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I'm an old Cold Warrior...and you tell me you've been handled by the KGB.
Yes I was.
Just don't forget that those were already Gorby's times and CERTAIN things changed.
Otherwise I wouldn't be talking by now - I can tell you that much.
P.S. But I don't think it's all that important ( or relevant) in this thread. My previous post however is.
Though i must say consumer electronics retail is much better in US!
Did a fair amount of shopping at Media Markt too.
Here is where it gets interesting...
I could buy a brand new BMW for Munich factory Delivery, drive around Europe, ship it to California, pay all the taxes and registration fees and still be significantly less expensive than my Austrian colleague buying one in Austria...
It is true that he had more choices in options... but the USA price and options packages were much less expensive
I could buy a brand new BMW for Munich factory Delivery, drive around Europe, ship it to California, pay all the taxes and registration fees and still be significantly less expensive than my Austrian colleague buying one in Austria...
It is true that he had more choices in options... but the USA price and options packages were much less expensive
What, are you 12? Newsflash, the war is over. Also newsflash - tons of Americans are of German heritage.
Go read your own history where people bring slaves to the country and to THIS DAY racism is all over the place. THis country has the highest amount of prisoners per population so go read your own news before you bash Germans who have NOTHING to do with WWI or II. 90% of all the Germans who are alive now were born AFTER the war, how much longer do you want to rub it in their faces. What should they do, time travel and make it UNHAPPEN? Then travel back in time and make 245 years of slavery in the US unhappen.
BTW, there were Japanese concentration camps in the US also, go ask some Japanese people what they think of it. The US is not one bit better, but go ahead, keep talking...
Japanese Americans in Concentration Camps Japanese Americans in Concentration Camps
"Our people were forced into concentration camps and their lives where ripped away from them. We were the detained in assembly centers, in large numbers, and later transported under guard to barbed-wire concentration camps.
Our businesses had to be sold quickly and at a loss. The only crime that we ever did was to be perceived by whites as racially different. We faced many different forms of racial oppression behind the barbwire.
We were forced to live in these small barracks with hundreds of other people. The living quarters were extremely tight, with people basically sleeping on top of us. We had to eat and sleep when they told us to, and of course the food was barely edible. We were restricted to these tiny perimeters in the camp, surrounded by armed military personnel. Many of the camps that we lived in were located in cold areas, where we would freeze and be surrounded by extreme amounts of dust.
BTW, there were Japanese concentration camps in the US also, go ask some Japanese people what they think of it. The US is not one bit better, but go ahead, keep talking..."
The war is over? Gee, thanks for pointing out. I didn't know. Tons of Americans are of non-German heritage too, so? Actually about 2/3's of the country. They also mostly identify as 'Americans' today. And what the **** are you talking about slavery? Many of the slaves were owned by Germans who had emigrated to the US. They were notorious for that and owned many of them, as well as practiced slavery. You forgot what ethnic groups initially moved to the US as immigrants.
245 years of slavery did not cause 80 mil deaths though(including those dying of starvation); really not on the same level. You get it, or are you 8?
Japan moved aggressively first against the US. Can you tell the difference?
When a country screws up royally, like Germany causing 2 world wars, well yeah the rest of the world will rub it on their face..maybe in 500 yrs people will don't remember. Present day Germans are not responsible for what happened, however, the reputation lingers.
German Americans were not notorious for owning slaves.
There is actually no evidence German Americans owned any slaves, even in the small German areas of the southeast, such as the German Coast. For the most part German immigrants to the USA were poor and had no means of owning slaves. They also generally moved to the north and midwest.
Not to mention the largest wave of German immigration happened after the civil war, and the previous waves of German immigration happened during the period when slavery was already well established.
The war is over? Gee, thanks for pointing out. I didn't know. Tons of Americans are of non-German heritage too, so? Actually about 2/3's of the country. They also mostly identify as 'Americans' today. And what the **** are you talking about slavery? Many of the slaves were owned by Germans who had emigrated to the US. They were notorious for that and owned many of them, as well as practiced slavery. You forgot what ethnic groups initially moved to the US as immigrants.
245 years of slavery did not cause 80 mil deaths though(including those dying of starvation); really not on the same level. You get it, or are you 8?
Japan moved aggressively first against the US. Can you tell the difference?
When a country screws up royally, like Germany causing 2 world wars, well yeah the rest of the world will rub it on their face..maybe in 500 yrs people will don't remember. Present day Germans are not responsible for what happened, however, the reputation lingers.
This should be left up to Russians to decide first of all, since they've taken the brunt of the last war the most.
But interestingly enough Russians consider America a far bigger threat to the world peace and stability ( and to their country personally) than Germany, in spite of those two deadly wars.
German Americans were not notorious for owning slaves.
There is actually no evidence German Americans owned any slaves, even in the small German areas of the southeast, such as the German Coast. For the most part German immigrants to the USA were poor and had no means of owning slaves. They also generally moved to the north and midwest.
Not to mention the largest wave of German immigration happened after the civil war, and the previous waves of German immigration happened during the period when slavery was already well established.
In Memphis, TN, there is a small museum, the family home constructed in 1849 by a German immigrant by the name of Jacob Burkle. It was a waystation on the Underground Railroad, a place for escaping slaves to hide along their route to freedom.
I and many Germans are quite sceptical about these new payment methods. That's indeed typical for Germans. The reason that we now can pay via credit cards at grocery stores is that the EU has limited the fees that credit card companies can charge the retail industry. In the past it was about 2% of the turnover. That's more than the profit margins of most grocery retailers. The charges for EC cards were much lower. I think it was understandable that most retailers doesn't offer payments via credit cards. The fees are now limited to 0.3% of the turnover.
Customers don't see how much the retailer has to pay for payments with credit cards. Of course the real costs are concealed.
I still don't see the advantage of payments via credit cards vs. payments via EC cards? It's just more expensive and the fees for credit cards goes most likely to a huge corporation in overseas, whereas the fees for EC cards remain in the local economy.
Quite recently I talked to an elderly woman in my neighborhood about a cashless society. She asked me how she can pay the teenager that mows her garden, when cash wouldn't exist. I explained to her, that most likely she has to hold her smartphone near the smartphone of the teenager to send the money. But she doesn't has a smartphone, she is happy that she is able to operate her old fashion mobile phone.
For me it sounds absurd that a company in Silicon Valley earns money, when I buy a Laugenbrötchen for 25 Euro cents at my local Lidl store. Making money out of everything. Very similar to the Uber app. Making money by offering questionable services. It's a modern form of exploitation. Some millionaires are getting richer on the expense of average people.
I and many Germans are quite sceptical about these new payment methods. That's indeed typical for Germans. The reason that we now can pay via credit cards at grocery stores is that the EU has limited the fees that credit card companies can charge the retail industry. In the past it was about 2% of the turnover. That's more than the profit margins of most grocery retailers. The charges for EC cards were much lower. I think it was understandable that most retailers doesn't offer payments via credit cards. The fees are now limited to 0.3% of the turnover.
Customers don't see how much the retailer has to pay for payments with credit cards. Of course the real costs are concealed.
I still don't see the advantage of payments via credit cards vs. payments via EC cards? It's just more expensive and the fees for credit cards goes most likely to a huge corporation in overseas, whereas the fees for EC cards remain in the local economy.
Quite recently I talked to an elderly woman in my neighborhood about a cashless society. She asked me how she can pay the teenager that mows her garden, when cash wouldn't exist. I explained to her, that most likely she has to hold her smartphone near the smartphone of the teenager to send the money. But she doesn't has a smartphone, she is happy that she is able to operate her old fashion mobile phone.
For me it sounds absurd that a company in Silicon Valley earns money, when I buy a Laugenbrötchen for 25 Euro cents at my local Lidl store.Making money out of everything. Very similar to the Uber app. Making money by offering questionable services. It's a modern form of exploitation. Some millionaires are getting richer on the expense of average people.
I'm very sceptical about the current development.
Thank you. I don't get into all the technical details, but overall that's what I saw INCREASINGLY happening in the US over the last 20 years. Gone are the good old-fashion values of the Western world - make some, give some, know the limits of what you should and shouldn't do. Live and let live. It's ALL about profits in fewer and fewer pockets, yet the slogans of " freedom and democracy" are waved over and over again, disguising the reality of things.
I am not even sceptical, but downright positive that this bubble is going to burst.
And rather soon.
I would do most of my shopping at Metro and Bauhaus... seemed similar to Costco and Home Depot.
But only tradesmen can shop at Metro. The prices at Metro wholesale markets doesn't contain the VAT.
We also like to shop at Bauhaus, but Hornbach seems to be cheaper. But unfortunately we don't have a Hornbach store nearby. One of our Bauhaus stores here in Düsseldorf is pretty large. One of the few things that seems to be larger in Germany than in the U.S.
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