, saying it wasn't urgent. When I finally did go to the eye appointment 4 weeks later, after 4 weeks of discomfort, the eye doctor said I had an eyelash stuck under my eyelid and scolded me for waiting so long to take care of it. So - yes, there is universal healthcare in Berlin. And maybe if I had private insurance rather than public insurance, I would be more able to get care. Yes, I speak the German language fluently, but I don't know how to be an assertive bully in German who can barrel through the wall of "Nein" that you always get. I'm grateful that the system helped my wife through her pregnancies and my children through their problems. I'm resentful about how I have fared in the system. In the United States, my access to care and quality of care was much better.
qwertox 2y ago
> A nice thing about miles is that people roughly drive 60 miles per hour over long distances, meaning a distance in miles roughly corresponds to how many minutes it will take to drive there. I never thought of this fun fact. Then again 60 mph = ~100 kmph, when then saying 100 km corresponds roughly to one hour makes it just as easy.
jasonvorhe 2y ago
Coming from someone who grew up in Germany: Socialized health care sounds good on paper but ask anyone who actually had to go to multiple doctors to get some health issue identified and they'll all confirm that the basic healthcare you receive is of very low quality. Most doctors don't have more than 5-15 minutes per patient, they all have strict budgets of stuff they can actually do for their patients and as soon as you need a specialist, prepare for weeks to months of waiting time.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  Even 15 minutes per pacient is incredibly generous. I don't think I ever got more than 5.
  - jasonvorhe 2y ago
    It depends on the doctor. I seldomly get more than 5-10 minutes, I just wanted to be generous to not provoke any "but I got 15 minutes that one time so you're totally negative here" replies.
    - wink 2y ago
      It also depends on where you live it seems. I had to look for a long time, but 2 of 3 of my "Hausarzt" have been stellar and taking enough time. When seeing specialists it was even less so that I felt they had no time. Not saying there aren't problems, if it sounds like you're not dying you might wait for an appointment for weeks or months, but after that it was fine for me. (This is all in Munich, we have a lot of doctors)
- kwanbix 2y ago
  I have been living in Berlin for 8 years. It is short, but not less than 15 minutes. The other option is US healthcare, were you can go banckrupt if you get sick. I prefer the EU way thank you very much.
- yencabulator 2y ago
  US is roughly the same but the medical company is owned by private equity and the doctor has to rush through their day to not get fired. Plus, the bill can bankrupt you.
ghthor 2y ago
Doesn’t have section on hacker spaces…
tmalsburg2 2y ago
Why has this been flagged? Great material, even Germans will be able to learn from this.
aguaviva 2y ago
An entirely useful and thoughtful writeup (and not really all that political) -- why was it flagged? Just one nitpick, in regard to the pronouncement at the very top: One thing about Germany, and Europe in general, is that it’s relatively left-wing when compared to the US. Europe's pragmatic social policies constitute what America thinks of as as left-wing. But really that's a statement more about the US than it is about Europe. To most Europeans, these policies are basically common sense, the outcome of decades of political consensus (give or take certain differences about exactly how to tune the dials).
xg15 2y ago
> You can’t just buy NyQuil [at the Apotheke/pharmacy], you have to go up to a person, do a little song and dance, and hope that you’ve convinced them enough that you get the product that you want. German here. Kinda surprised to hear that, it hasn't been my experience at least. I never had any trouble asking for a specific product. What they do pretty systematically since a few years ago is to ask you whether you're familiar with a medication, if you understand how/when it's supposed to be used, etc. I suspect this is some new directive/regulation to prevent accidental misuse of off-the-shelf medication. You can usually cut this discussion short by just answering that you already know how to use the medication and are aware of the risks. > With most non-freelancer jobs, if you get sick you’re allowed to take off work for a few days, but on the third day you’re required to go to a Hausarzt and get krankgeschrieben (“written off sick”). That process itself is kind of annoying – most practices won’t give them out over the phone, so you usually have to go in person while having a cold, just to get a piece of paper saying you have a cold. Getting the note by phone should currently be possible - but it's completely unclear if it will stay that way. This is regulated by law, not a thing the practices can decide individually*. There is also no technical reason for it, it is 100% political. During Covid, the government (grudgingly) permitted sick notes to be issued by phone to reduce infection risk. Since then, the regulation has been rolled back and reintroduced several times. The issue mostly follows the same trajectory as the "work from home" debate in the US, with progressive parties wanting to make the rule permanent and conservative parties being on an eternal crusade to abolish it. We'll see who wins in the end. (* at least with current legislation, practices are allowed to do it, I'm not sure how required they are. So maybe OP's practice was opting out)
1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
"When I first moved here, you could use WhatsApp without giving access to your contact list: you could type in a number and directly chat with a person. Then an update came and the app refused to run unless you gave access." 1. Disable Contacts app. 2. Install OpenContacts app from f-droid.org. WhatsApp continues to work without having access to either Contacts or OpenContacts. Instead of typing a number in WhatsApp, create a new contact in OpenContacts then start the conversation from OpenContacts. It is easy to export and import as .vcf from OpenContacts. The .vcf files can be created and edited with a text editor.
tasuki 2y ago
> Similarly, ultrapasteurized milk is milk that stays good for months at room temperature, but needs to be refrigerated once open. Also it tastes shit. Just buy regular milk, it easily lasts a week.
- em-bee 2y ago
  ESL-milk which doesn't taste any different from regular milk can last up to 3 weeks in the fridge, or even more if kept cool below 5°C. in many places it is already replacing regular milk, because why wouldn't you prefer that given that it tastes the same.
  - tasuki 2y ago
    > ESL-milk which doesn't taste any different from regular milk Source? All the extended shelf life milk I've ever seen was just coloured water...
    - em-bee 2y ago
      my own experience. i could not tell the difference.
rffn 2y ago
I never understood why Ritter Sport has a feature to close so that some can be saved later.

114 points by jnord 2y ago

from EU: left and right are pretty volatile concept, they don't apply the same worldwide. Simply because all parties (nearly) accept public healthcare in a country, doesn't mean that country is more "left" than another.

nelox 2y ago
Indeed, you touch upon a crucial point that is often overlooked in political discourse. The simplistic transplantation of ‘left’ and ‘right’ labels across different countries is not just misleading; it’s intellectually negligent. The political spectrum is not a one-size-fits-all template that neatly categorises societies based on a single policy like public healthcare. In many European nations, universal healthcare is a settled matter - a consensus that transcends traditional partisan divides. To assume that this places a country further to the ‘left’ ignores the complex historical, cultural, and social nuances that shape each nation’s political landscape.
- uniqueuid 2y ago
  Although you probably agree: If someone wants to describe politics with a one-dimensional scale, left-right is not so bad. And that's why and how it developed.
drooopy 2y ago
Depending on who you ask, the EU is both a far left, communist hellhole and a far right neoliberal, capitalist hellhole.
- devjab 2y ago
  Most of Europe is varying degrees of Social Democracy. We pretend we have conservatives, socialists, “climatists”? communists, neoliberals, populists and so on, but for the most parts it’s all just Social Democratic parties with a flavour.
  - kybernetikos 2y ago
    As far as I can tell, In the not so distant past, you were either in favour of rule by the monarch and the aristocracy or you were a Liberal. Pretty much every party in a modern democracy is a flavour of Liberal. Its only because liberalism comprehensively won that we find it useful to separate out the different strands.
    - devjab 2y ago
      We had a lot of worker reforms when people got fed up later which formed very strong unions which then lead to the modern social democratic ways.
  - Ekaros 2y ago
    Not to forget farmers. Which technically are often right-wing as land owners, but with different goals that industrialist.
onetoo 2y ago
Also from EU, additional tidbit: Not being a first-past-the-post two-party system allows for political parties to be more nuanced than a simplified left-right spectrum.
- Wytwwww 2y ago
  > Not being a first-past-the-post two-party It depends on the country though. France is effectively first-past-the-post. Technically (rarely in practice) you can even get 3-4 candidates in the second round if the turnout is very high. Two-round is not fundamentally a huge improvement and de facto is what US has with party primaries (of course unlike in France third parties can't really survive in such a system). Arguably of course having a three way stalemate might be occasionally preferable than 1 party having near absolute control because of controlling 50%+1 seats. Thankfully US has all sorts of checks and balances and it might take a while for a single party to get control of the House, Senate, White House and the Supreme court (for instance in the UK where there are basically no checks an balances and the parliament has absolute power if a pseudo-Fascist party somehow managed to win they could more or less do anything they wanted and they'd only need 30-40% of all votes for that). IMHO electoral systems matter but extreme polarization is the real problem. Back in the 70s even a Republican president like Nixon could somewhat effectively work with the Democrat controlled congress. Yet now a split congress can't even pass legislation that technically both parties support (e.g. the border billy)
  - onetoo 2y ago
    > Thankfully US has all sorts of checks and balances and it might take a while for a single party to get control of the House, Senate, White House and the Supreme court The fact that "it is good when government is deadlocked and ineffective" is an actual argument people use is baffling to me, but for the sake of the argument and out of assumed mutual respect, I'll do my best to stay objective for following: > IMHO electoral systems matter but extreme polarization is the real problem I absolutely agree that extreme polarization is a major issue. I believe that FPTP inevitably leads to extreme polarization, when given enough time: FPTP inevitably converges to a two-party system (due to strategic voting), and a two-party system inevitably leads to extreme polarization (due to strategic politicians playing into strategic voting). The argument for the latter goes something like this: Disenfranchised voters can be coaxed to vote for a least-worst option when the most-worst option looks worse enough. So it becomes more politically effective to demonize your opponent rather than argue your own politics. Additionally, it is politically beneficial for you when things stay bad while your opponent is in charge, and especially so if things get worse. You can use their perceived incompetence as ammunition to further demonize them. So it becomes beneficial to use what government power you might have in order to hinder your opponent's attempts at improving things, even if what they're trying to do is something you agree with and would yourself do if you were the one in power. Depending on your preferred political party, I'm sure you can think of examples of the above.
devjab 2y ago
It’s more of an American concept which has unfortunately spread. Which is sort of silly considering that virtually every European country has several political parties, some is which sometimes form government coalitions across “the middle”. In Denmark we currently have a government formed of what has been the two major political parties in Denmark for the past few decades + a third. During the election one would be leading the “blue side”, the other leading the “red side”. So it was sort of hilarious when they joined to form a government and the media graphics didn’t work. Of course after a couple or days they just kept the “red” vs “blue” thing and started talking about when it would fall apart and how they were still “enemies” despite being in a joint government. That being said, it is sort of true to say that most European countries are much more “left” leaning than the US. In Denmark the US Democratic Party would be to the far right of 94% of the votes for political parties cast here.
- Certhas 2y ago
  Left and right as concepts actually originated in the french revolution. When seating the parties in an assembly you have to go with some order from left to right. Of course what the political tribes are, and what their actual positions are changes. Republicans went from the party of Lincoln to the party of Trump.
- crote 2y ago
  > So it was sort of hilarious when they joined to form a government and the media graphics didn’t work. In The Netherlands the media solved this by calling it a "purple government". They ruled from 1994 to 2002.
wheels 2y ago
I'd actually say the US is moving in the direction of Europe -- historically "left" in the US was social-democratic, whereas "right" was classical liberalism (again, these labels get wonky across cultures -- what Americans call libertarianism). That US picture does at least point to two different ends of something that's basically the same spectrum. In Europe "left" mostly means socialist, and "right" mostly means nationalist. But socialism and nationalism aren't opposites, and can often go together, so you see things like the author of this article pointing out that the "right" doesn't want to completely dismantle the social safety net. The US is, however, in the process of realigning to the European style.
- jltsiren 2y ago
  In Europe, "right" usually means EPP, or center-right. Their member parties may call themselves conservatives, christian democrats, the national coalition, or something like that. They tend to be economically similar to US Democrats but often less progressive. Then there is S&D, or center-left, with their members typically calling themselves social democrats or socialists. They are another big traditional mainstream group. And even the ones who call themselves socialists are more like social democrats. The third traditional mainstream group is currently called Renew Europe, which consists mostly of various centrist / social liberal parties. Some of which are socially quite conservative. Then there are usually two center-left to left, mostly progressive / liberal, mostly environmentalist parties. The differences between them vary from country to country. Their current groups at the EU level call themselves Greens and The Left. Some actual socialists exist within these groups, but they tend to be mostly harmless weirdos who didn't get the message that the 80s already ended. The conservative / nationalist right mostly emerged in the last ~15 years. They often resemble US Republicans. Their EU level groups tend to split and merge all the time, because they often make very different conclusions from the same ideological positions due to historical and geopolitical reasons. Such as whether Putin is a good guy or a bad guy.
- Wytwwww 2y ago
  Historically most countries Europe had generally been "tripartite". With progressive and/or classical liberals in a weird spot between left-right. But even then I think it get's very messy when we leave Britain. Traditionally in most continental countries you usually had two major (social-capitalist/paternalist) Christian Democrats and some Social Democrat style parties. But in reality they often shared more with each other than with various fringe left(Communist, radical-socialist), right(reactionary conservative but almost (pseudo-modernist) Fascists) parties all of which usually had some weird-missmash of traditionally left and right policies. e.g. Weimar Germany was an extreme example republic where it was Christian Democrats + Socialists + Liberals vs everyone else regardless of exact social/economic policies. But modern France, Italy and Germany are kind of similar (of course both the fringe and the centrist parties are still thankfully a lot more moderate). I guess you can fit all of the on a single left-right axis if you squint hard enough but you'd really need 2-3 axes to get a somewhat accurate/meaningful picture.
mytailorisrich 2y ago
Left and right are political concepts that have broadly held since they were created in the French Revolution (with the names originating to where the people were sitting in Parliament) and still shape politics today. In France, the main change occurred during the 19th century that started with the right being more Monarchist and the left staunchly Republican and ended with basically everyone being Republican. But overall, right and left do mean something and that is still the case throughout Europe and the world and the difference are mainly relative to the centre.

lnsru 2y ago

An error: maternal leave pay is capped around 1800€. So it’s rather 1/3 of salary for white collar worker. This feature makes having kids for middle class even more expensive. A year later comes the nightmare with not enough kindergarten places. It’s a good time to start looking for kindergarten during pregnancy.

niemandhier 2y ago
We feared the same, but since the family income reduced so did the tax burden and in addition we received tax benefits for having kids. In the end we had about the same disposable income. Also: It’s free money? You are legally entitled to childcare for kids 1-3 and can sue for loss of income. Also consider a “Tagesmutter”, finding the right one can be difficult but for high income people it’s usually not too much of a problem. If you have lots of space an au-pair might be sensible, the costs can again be tax reduced to some extend.
froh 2y ago
I'd like us to take a little nuance when it comes to "middle class". tech workers rarely are "middle class". not even "upper middle class". We tend to have a contorted idea of real income percentiles. https://www.arm-und-reich.de/alle-rechner/ https://www.arm-und-reich.de/alle-rechner/
- mgraupner 2y ago
  Try buying a decent house in Germany with 4000€ netto, which puts you in the top 10% income bracket. Then come back and tell me, you're a rich person.
  - mathverse 2y ago
    German companies pay peanuts to tech workers and lost the tech decade. No surprise here.
    - mrmlz 2y ago
      And German salaries are better than Swedish salaries ;(

dakiol 2y ago

> The real solution is to book a trip to Spain in February, but that isn’t an option for everyone. Another solution (to the minimal amount of daylight in winter) is to simply not change the time (DST) in October. Let the sun set later, not at 3pm FFS!

raverbashing 2y ago
But then you don't get daylight up until 10am (which also sucks)
- dakiol 2y ago
  It sucks less, I’d say.
- seth123456 2y ago
  The number of hours of daylight remains the same, so it depends on the individual attitude towards what hour on the clock is an acceptable time to wake up and go to bed. It does become more difficult of course if you have obligations in the morning or evening based on the specific time on the clock.
nowisee 2y ago
Standard time is considered the best option for health and well-being because it aligns most closely with our natural circadian rhythms, which are regulated by exposure to morning light. Research shows that standard time improves sleep quality, reduces stress, and decreases the risk of various health issues like cardiovascular disease, mood disorders, and even certain cancers. By maintaining standard time year-round, we support our bodies' internal clocks, which helps promote better mental and physical health. Leading sleep and health organizations advocate for standard time to minimize disruptions caused by the biannual clock changes and reduce the health risks associated with daylight saving time.
- throw-the-towel 2y ago
  No one's day is aligned with the sun. At noon plus 8 hours, there's a lot of stuff happening. Noon minus 8 hours? Everybody's still asleep.

Semaphor 2y ago

> A friend once commented that they didn’t “feel European” I see myself as 1. A Schleswig-Holsteiner (The norhernmost state in Germany) 2. European 3. German. There was an interesting map posted on reddit a while ago [0], showing which of the three different things people feel most attached to, I am apparently in the majority with my #1 pick up here. I do feel European, but it’s just too abstract to be a primary identification. [0]: https://i.redd.it/5iybkit5lf5b1.jpg https://i.redd.it/5iybkit5lf5b1.jpg

jwr 2y ago
Nothing makes you feel European like spending several months in the US.
- mathverse 2y ago
  Quite the opposite. It made me realize that if the US took better stewardship of Eastern Europe we would all be better off. I feel more connected to americans and their way of life than Germans.
  - jwr 2y ago
    Hey, if you feel more American, that's fine! My point was just that staying outside of Europe makes you realize that all these EU countries have much more in common than people think and that divisions between countries in the EU are largely artificial (and hyped/inflated by politicians, who want to preserve their seats and power).
    - mathverse 2y ago
      History, traditions and current struggles are more common that's for sure but the attitude towards life is different.
  - shepherdjerred 2y ago
    As an American, why do you say this? I feel like most Europeans strongly dislike the US/Americans.

niemandhier 2y ago

On tipping: Try giving a tip to people not regularly receiving one e.g the “Dönnerperson”. Since tips are non obligatory these people usually are extremely happy about it. In tested the hypothesis that Dönner is larger when visiting a place where I tipped before and measured 10%-15% increase in weight ( 5 places, 3 Döner each, weight difference between fist and third).

onetoo 2y ago
Not from Berlin, but I imagine it is similar: It is usually the case that the more shady your "kebab pusher" is, the more delicious the kebab is. If the sign says one price, the cashier says a second, and the cash register says a third? You've found the best kebab in town.
anal_reactor 2y ago
> Try giving a tip No. Tipping is bullshit and you won't convince me otherwise. When I go a restaurant I want to have a nice experience, not deal with a pushy waiter begging me for a tip like a Syrian refugee begging for a coin because he hasn't eaten in days. "But if I tip I get a bigger kebab" yes, and you ruin the experience for everyone else because you teach service providers that displaying one price but actually charging another is a good business practice. If you want a bigger kebab, why don't you just pick it from the menu?
- mrmlz 2y ago
  They should give me a discount for being well behaved in their restaurant. Tipping culture is horrible.
  - anal_reactor 2y ago
    Exactly! "The customer didn't smear shit on the wall - 10% discount"
  - LargoLasskhyfv 2y ago
    Nosedive into the Black Mirror! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive_(Black_Mirror) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive_(Black_Mirror)

lifestyleguru 2y ago

It's funny when someone measuring temperature in feet and distance in football fields starts to "explain" meters, liters, and Celsius degrees. When I hear "leftist" I immediately imagine oakley sunglasses, baseball hat, new balance running shoes, and cargo shorts. It's disgusting that the American political vocabulary was adopted in may EU countries. Then yes, customer service in Germany is rude, useless, and expensive - there is no plot twist or inside joke, it is what it is.

icemanx 2y ago

[flagged]

mikojan 2y ago

> Promoting Nazism is banned. It’s not a slippery slope, and the country hasn’t devolved into authoritarian groupthink. But it is and it has. E.g. Germany is cracking down on the Palestinian solidarity movement. Banning slogans, symbols, events wholesale. Currently trying to sign IHRA Antisemitism definition into law and shut out groups critical of Israel from cultural funds every body else has access too (including right-wing extremist Israel solidarity groups).

flohofwoe 2y ago
Ideally Germany should be cracking down on any form of extremism, doesn't matter if from the right or left. And tbh, especially West Germany has turned a blind eye towards extremism from the left for far too long (there's this weird fascination and solidarity with the RAF in West German intellectual "Alt-68er" circles). That Israel has a bit of a special status in Germany shouldn't come as a surprise considering Germany's history between 1933 and 1945.
- aguaviva 2y ago
  But that special status should not extend giving Israel a pass for its policies of territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing, considering Germany's history between 1933 and 1945.
- mikojan 2y ago
  Yes, if you do not care about freedom of speech this certainly is not an issue.
- computerthings 2y ago
  > That Israel has a bit of a special status in Germany shouldn't come as a surprise considering Germany's history between 1933 and 1945. It absolutely must. That history involved concentrating, starving, murdering people en masse, and blaming them for it in huge media campaigns, after all. Genocide isn't about about Germans that to Jews, and it's not okay to treat it this superficially. Taking German history seriously and trials for Netanyahu and the people who supplied and supply him with weapons are inseparable.

gman83 2y ago

> Gas prices are double or even triple what they are in the US. It’s ok, the economy isn’t collapsing. The Economist about Germany's economy: "a national business model build in part on cheap energy from one autocracy and abundant demand from another (China) faces a severe test". Combine the cutting off from Russian gas with shutting down all nuclear power plants, and you do have something like a collapse of the economy, at least a significant decline in its industrial output.

ilikerashers 2y ago
Germany is in serious trouble. The US and China are in protectionist markets. EU is starting to realise their labour and manufacturing are expensive and not unique anymore. The business model is broken.
Micanthus 2y ago
I think the author means gasoline/petrol for cars, not natural gas
Topfi 2y ago
I believe the Economist talking about gas as in LNG and the author is talking about gas as in gasoline/petrol, likely pocking at this indicator role for economies state the latter tends to have taken on in wider coverage [0] both because it does indeed impact nearly all transactions even before we talk about individual transport, but also because it is one of the few commodities whose price the average person is faced with regularly. Here in Central Europe, no matter how our vs the US economy does, we have always been paying multiples for our fuel, though that didn't automatically mean collapse even if it feels that way to some. Point of the author being, higher gas prices can't be directly compared between economies and all that so shouldn't be used to paint EEA members as these economic hellscapes (which always get a chuckle from me), though sudden and severe upward or downward movements could hint at a wider trend. As someone from one of the DACH countries, it was honestly a nice read and I get their points on concepts like Überweisung, though I will say, if the author was surprised how one opens a Ritter Sport, they should take a look at the official way to open Haribo [1]. Then there is Mannerschnitte [2]. Also, yes, publicly founded mental health care requires significant improvements. [0] https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0511/how-gas-prices-affect-the-economy.aspx https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0511/how-gas-pri... [1] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a45SHoe6fPM https://www.youtube.com/shorts/a45SHoe6fPM [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNmsiuGe4_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNmsiuGe4_s

arlort 2y ago

For americans minimally well versed in their history a much better analogy to understand the EU is not the UN but the pre-constitution US in terms of politics and the pre-civil war US in terms of institutional setup. And somewhere in between when it comes to actual powers

herdrick 2y ago

It's perfectly safe to eat rare pork in the United States. Trichinellosis hasn't been an issue in commercial pork for some time. Wild pigs and backyard pigs should be assumed to be infected.

perching_aix 2y ago

The washing section blew me away. I did not know washing machines in NA were not electric. Like what? Really comprehensive post, great material for exploring cultural differences. One thing I missed maybe was calendars, that here in Europe the week starts on Monday instead of Sunday.

Beretta_Vexee 2y ago
The 110V AC network does not allow you to easily power a washing machine or an electric water heater, so you need a very unusual three-phase electrical outlet. Most homes therefore have natural gas installations, which involves a fair amount of plumbing and ventilation. That's why the machines are very different in design between Europe and North America (and the space available). Miele-Waschmaschinen sind die besten der Welt!
- morio 2y ago
  The majority of US homes use a split phase setup. So 240V is readily available and in fact the only way you can run central AC. Nominal voltage of a single phase is 120V. Technology Connections has an entire video about it.
  - sam_lowry_ 2y ago
    Not sure about the majority of EU homes, but many have 3-phase 480V, 240V is single-phase. Car chargers, electric stoves and sauna heaters work off 480V when possible.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- jansan 2y ago
  "Miele, Miele" sprach die Tante, die alle Waschmaschinen kannte. Having said that, the drum of our Miele dryer disintegrated after ten years, which was a bit disappointing.
  - 2y ago

creesch 2y ago

As someone from the Netherlands this was interesting to read. My one nitpick is that the author seems to switch between Berlin/Germany and the EU as a whole a few times making the reader think that some things might apply to the entire EU. Which isn't the case, this article is mostly about Germany and really specific to Berlin as well. Some examples: - Sunday shopping: Totally a thing here in the Netherlands. - Smoking: A lot of people smoke here, but it certainly does feel like a lot less people than in Germany, and it certainly is allowed in fewer places. - Alcohol: Yes, in the Netherlands you can also drink on the street. In Germany and Berlin specifically, it is also part of the drinking culture, it seems. Certainly Germany has a different drinking culture where there is much more strong liquor available in supermarkets where in the Netherlands you need to go to liquor stores or a special closed section of the supermarket. Again, mostly nitpicks but worth enough to point out imho.

sebtron 2y ago
> - Sunday shopping: Totally a thing here in the Netherlands. I guess it varies significantly by city then, because until a year ago or so the main shopping street here in Leiden was 90% shut on Sundays. More recently I have seen more and more shops stay open on Sunday too, not sure why they changed, but I am glad they did :)
- raxxorraxor 2y ago
  I thoroughly enjoy the silent Sundays. I don't know why so many people require Sunday to be open, especially if so many of them allegedly suffer from stress and a too "fast" lifestyle. Going out on Sundays here is awesome. Yes, of course that requires people working too. Perhaps not fair for the many that need to work, but there are a few advantages.
  - keiferski 2y ago
    Yeah at first, the rules like closed shops on Sunday seem annoying, but as time goes on I now enjoy the forced quietness. If only because it adds some flavor to the week, making Sunday not just another day indistinguishable from every other.

hoseja 2y ago

>and the country hasn’t devolved into authoritarian groupthink doubt

throw-the-towel 2y ago
Care to elaborate?
- hoseja 2y ago
  just look at the germans At least OP seems like a good fit for Berlin. Happy for them.
- sebst 2y ago
  Not OP but I see two points: First there are some societal standards just settled. Universal healthcare as an example which is mentioned in the article, but also the broader spectrum of social democratic policies as mentioned in other comments. While that gives you some stability in society, it could be seen as “groupthink” Second, there is a tendency to (informally) label right-leaning policies, libertarian ideas and patriotism as Nazism. That’s not a problem of the “far right” but also the “far left” as criticism on Israel’s current policies could be labeled antisemitic. The slippery slope here is that outlawing one thing (nazism) is socially accepted but assigning the label of what actually constitutes “nazism” is the actual problem.

hollowturtle 2y ago

Universal healthcare is something will be soon be revisited imo. At least reviewed and shrinked, here in Italy too much money is spent on a system that’s collapsing. It’s not sustainable in the long period. The author in the article keeps saying “yet the economy isn’t collapsing” Economies don’t collapse in a day, it’s a slow process, Germany, and EU in general, are on a dangerous path. Crazy political decisions like shutting down nuclear power plants in Germany will resonate badly over time(partly already are) not just in a day or two. Some other crazy stuff: going full electric in all of the EU by 2030, be totally dependent from the US defense, counting nothing in a war we have at home, not having even a chip in the race for ai or technology in general, what we got left? Trains?

begueradj 2y ago

Good article although the title is misleading as it has nothing to do with programming/a programmer in Berlin/Germany. The right title would be something like: "an expat/a foreigner in Berlin/Germany"

sebtron 2y ago

As a European I enjoyed reading this, I think it is a nice illustration of some of the differences between Europe and the US without falling into the silly "US bad" or "Europe weird" rethoric. But one thing struck me as very odd: > One thing I found unusual was how many people regularly smoked in Europe. [...] I guess that’s one of the few downsides of universal healthcare. The idea that people living in a country with universal healthcare would more easily indulge in risky behavior because they would not have to pay for medication or hospitalization is, frankly, nuts. It's hard to imagine Americans smoke less not because they are scared of dying painfully of lung cancer, but because they could not afford the medical expenses in case they do get cancer; but maybe this is the case? All I know is that the idea of not having to pay for healthcare is not at all reassuring when I think about the risks associated with something I'm doing - be it smoking, driving, drinking or anything else.

theclansman 2y ago
The conclusions a lot of people draw from universal healthcare are, frankly, insane most of the time. I've seen people saying that people in Europe are happier because of free access to therapy (as in, mental health), which implies a lot of things, but is not even true. Going to therapy here in Norway is extremely expensive. The idea that someone would indulge in risky behavior just because a doctor will "fix you" for free is also ridiculous. This person clearly didn't think too much about it considering how people eat in the US.
Wytwwww 2y ago
Statistically it's not that massively different though. e.g. ~12% of all Americans smoke cigarettes vs ~18% of EU citizens. Over 20% of all Americans still smoked as late as 2014, so IMHO it's mostly social/cultural and Europeans are just slightly behind on the curve (and have less socially acceptable alternatives like Marijuana) https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Tobacco_consumption_statistics https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php... vs https://news.gallup.com/poll/509720/cigarette-smoking-rate-steady-near-historical-low.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/509720/cigarette-smoking-rate-s...
- 2y ago

cjs_ac 2y ago

[flagged]

keiferski 2y ago
I don’t think it’s really weirdness or some unique cultural flaw, it’s merely that America is huge and you functionally don’t need to care about the rest of the world if you live there as an average person. The same is largely true in say, China or India. Australia is a small country far away from most places so it’s natural that it is forced to integrate more.
- cjs_ac 2y ago
  I saw plenty of American television while growing up in Australia; there's a lot of it on in the UK, even though the UK is a television powerhouse in its own right. In America, learning about other countries is a choice; in the rest of the West, it's mandatory.
reedf1 2y ago
My father is from yorkshire and my mom is from texas. I've lived up and down the UK for 20 years, been all over europe and asia. One thing I've learned is that basically, america is not unique for this. The paradigm you are describing is between rural and metropolitan. Metropolitan londoners move with culture at ease, and so do parisians, berliners, etc. But ask the opinion of a brit in benidorm and you will get similar confusion on local customs, a similar feeling that "the UK is the only place that exists, the rest of the world is a holiday spot". The provincial sort, people who live in small town or city, people who are not well travelled; their entire world view can be defined within a country. And also, for the record, the school uniforms do still baffle me a bit. I tend to play UK apologist in the US and US apologist in the UK. So for full balance, the lack of electric kettles in the US also baffles me. Trust me, Brits who visit me in the US are just as vocal about their bafflement with the local customs as the inverse...
- jolux 2y ago
  The US has electric kettles and I think they’re becoming more popular, they’re just a lot less convenient than in the UK because boiling water with 110v is slower.

gopheryourshelf 2y ago

>dryers weren’t common I am in the UK and dryers are getting more common. Now I have one in the house but rarely use it. I have moved on to using dehumidifier. Do the laundry in the evening and hang it with dehumidifier at 50% humidity auto. But morning most clothes are well dried without them going through the heating cycle of a dryer. Clothes last longer and retain their natural colours better.

mathverse 2y ago
Germans are just anti-technology in general. If Eeastern Europeans had the chance to flourish and were not getting abused by both Germany and Russia for most of their history they would be in an entirely different tiers of countries. As EE is getting richer they embrace technology at must faster rates than DACH. Dryers, ACs, payment tech is much more common and widespread here.
- lifestyleguru 2y ago
  > If Eeastern Europeans had the chance to flourish and were not getting abused by both Germany and Russia for most of their history they would be in an entirely different tiers of countries. To my knowledge for at least last few decades all countries from Poland down to Bulgaria have been happily corrupted and pillaging their own populace and pushing out their working age populace into emigration. Now with their demographics there no one left to even emigrate anymore.
  - mathverse 2y ago
    That's a relict of Soviet occupation and mindset. pre-war Czechoslovakia was one of the most prosperous countries in the world.
    - lifestyleguru 2y ago
      Pre WWII?! That's loong time ago. Many countries live by their pre-WWII, or even pre-WWI "glory days".

rglullis 2y ago

"Right before left" is totally a thing in Brazil as well, and IMO quite sensible if you treat it as conflict resolution method: if you are crossing or merging onto a "faster" road you yield, if you are on the faster road you have priority, and "right before left" is just a tie-breaker in case you are on a road or street of the same class. Things I am a bit surprised which were not talked about: "right turn on red" is a totally American thing that used to trip my (US resident, car loving) mom, and the amount of cars parked on the curb.

dchest 2y ago
This rule is part of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, so it applies to many countries indeed (including Brazil, which is a signatory).

keiferski 2y ago

I think the best analogy to American-European identity is: there exists a certain class of well-off, well-traveled people that indeed thinks of themselves as being more European than [nationality], and they tend to be centered in the Netherlands, Belgium, etc. and radiating outward from there. However is is a very small group and probably about the same size as the group of people that live in both New York and Florida/California and think of themselves as not really a “local” (in the negative sense, from their perspective) of either place. The average person in Europe absolutely doesn’t think of themselves as being a member of Europe first and [country] second, and I think people would be surprised how actual little interaction and cross-language discussion there is between say, France and Poland, even though both are in the EU. There is much more of a French cultural universe, German cultural universe, Polish cultural universe, etc. The current structure of the EU pretty much caters entirely to that first group identifying as European first (at least in an identity-forming sense - I don’t mean economically) and so the prospect of a bloc-wide identity like “American” is in America seems extremely unlikely to me. In fact I think they are closer to being Americanized culturally than Europeanized.

raxxorraxor 2y ago
Even people very convinced of the EU don't really think of themselves as European first. Try to ask them where they come from when the EU is not a topic and you get the real answer. There is no overreaching European media that could form stronger bonds. Cultures and languages are too diverse and that is probably the main difference to the US.
- Ekaros 2y ago
  I think there is thinking of European as continent level. That is Europeans are not say Asian or African, or neither Americans. So at global scale, we are one group distinct from other continentals groups. If those continents even have any shared belonging in a group. But we certainly are not them.
lifestyleguru 2y ago
> there exists a certain class of well-off, well-traveled people that indeed thinks of themselves as being more European than [nationality], and they tend to be centered in the Netherlands, Belgium Ah yeah, the "Trust Fund, 6’5, Blue Eyes" blokes and their fiancees. Hopefully they'll choke with Masdaamer during techno party on their yachts.

kwanbix 2y ago

100 cms is a meter, so, if meters equal yards, 1 cm is 1/100 of a yard.

rglullis 2y ago
1 yard is 91.44 cm, so a better approximation for yards to meters would be "add 10%"
- kwanbix 2y ago
  You are right, but the article says that 1 yard is 1 meter. Which is not that far for a simple calculation. For anything more serious, I would use some sort of calculator.

nox101 2y ago

Many of these do not match my experience or knowledge Crime: Berliner's tell me "don't put your backpack between your legs while sitting at a restaurant, someone will sneak up behind and steal it". I don't know where in the USA that kind of theft is common. Washing: While I do have a dryer, my American apartment has a Whirlpool HG washer. It's quiet and spins the water out to the point I often feel I don't need the drier Service: My experience has been if there's a problem that clearly the fault of the company the person you talk to will immediately not take responsibility "Not my fault". It might not be their personal fault but as a representative of the company they should take responsibility on behalf of the company IMO. Dating: I've been told my many Germans that dating in Germany is more serious than is at least depicted in US movies/tv-shows. I don't have specifics except being told that it's not as casual. Alcohol: Claims it's better in Europe but is making a generalization. Sweden you can only buy Alcohol from government stores. It's super expensive and they close early (3pm IIRC). So if you wanted some beers for party or a bottle of wine for dinner you're S.O.L. if you didn't buy on your lunch break. Bread: Claims the choices are limited where as Germany claims to be the bread capital of the world with over 3000 kinds. I'm not saying I agree or disagree that Germany is the bread capital. Only that apparently the author is in a bread desert if their bread choices are limited. https://www.google.com/search?q=germany+the+bread+capital https://www.google.com/search?q=germany+the+bread+capital

keiferski 2y ago
Berlin is weirdly very bad at bread, and I don’t know why. Even the fancy hip places are terrible. Source: went from Paris to Amsterdam to Berlin to Warsaw this summer, and thought Paris (obviously) had the best bread, followed by Warsaw and Amsterdam, with Berlin way, way behind.
alkonaut 2y ago
> Sweden you can only buy Alcohol from government stores. It's super expensive and they close early (3pm IIRC). So if you wanted some beers for party or a bottle of wine for dinner you're S.O.L. if you didn't buy on your lunch break. I think the article makes the mistake of generalizing things that doesn't generalize across Europe, or even the EU. It's a common mistake among Americans to think of Europe as a very similar area and not wildly different countries. Germany and Sweden I'd say are much less similar than say Canada or the US in most respects. Not least when it comes to bureaucracy, the use of paper, formal titles etc. Completely different. Alcohol can be bought in store until 7pm or 8pm in Sweden (but closes earlier on Saturdays and is closed on Sundays). Weird rules are everywhere though. Americans don't tend to find it strange they can't drink in bars at 18, for example. > Berliner's tell me "don't put your backpack between your legs while sitting at a restaurant, someone will sneak up behind and steal it". I think this is more a representation of how cautious people are of a particular crime, than how common a particular crime is.

dinoqqq 2y ago

> I think one weird aspect of living in Europe, or at least Germany, is that all the stuff that US politicians told me were “too expensive” apparently aren’t! If you look at the spending of the countries' governments, you partly can explain why these social services, health and public transport are considered better by the author. One outlier worth mentioning is the big spend on "Defence" by the US. Of course, Europe benefits from that to in terms of protection in NATO. https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/general-government-spending.html?oecdcontrol-b8a601814c-var6=SOCPROT&oecdcontrol-38c744bfa4-var1=USA%7CBEL%7CDNK%7CDEU%7CIRL%7CNLD https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/general-government-s...

TrueGeek 2y ago

I'm also an American working as a developer, but in The Netherlands. One thing that really surprised me (but maybe it's because it's right around the election) is how much time we spend during user groups talking about US politics. I even had a native Dutch person tell me "I heard in the US it is legal to do post birth abortions".

Wytwwww 2y ago
I guess it's partially a symptom of some sort of an inferiority complex. Europe has been almost entirely left behind economically (at least in any emerging sector) yet being able to keep pointing out how superior they are in certain aspects (often quite rightfully so) to Americans makes it easier to mentally ignore the fact that European economies are stagnant and keep falling behind.
GJim 2y ago
> I even had a native Dutch person tell me "I heard in the US it is legal to do post birth abortions" Americans really do not understand sarcasm; no matter how much you may claim to do so!

jansan 2y ago

I would add a "Paypal" section. It is not quite as common as WhatsApp, but incredibly popular and used by many people use for small private payments or to pay on second hand markets.

in3d 2y ago

> It’s ok, the economy isn’t collapsing. Nobody said that Germany's economy is collapsing, but it's certainly underperforming. It had a recession in 2023 (-0.3% GDP growth), stagnated with 0.1% in 2024, and is expected to grow by just 1.0% in 2025. https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-surveillance-eu-economies/germany/economic-forecast-germany_en https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/economic-surveillance-e... > The trains, despite all the ineptness of Deutsche Bahn, are generally pretty good!. They're awful. "In 2023, just 64% of long-distance trains reached their destination on time" "Germany accounted for six out of the 10 worst stations for passenger convenience in Europe" https://www.dw.com/en/how-does-deutsche-bahn-compare-with-european-rail-firms/a-68091079 https://www.dw.com/en/how-does-deutsche-bahn-compare-with-eu... > Promoting Nazism is banned. It’s not a slippery slope, and the country hasn’t devolved into authoritarian groupthink. You just can’t publicly support Nazism. "No national figures exist on the total number of people charged with online speech-related crimes. But in a review of German state records, The New York Times found more than 8,500 cases." "After Mr. Grote later made remarks admonishing others for hosting parties during the pandemic, a Twitter user wrote: “Du bist so 1 Pimmel” (“You are such a penis”). Three months later, six police officers raided the house of the man who had posted the insult, looking for his electronic devices." https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/technology/germany-internet-speech-arrest.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/technology/germany-intern...

throw-the-towel 2y ago
You may think that the trains are awful, but the OP was comparing with the US which basically does not have passenger rail at all.
ipnon 2y ago
Yes, the Berlin-centered, foreigner-dependent tech industry is one of the few growing sectors. It seems a little myopic to me to extrapolate a few thriving communities into a vibrant national economy.
aguaviva 2y ago
Perhaps it may be more instructive to look at not just the past 2 years, in which there's been a global mini-recession (due largely to the Ukraine war) - and more broadly, how Germany has been doing compared to other countries over longer time periods? According to these two graphs, German GDP fluctuations are pretty evenly matched with those of the US (and in some years, such ast 2016-2017 they did significantly better than the US): https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/gdp-growth-annual https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/gdp-growth-annual https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth-annual https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth-annual Germany has been hit worst in the past 2 years, but there's an extremely obvious reason for that -- again, largely due to the war. Not because of the country's social system or how it manages healthcare or fuel prices. They're awful. True, but (1) only in the last 10 years, and (2) Germany's "awful" is still an order of magnitude better than the land-based public transit system most anywhere in the US. Go back 20 years - Germany's train system positively rocked, while the US was still going around invading random countries for no particular reason other than to distract its population from its decaying infrastructure, rising inequality and its own slow drift toward fascism.

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helge9210 2y ago

> It’s not a slippery slope, and the country hasn’t devolved into authoritarian groupthink. Society position on COVID-19 and (more recent) Israel-Gaza situation (the word is deliberately wrong, but this is not the main point here) really walks and quacks like groupthink.

helge9210 2y ago

> There is no right to firearms in the way there is in the US. You don’t really have school shootings out here, and society seems to be ok? Nobody seems to want to band together to make a militia. Nobody in Germany is like, “we need more guns to prevent government overreach.” There are people that want to make a militia for exactly this reason. Just very few of them. In general, the country feels like a modernized fragment of Holy Roman Empire. The feudal system was painted and polished, but the divide between nobility and serfs is still visible under a proper angle.

joduplessis 2y ago

I lived in Hamburg for a few years. The single most jarring thing was always healthcare - expertise & availability. My personal opinion was that physicians seemed to be overly dependent on tech/equipment so their clinical diagnoses skills really suffered (that or just being scared of making a mistake maybe).

rumplecat 2y ago

I am an American, living in Berlin for 7 years. The idea that the healthcare system here works should be taken with a huge grain of salt. The Good: - Virtually no medical bills. For a family of four, with two pregnancies behind us and now two kids, that is no small thing - When my daughter snapped her femur in two at the tender age of 2, the system sprang into action, put her back together, and looked after her until she was fully healed. The Bad: - Receptionists see it as their job to turn away any new patients. They can be very nasty. - The pediatricians offices are overrun. Good luck getting an appointment. If we need our child to be seen that day, we have to spend up to an hour calling on the phone trying to get through to the reception so they can give us a time slot for that afternoon. Our pediatrician also doesn't offer services that usually should be offered, such as checking pin worm strips for signs of pin worm. - When I got seriously depressed last autumn (yes, people, sh*t happens), I couldn't find a psychologist or psychiatrist. They were all full. The problem festered for months. Eventually I got into a group therapy for depression. I now pay (a lot, 100%) out of pocket for a psychologist in California (via zoom). The psychiatrist I found to subscribe me an antidepressant (my primary care doctor refused), is the aunt of a friend of my wife. She is retired, so there is no insurance coverage - I pay 100% out of pocket for our consultations and the medication, and she lives 4.5 hours away. I drove once to see her, so that she would take me on as a patient, and now we do phone consultations as needed. I still call psychiatrists practices now and then, only to be told they are full, and I don't have a chance of ever getting an appointment. - I wanted to make an eye appointment last week, and at a practice that is closer to where we recently moved, and where my wife goes to. I dreaded calling them up and trying to convince them that they should take me on as a new patient, or that since my wife already goes there, I'm not really a new patient, etc etc. I instead opted to get the next available appointment at my old eye doctor, far away in Berlin, and that appointment is in mid January. - When I first was in Berlin years ago, my eye was hurting me. I called the eye doctor to make an appointment, and got one for 4 weeks out. I told them it was urgent, and they said that I should go to the ER if that is the case. I went to the ER, and they sent me away, saying it wasn't urgent. When I finally did go to the eye appointment 4 weeks later, after 4 weeks of discomfort, the eye doctor said I had an eyelash stuck under my eyelid and scolded me for waiting so long to take care of it. So - yes, there is universal healthcare in Berlin. And maybe if I had private insurance rather than public insurance, I would be more able to get care. Yes, I speak the German language fluently, but I don't know how to be an assertive bully in German who can barrel through the wall of "Nein" that you always get. I'm grateful that the system helped my wife through her pregnancies and my children through their problems. I'm resentful about how I have fared in the system. In the United States, my access to care and quality of care was much better.

qwertox 2y ago

> A nice thing about miles is that people roughly drive 60 miles per hour over long distances, meaning a distance in miles roughly corresponds to how many minutes it will take to drive there. I never thought of this fun fact. Then again 60 mph = ~100 kmph, when then saying 100 km corresponds roughly to one hour makes it just as easy.

jasonvorhe 2y ago

Coming from someone who grew up in Germany: Socialized health care sounds good on paper but ask anyone who actually had to go to multiple doctors to get some health issue identified and they'll all confirm that the basic healthcare you receive is of very low quality. Most doctors don't have more than 5-15 minutes per patient, they all have strict budgets of stuff they can actually do for their patients and as soon as you need a specialist, prepare for weeks to months of waiting time.

Rinzler89 2y ago
Even 15 minutes per pacient is incredibly generous. I don't think I ever got more than 5.
- jasonvorhe 2y ago
  It depends on the doctor. I seldomly get more than 5-10 minutes, I just wanted to be generous to not provoke any "but I got 15 minutes that one time so you're totally negative here" replies.
  - wink 2y ago
    It also depends on where you live it seems. I had to look for a long time, but 2 of 3 of my "Hausarzt" have been stellar and taking enough time. When seeing specialists it was even less so that I felt they had no time. Not saying there aren't problems, if it sounds like you're not dying you might wait for an appointment for weeks or months, but after that it was fine for me. (This is all in Munich, we have a lot of doctors)
kwanbix 2y ago
I have been living in Berlin for 8 years. It is short, but not less than 15 minutes. The other option is US healthcare, were you can go banckrupt if you get sick. I prefer the EU way thank you very much.
yencabulator 2y ago
US is roughly the same but the medical company is owned by private equity and the doctor has to rush through their day to not get fired. Plus, the bill can bankrupt you.

ghthor 2y ago

Doesn’t have section on hacker spaces…

tmalsburg2 2y ago

Why has this been flagged? Great material, even Germans will be able to learn from this.

aguaviva 2y ago

An entirely useful and thoughtful writeup (and not really all that political) -- why was it flagged? Just one nitpick, in regard to the pronouncement at the very top: One thing about Germany, and Europe in general, is that it’s relatively left-wing when compared to the US. Europe's pragmatic social policies constitute what America thinks of as as left-wing. But really that's a statement more about the US than it is about Europe. To most Europeans, these policies are basically common sense, the outcome of decades of political consensus (give or take certain differences about exactly how to tune the dials).

xg15 2y ago

> You can’t just buy NyQuil [at the Apotheke/pharmacy], you have to go up to a person, do a little song and dance, and hope that you’ve convinced them enough that you get the product that you want. German here. Kinda surprised to hear that, it hasn't been my experience at least. I never had any trouble asking for a specific product. What they do pretty systematically since a few years ago is to ask you whether you're familiar with a medication, if you understand how/when it's supposed to be used, etc. I suspect this is some new directive/regulation to prevent accidental misuse of off-the-shelf medication. You can usually cut this discussion short by just answering that you already know how to use the medication and are aware of the risks. > With most non-freelancer jobs, if you get sick you’re allowed to take off work for a few days, but on the third day you’re required to go to a Hausarzt and get krankgeschrieben (“written off sick”). That process itself is kind of annoying – most practices won’t give them out over the phone, so you usually have to go in person while having a cold, just to get a piece of paper saying you have a cold. Getting the note by phone should currently be possible - but it's completely unclear if it will stay that way. This is regulated by law, not a thing the practices can decide individually*. There is also no technical reason for it, it is 100% political. During Covid, the government (grudgingly) permitted sick notes to be issued by phone to reduce infection risk. Since then, the regulation has been rolled back and reintroduced several times. The issue mostly follows the same trajectory as the "work from home" debate in the US, with progressive parties wanting to make the rule permanent and conservative parties being on an eternal crusade to abolish it. We'll see who wins in the end. (* at least with current legislation, practices are allowed to do it, I'm not sure how required they are. So maybe OP's practice was opting out)

1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago

"When I first moved here, you could use WhatsApp without giving access to your contact list: you could type in a number and directly chat with a person. Then an update came and the app refused to run unless you gave access." 1. Disable Contacts app. 2. Install OpenContacts app from f-droid.org. WhatsApp continues to work without having access to either Contacts or OpenContacts. Instead of typing a number in WhatsApp, create a new contact in OpenContacts then start the conversation from OpenContacts. It is easy to export and import as .vcf from OpenContacts. The .vcf files can be created and edited with a text editor.

tasuki 2y ago

> Similarly, ultrapasteurized milk is milk that stays good for months at room temperature, but needs to be refrigerated once open. Also it tastes shit. Just buy regular milk, it easily lasts a week.

em-bee 2y ago
ESL-milk which doesn't taste any different from regular milk can last up to 3 weeks in the fridge, or even more if kept cool below 5°C. in many places it is already replacing regular milk, because why wouldn't you prefer that given that it tastes the same.
- tasuki 2y ago
  > ESL-milk which doesn't taste any different from regular milk Source? All the extended shelf life milk I've ever seen was just coloured water...
  - em-bee 2y ago
    my own experience. i could not tell the difference.

rffn 2y ago

I never understood why Ritter Sport has a feature to close so that some can be saved later.