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I have been to Europe countless times. If I had to live like their middle class lives, I would just slit my throat right now. It is so effin' depressing. But it's the right way for them to live. I admire that they at least have the restraint and discipline to live within their means.
THAT is what is missing from this country.
I found Europe to be very charming, not depressing. Maybe to a spoiled American who thinks quality of life is determined by car or house size maybe, but I found Europeans to be a happy and content bunch in general. Not the case everywhere but they live well.
I have been to Europe too and I envy their lifestyle. The public transportation, walkability, countless urban activities, the nightlife, the culture.
Beats having a cookie cutter house in the burbs here and having to drive your damn car to get anywhere.
Beats having a cookie cutter house in the burbs here and having to drive your damn car to get anywhere.
There's nothing to do in the suburbs except drive around in your SUV all day, go shopping at a big impersonal chain store like Target or Walmart. Then go home and sit in front of your TV. If I had to live such a dull existence for the rest of my life I would probably slit my own throat.
Germany's middle class enjoys high standard of living - Sacramento Living - Sacramento Food and Wine, Home, Health | Sacramento Bee (http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/23/4207824/germanys-middle-class-enjoys-high.html - broken link)
"The couple, in their early 50s, aren't retired or well off. They live in a small Tudor-style house in this middle-class town about 30 miles northwest of Frankfurt. He's a foreman at a glass factory; she works part time for a company that tracks inventories for retailers. Their combined income is a modest $40,000. Yet the Krugers have a higher standard of living than many Americans whose incomes are twice as high."
"Their secret: little debt, frugal habits and a government that is intensely focused on high production, low inflation and extensive social services. That has given them job security and good medical care as well as well-maintained roads, trains and bike paths. Both their adult children are out on their own, thanks in part to Germany's job-training system and heavy subsidies for university education. For instance, Volkmar's out-of-pocket costs for stomach surgery and 10 days in the hospital totaled just $13 a day. College tuition for their son runs about $260 a semester."
"Germany with its manufacturing base and export prowess is the U.S. of yesteryear, an economic power unlike any of its European neighbors. As the world's fourth-largest economy, it has thrived on principles that America seems gradually to have lost."
And yet many are wrongly convinved their system is 'evil' or inferior to ours. Their system obviously works so I do not understand the fear of it.
Don't be pushing that commie bullsh*t around here! What's wrong with you maaaaaaaan?
LOL - yeah, the poor Germans who can't live free because they have a striving economy, never have to worry about health care, don't have to worry about financing their children's education. You really, really have to feel sorry for those poor communists/socialists/marxists/fascists/etc.
It's really a big problem when you try to make sure nobody is left in the dirt at the expense of a very select few raking in disproportionate amounts of money. MUCH better to have kids who go hungry, people dying because they can't get proper health care, and young adults be buried in debt for financing their education - so much debt that it will affect them for the rest of their lives. Yeah, that sounds great.
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