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Related: About this forumGermany's economic strengths make it like the U.S. of yesteryear
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/22/business/la-fi-germany-middle-class-20120122Every summer, Volkmar and Vera Kruger spend three weeks vacationing in the south of France or at a cool getaway in Denmark. For the other three weeks of their annual vacation, they garden or travel a few hours away to root for their favorite team in Germany's biggest soccer stadium.
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 who have twice that income.
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 of 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 a hospital totaled just $13 a day. College tuition for their son runs about $260 a semester.
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Germany's economic strengths make it like the U.S. of yesteryear (Original Post)
eridani
Nov 2012
OP
Teamster Jeff
(1,598 posts)1. K&R
God Damn Commies!
Ilsa
(61,698 posts)2. I know someone who moved to Germany.
I'm certain she's a laissez-faire capitalist who will whine about the socialism while she benefits from it.
snot
(10,538 posts)3. K&R'd. What all our lives cd be like, if
we didn't let the 1% scrape off most of the wealth we create.