All hoity toity now arentcha? We’re glad your quality of life improved. Dont assume just because moving to Germany was great for you, it would be everyone, not that you claimed that, but i will pretend you did and argue against that. It wouldn’t be so great for certain minorities, or any minority. Im a tone, handsome white male with a certain Germanic look, so, id be a perfect fit. Im what they consider an “übermench”.
not that you claimed that, but i will pretend you did and argue against that
uh, what?
For the record, I’m German, and I am like a haircut and some gym hours away from being able to play the SS officer in a ww2 movie. That and I probably lack the acting skills of a christoph waltz.
That being said, I don’t think anyone left of the center (and, therefore, realistically, anyone on lemmy) would disagree with you, I am not sure what you are trying to argue then. Yes, we have widespread casual and institutional racism. Sexism is also still a thing despite decades of efforts. Surprise, people here are people, so they subconsciously prefer good-looking people that look familiar. Our government is corrupt and conservative-populist, the government before it was corrupt and “liberal” (in the US sense), our economy is basically clinging to combustion engines because they missed the jump to EVs, right-wing extremists are on the rise and are already winning local elections, and every now and then someone commits something bad enough to make evening news. We’re selling weapons to everyone who asks, bonus points if you promise to only hit the bad civilians with them. Oh, and if I’m lucky, I won’t have to worry about climate change as I’ll bleed to death in a trench in Poland.
Yeah, shit sucks. But that is not an excuse to not clean your own house. I believe that there are many good things here that the US should take some inspiration from. Our healthcare system is a bloated mess, but it’s miles better than the US. Workers rights, tenants rights, the welfare system (or whatever is left of it after the neoliberals and conservatives took turns gutting it for 30 years), a somewhat sane multi-party voting system, half-decent separation of powers, a constitution that is more modern than the 18th century, the metric system, proper gun laws (even a bit too strict in my opinion), an expectation of public transport (excluding Deutsche Bahn, they can go fuck themselves), just to name a few.
So, to cut a long ramble short, saying “this country has some good things, we should look into them in that other country” and “this country is perfect, nothing is ever wrong here” are two completely different sentences.
Nope, I have never lived and worked for a longer time in the US, therefore, no first-hand experience. I have relatives who lived and still live in the US, and so far I haven’t heard anything to the contrary.
I did have the joy of almost having to pay a non-trivial hospital stay out of pocket here due to some insurance shenanigans, and a (iirc) 5-day stay with 3h surgery and a bunch of extras (due to “Privatversicherung” rates, difficulty, MRI, CT etc.) came out to less than 10k€. I don’t remember the actual costs, since in the end the insurances did finally agree on who had to pay, but it must have been something like 6-7k total. From what I heard, that is roughly similar to US out-of-pocket costs, except that due to insurance, I paid 0€.
If you have a good argument against my point, I’m happy to hear it. As I said, our health care system is a mess right now. The boomer generation retiring is going to make things very difficult. Bureaucracy is exploding, for several reasons. The two-class system with private and public insurance is disgusting bullshit and quite the opposite of what I believe “social democracy” should be.
I dont suppose I have an argument particularly. I can tell my experiences for what they are worth.
In 2015 I was in a traumatic car accident and a 3 month hospital stay, then 1 month physical rehab. I got a bill from the hospital for 250k, then a week later my insurance paid it. PHEW! So, I guess if I hadn’t had insurance id be paying that the rest of my life? Thats a terrible prospect. I also wonder, if I hadn’t had insurance, would i have got the same level of care in the hospital? I think maybe not… maybe.
Another story, this was like 20 years ago, but I was in Mexico and my thumb almost got chopped off my a machete… anyway, I went to the little clinic, and we called the Dr. Because he wasnt there at the moment, but he came in 10 minutes and cleaned and stitched the wound. He gave me antibiotics and it all cost me… 10$ cash!!
So, that said, if one wants good health care in America, one needs insurance.
I don’t know if I’m going for hoity toity, I apologize if I did. I will say I am going for, or experiencing and processing loudly, an angry place of “everything could be better if we got loud and violent” so there is a little intentionality to me being like “I got the same job at the same company in a different county and everything miraculously got better, imagine if you also formed a union and demanded things” or a basic and passive rebuttal to the "if you pay kitchen staff and waiters what they’re worth food prices would sky rocket and there’d be general anarchy and blah blah blah.
You’re right to say I wasn’t assuming it’d be better for everyone. I’m aware there is some problematic racism and sexism and classism here. That being said, statistically most people would be better off here even if dealing with those -ism’s. Not like the US doesn’t have its fair share of systemic and personal representations of those -ism’s. There’s plenty of Indian, Turkish, Asian, etc people here so it’s not exactly unlivable as you sorta suggest. Most people, regardless of color, religion, or sexuality do fine here and are safe. Always room for improvement and in this case (as in most countries everywhere right now) massive room. But that’s not here or there, I’m not recommending everyone move to Germany. I’m recommending everyone in the US read what I’m saying and realize that things could be drastically better and that it could happen overnight if the people fought for it. The fighting itself would take time of course, and this is an ideal thought experiment, but the point stands there is no reason the US doesn’t have an average of 30 paid holidays per worker, or free healthcare, or public transit, or or or… We have the technology and the money and will, we just need the power.
I agree, we should have free health, public transit thats worth a shit, free higher education. If it wasnt for greed, things could be/ would be so much better for everyone.
I live by Christian principles as much as I possibly can, and greed is obviously a cardinal destructive sin. Greed has been the root cause of so much suffering through out time and civilizations. Im always blessed and my needs are always met. I dont think its greedy to want to live nice and live comfortably, thats what God wants for us. He wants that we should be blessed more than we can even handle. But remember to have a giving spirit if God has given to you.
All hoity toity now arentcha? We’re glad your quality of life improved. Dont assume just because moving to Germany was great for you, it would be everyone, not that you claimed that, but i will pretend you did and argue against that. It wouldn’t be so great for certain minorities, or any minority. Im a tone, handsome white male with a certain Germanic look, so, id be a perfect fit. Im what they consider an “übermench”.
uh, what?
For the record, I’m German, and I am like a haircut and some gym hours away from being able to play the SS officer in a ww2 movie. That and I probably lack the acting skills of a christoph waltz.
That being said, I don’t think anyone left of the center (and, therefore, realistically, anyone on lemmy) would disagree with you, I am not sure what you are trying to argue then. Yes, we have widespread casual and institutional racism. Sexism is also still a thing despite decades of efforts. Surprise, people here are people, so they subconsciously prefer good-looking people that look familiar. Our government is corrupt and conservative-populist, the government before it was corrupt and “liberal” (in the US sense), our economy is basically clinging to combustion engines because they missed the jump to EVs, right-wing extremists are on the rise and are already winning local elections, and every now and then someone commits something bad enough to make evening news. We’re selling weapons to everyone who asks, bonus points if you promise to only hit the bad civilians with them. Oh, and if I’m lucky, I won’t have to worry about climate change as I’ll bleed to death in a trench in Poland.
Yeah, shit sucks. But that is not an excuse to not clean your own house. I believe that there are many good things here that the US should take some inspiration from. Our healthcare system is a bloated mess, but it’s miles better than the US. Workers rights, tenants rights, the welfare system (or whatever is left of it after the neoliberals and conservatives took turns gutting it for 30 years), a somewhat sane multi-party voting system, half-decent separation of powers, a constitution that is more modern than the 18th century, the metric system, proper gun laws (even a bit too strict in my opinion), an expectation of public transport (excluding Deutsche Bahn, they can go fuck themselves), just to name a few.
So, to cut a long ramble short, saying “this country has some good things, we should look into them in that other country” and “this country is perfect, nothing is ever wrong here” are two completely different sentences.
One question really
Is this a first hand experience or just what you have learned?
I mean, have you experienced US Healthcare first hand?
Nope, I have never lived and worked for a longer time in the US, therefore, no first-hand experience. I have relatives who lived and still live in the US, and so far I haven’t heard anything to the contrary.
I did have the joy of almost having to pay a non-trivial hospital stay out of pocket here due to some insurance shenanigans, and a (iirc) 5-day stay with 3h surgery and a bunch of extras (due to “Privatversicherung” rates, difficulty, MRI, CT etc.) came out to less than 10k€. I don’t remember the actual costs, since in the end the insurances did finally agree on who had to pay, but it must have been something like 6-7k total. From what I heard, that is roughly similar to US out-of-pocket costs, except that due to insurance, I paid 0€.
If you have a good argument against my point, I’m happy to hear it. As I said, our health care system is a mess right now. The boomer generation retiring is going to make things very difficult. Bureaucracy is exploding, for several reasons. The two-class system with private and public insurance is disgusting bullshit and quite the opposite of what I believe “social democracy” should be.
I dont suppose I have an argument particularly. I can tell my experiences for what they are worth.
In 2015 I was in a traumatic car accident and a 3 month hospital stay, then 1 month physical rehab. I got a bill from the hospital for 250k, then a week later my insurance paid it. PHEW! So, I guess if I hadn’t had insurance id be paying that the rest of my life? Thats a terrible prospect. I also wonder, if I hadn’t had insurance, would i have got the same level of care in the hospital? I think maybe not… maybe.
Another story, this was like 20 years ago, but I was in Mexico and my thumb almost got chopped off my a machete… anyway, I went to the little clinic, and we called the Dr. Because he wasnt there at the moment, but he came in 10 minutes and cleaned and stitched the wound. He gave me antibiotics and it all cost me… 10$ cash!!
So, that said, if one wants good health care in America, one needs insurance.
I don’t know if I’m going for hoity toity, I apologize if I did. I will say I am going for, or experiencing and processing loudly, an angry place of “everything could be better if we got loud and violent” so there is a little intentionality to me being like “I got the same job at the same company in a different county and everything miraculously got better, imagine if you also formed a union and demanded things” or a basic and passive rebuttal to the "if you pay kitchen staff and waiters what they’re worth food prices would sky rocket and there’d be general anarchy and blah blah blah.
You’re right to say I wasn’t assuming it’d be better for everyone. I’m aware there is some problematic racism and sexism and classism here. That being said, statistically most people would be better off here even if dealing with those -ism’s. Not like the US doesn’t have its fair share of systemic and personal representations of those -ism’s. There’s plenty of Indian, Turkish, Asian, etc people here so it’s not exactly unlivable as you sorta suggest. Most people, regardless of color, religion, or sexuality do fine here and are safe. Always room for improvement and in this case (as in most countries everywhere right now) massive room. But that’s not here or there, I’m not recommending everyone move to Germany. I’m recommending everyone in the US read what I’m saying and realize that things could be drastically better and that it could happen overnight if the people fought for it. The fighting itself would take time of course, and this is an ideal thought experiment, but the point stands there is no reason the US doesn’t have an average of 30 paid holidays per worker, or free healthcare, or public transit, or or or… We have the technology and the money and will, we just need the power.
I agree, we should have free health, public transit thats worth a shit, free higher education. If it wasnt for greed, things could be/ would be so much better for everyone.
I live by Christian principles as much as I possibly can, and greed is obviously a cardinal destructive sin. Greed has been the root cause of so much suffering through out time and civilizations. Im always blessed and my needs are always met. I dont think its greedy to want to live nice and live comfortably, thats what God wants for us. He wants that we should be blessed more than we can even handle. But remember to have a giving spirit if God has given to you.