Many Americans don't really understand that Europe is capitalist. I mean modern capitalism was born in Europe. It isn't an American invention. It definitely is America's passion, though.
@@Keksemann666 but that’s not the point of the comment nor of the video. It’s like me saying I like apples because they taste so good and you saying, hey oranges taste good as well. While your statement is not wrong (subjectively) it has nothing to do with the initial statement
And a sixth reason: a lot of the big companies in Germany are still family-owned and not on the stock market. So they were able to make better long-term decisions and save from hedgefonds trying to suck out every dollar out of the company. But this changes, too.
and if you want to be a little cynical, you could add that German companies in family hands all sympathized with the National Socialists, or were Nazis themselves.
Same in Austria! I know the owner of Europes biggest (card/family-) game company because our kids go to the same school and they want to keep it family owned too! Despite their market being not just Europe but the US. I think it’s a good „trend“!
"Wait, your guys's minimum wage actually goes up? Oh my God, what an interesting concept" - meaning, in the USA, the minimum wage is steadily decreasing?! I almost dropped the hammer and sickle from my hand when I heard that!
In Denmark children have had to be educated for 7 years since 1814. It was after the state bankruptcy if 1813, and the saying goes the then king Frederik VI stated that "just because we're poor doesn't mean we have to be stupid too" 🤭👑
Germany is 8 years, but usually if only the lowest possible grad with 8 years is possible (like special ed) they add another one or two years that are structured like training in trades, to have kids being 16 like everyone else before entering actual work force as trainee. The regular graduation is after 10 years, most common is abitur after 12 years.
Primary Education started in Germany in the 18th century already, children were mandated to go to school in the Kingdom of Prussia in the second half of the 18th century, even though the plan behind that was to keep the children from working in the fields, so that they could become soldiers later. This changed during the Prussian Reforms in the first decade of the 19th century, when the educational focus became much clearer.
What is ALWAYS forgotten to mention about German school education is that you can always get a higher education. For example, if you went to the "worst" school, you can go to a higher school afterwards. For example, I also had problems at school as a child. The older I got, the better I got, which is why I went to a higher school afterwards.
Yeah but like the Eurovision Song Contest we try to win the race to the bottom in the school „Pisa test“ which assesses the level of knowledge of pupils.
@@koaschten That's because most people write on their phones with the autocorrect. I notice it myself that I sometimes have to think about how to write something, etc. Most people just don't feel like learning anything anymore. And in Germany, the security is so good that many people don't feel like working anymore - unemployment benefit, etc. In other countries that don't have that, you have to learn and work otherwise you'll have nothing to eat or a place to live. Nevertheless, our system is there so that if you get better later or learn how to learn properly for yourself, you have the opportunity to catch up. So if you put in the will and effort, you can still achieve it later.
To put the 4th point into perspective here's a little anecdote: I grew up in Germany as the second child in a poor middle class single parent household. I started educating myself in software development at the age of 11, got my first job in the field at 14 while I was still in school. I graduated at 17 and immediately joined the work-force as a software engineer. Two years later I enrolled at a distance university while working full-time and got my bachelors degree in BIS three years later, the same year I founded my own company. With the profits I kept my mom afloat until retirement and bought her a flat. Until this day I've never taken on a single loan. That's why cheap access to education is so important, without it my vita would have likely ended in that single parent household 😑
@@Schokelmei to change that it maybe would be a good idea to let the state found the schools and not the towns and comunities, so the education is not depentent on the twon your school is in. Then every school could get a simular founding and therefore more equal oportunities in reforming and modernizing.
In 1592, the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken (German: Herzogtum Pfalz-Zweibrücke) was the first territory in the world to introduce compulsory education for girls and boys.
10:37 Exactly! Thank you, I was looking for this comment! And in 1538 the first Gymnasium (grammar school) in Europe along with an exemplary school system was in Strasbourg which was part of Germany. It was under the influence of Strasbourg, that the first compulsory education for girls and boys in the world was introduced in the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken in 1592. It was actually not appreciated by the parents because they wanted their children to work in the fields and not be in school. xD
For most Germans the first loan they take is for a house, maybe a nice car. I don't know any German who would take a loan on a holiday or just miscellaneous things - it also is frowned upon buying stuff you cannot buy out of pocket. "If you can't afford it now, then save for it for a later date"
"Don't buy what u can't afford (to pay)." is the version i grew up with. It's crazy to think to go into debt for a vacation or other small things. Car? Sure increases mobility and "range" to work, and kinda necessary in rural areas. House? Well those things are not exactly cheap if done right, and can be a multi generational investment on top. But a vacation?
The biggest difference between a car or house and a vacation is that the money isn't consumed. Even after you spend the money, you now have the house or car, the value of which should be at least the amount you borrowed. So technically taking out a loan for a house or car doesn't put you in the red.
@@BunjiKugashira42 well most cars lose too much value to be direct type of value stabiblity but it increase your Option on the employee market so if you not in fancy cars it maybe translate in an surplus if you find a good payed job where you would be not able to take without it
@@asasdad1041 Only new cars loose that much value that quickly. If you buy a used car, the devaluation is pretty stable. So for new cars you need a considerable downpayment out of your own pocket. The repayment of the loan should then be planned, so that the car (despite devaluation) is always worth more than the remaining loan. You should also have insurance on the car that covers at least the size of the loan. If you can't afford the downpayment or the amount of repayment, then you can't afford that car. Look for a cheaper one.
@@BunjiKugashira42 well by used cars you can have the case that repairs and maitannces exceed the value of the value of the car. at best you know HOw to fix the car yourself. i do not know how an insurance would help there i know no insurance that covers normal maitanence failues only maniufactures garuntees up a specific usage limit too repari it and thats mostly for their new cars/checked by their mechanics and resold directly from Them . for me cars are tools to get from a to B no something in would say would be good in fixing my money value in by simpling usage vaule lost +maintances i would say you lose more money on cars since i have 0 mechanicals skills to fix it myself so maitance exceed the money lost on inflation oppose i do not use a car
@@itskyansaro It's easier in a bigger city, because you'll get Wohngeld for the high rent. If you live in a small village you'll get less Wohngeld, but you do need a car to get to work, which is much more expensive than the Deutschlandticket. And there is no support for the costs of the car.
@@itskyansarothat is why I don't get why the people want to be there. It is far more comfortable to live in a mid sized town somewhere for less than 1000€ a month for everything (rent, energy, food and if you really have to an affordable car) why do I know it is possible because at my university most students live like this. In our city the student dorms for 200€ to 250€ per month (this includes water, heating, electricity and internet) are on the more expensive site per square meter. But directly attached i.e. 100m to the campus. If you say using the bicycle 1,5 km to university every day is ok for you, you can get 35 m² for 400€ ish with everything.
What people most of the time don't really get when talking about taxes is: you're not getting 60.000 Euros from the companys payment of 120.000 Euros. You get aaaaall these services (social and other), infrastructure, education, etc etc as well. And they are worth a LOT! So you walk home with money in your pocket, but you walk on a road that you can actually walk on. If you break your leg during this walk - you're covered. And you can really focus on getting healthy again because you don't have to worry about hospital bills, your student loan that you're still paying back, how much money you have to put aside so your kids can go to college as well.... You get the point? 😉
Yup, road infrastructure, public transport, education, police, fire fighting, and much more is paid (or at least subsidized) with taxes. Healthcare is just a very small part of it.
It is not 50% TAXES it is DEDUCTION. That’s a difference. Part of it is health care, part is Rentenversicherung (pension plan), part is Arbeitslosenversicherung so you‘ll have an income when you’re unemployed.
Yes, free education is an investment that pays off. The better educated a person is, the better the job, the more the taxes he pays over his whole professional life.
And if you lost your job, you receive money for the until you find a new one. In all cases you have a health insurance! That’s a additional reason that taxes in Europe are also higher.
The German education system is divided into three tiers, but it remains very transparent and permeable even after completion of education. I am the perfect example of this. At the age of 14, I finished my schooling with completion of elementary school. Due to family reasons, I had to pursue an apprenticeship and learned cooking. I dropped out of this apprenticeship because, as I will explain shortly, it did not align with my talents. I then learned the trade of radio and television technician, which I practiced for about 4 years. After that, the German state gave me the opportunity to obtain my intermediate school-leaving certificate (BAS) and then I was also allowed to obtain my high school diploma (BOS). During this time, I received financial support from the state, enabling me to focus on school. After obtaining my high school diploma, I began studying computer science and mathematics at the Technical University of Munich, which I successfully completed. I then obtained a doctoral position at the Technical University of Munich and completed this study with a Ph.D. The German state indeed endeavors to foster talents, and it does so with great success.
@@hessidave Ja, ich hätte mich um eine Professur bewerben können (Darmstadt Fachhochschule), ich habe dann aber lieber eine recht erfolgreiche Unternehmung in Italien gegründet, (SuSE Italia).
4:57 Wait a second... I know this shop. It's in Tübingen, right in the middle of Baden-Württemberg. 5:21 also Tübingen, in front of the town hall. And a quote by Robert Bosch:"I don't pay good wages because I'm rich, I'm rich because I pay good wages."
Wasn't it Ford who decided to increase the wages after his car was so successful? Which makes sense. A well paid worker is more eager to go to work. A well paid worker wants to stay wit the company. When workers stay, you don't have to train new workers all the time. If I were a boss and an applicant would flat out declare "I'm here because you pay your workers." they get a point in my book, because they're honest. I want them to do work. They want to work because I pay them for it.
A very important point is the high end German vocation system for non academic jobs. No matter if you are want to become a bakerman, mason, electrician, plumber or hair stylist for example - You have to pass an apprenticeship of regularely three years in a company which has a person with a "Meistertitel" (kind of masters degree for craftsmen who is additionally trained in business administration and pedagogy to be allowed to run a company) to train you PLUS almost theoretical training in specified vocational school classes. The scedules and final exams are unified and done by an independend chamber and the state, so the level and content of education is comparable in every company and employees can easily find a job in another company if they want or need to.
Obwohl es immer noch deutliche Unterschiede von Bundesland zu Bundeslan gibt.... Although there are still significant differences from state to state...
@@christophkagermeier6417 Auf jeden Fall. Nicht auszudenken, wie es mit der Qualität bergab gegangen wäre, hätten gewisse Kräfte in der Regierung Schröder hier ihren Kahlschlag durchgesetzt mit ihren Visionen von staatlichen Berufsbildungszentren zur Umgehung der bösen Betriebe bei der Ausbildung... Sie haben damals dennoch z. B. mit Abschaffung der Meisterpflicht, etwa im Fliesenlegerhandwerk, schon genug Schaden angerichtet. Keine Meister, keine Ausbildung => Fachkräftemangel, "Ich-AG"-Pfuscher, Umgehung von Sozialabgaben dadurch und als Resultat oft Schwarzarbeit und Pleiten mangels betriebswirtschaftlicher Ausbildung. War von allen mitdenkenden Menschen auch so antizipiert gewesen und alles hat sich leider so bewahrheitet wie damals an die Politiker geschrieben - aber Rot und Grün bauen in ihrer Wirtschafts- und Bildungsferne, Naivität und geistigen Unbedarftheit immer erst Scheiße und wundern sich dann hinterher über das vorhersehbare Ergebnis und die Konsequenzen...
@@reinhard8053You get paid here as well. Only ergo therapists have to pay for their education. But in Germany you can't open a company in that sector without having a Meister title.
Germans are not entirely against debts, there are things that are seen as worth going into dept for them. Buying or building a house is way up on that List👌🏽
@@quark1010_ Very political of you... but it isn't really the best idea to go deeply into debt with the nation neighter... this brings short term relieve but long term a lot of problems and less money...
@@ContinuumGaming to forbid investions with debt is quite stupid to be frankly. thats the problem. After covid and now would have been the best time for investments from the side of the state to power the economy. But because of the black zero, its not possible and now we have a declining economy.
As a German, the crazy thing about our economy is, I find, that you can go to any small, unremarkable German town of 10,000 to 50,000 people. It can be in the middle of nowhere. Within that town there will be at least one company that is among the world leaders in some very specific technology. And that company will be more than 100 years old and have had several generations of the same family not just owning it but also working for it on the factory floor.
As George Carlin put it, "the companies and super rich want a population just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, but not educated enough to be capable of critical thinking."
@@alidemirbas6566 Not just science, but education. Your facts reach you trough the glasses of your personal ideology if you're not educated. If you for example didn't learn to overcome your own poor opinions and then to follow difficult thoughts of writers smarter than yourself. (((I'm not talking about people who don't even accept facts as true - they will one day realize that if they make their intellectual Doppelgänger to a chosen godlike figure, it will have horrendous long-term effects. Meanwhile they are flying high and are delighted that all intelligent people are afraid of their idol, afraid and worried about THE WORLD)))
@@alidemirbas6566 Not just science, but education. Your facts reach you trough the glasses of your personal ideology if you're not educated. If you for example didn't learn to overcome your own poor opinions and then to follow difficult thoughts of writers smarter than yourself. (((I'm not talking about people who don't even accept facts as true - they will one day realize that if they make their intellectual Doppelgänger to a chosen godlike figure, it will have horrendous long-term effects. Meanwhile they are flying high and are delighted that all intelligent people are afraid of their idol, afraid and worried about THE WORLD)))
Yeah, I still remember watching "Beverly Hills 90210" back then and how "she pretends to live with her grandmother so she can go to the good school" shocked me. Today people in bigger cities might try to get their kids in a school with less children with migration background, but the difference in the education + equipment of schools isn't that big.
Seperating children into 3 types of school sounds pretty drastic at first, but you have to understand 2 things: Firstly they're not stuck in that path. If they excell in a "lower" schoolform, they absolutely can change to the other types or the other way around, and even when they're done with Realschule or Hauptschule, they can do the additional 2 years in the "highest" form of school afterwards to still earn their Abitur (the diploma you need for uni). Secondly: If it becomes clear that a child will never go to university, they can focus their education more towards other fields that will be more relevant to their later worklife instead of being forced to learn things designed to prepare for university courses they'll never attend anyway. They obviously will get a solid education in all fields at the "lower" schoolforms too, but they'll not need to dive into higher mathematics for instance. Additionally the "lower" schoolforms end 2 years earlier, giving the graduates a head start into the Jobmarket where they can do a Ausbildung to become a Master of their chosen craft and start to earn money right away. This makes for a situation where at the age when germans who went to university first enter the jobmarket without any practical experience, the germans who went the Ausbildung-route already have years of experience in their field, earned money the whole way and stand in life with both feet firmly on the ground. That is the idea, it obviously doesn't always work out this way for everyone, but that's why the system is designed this way.
They can change. But it's a complicated PITA process and you might need to redo a year. But most importantly whatever your grades are in 4th year does not reflect at all how you will be 4 years later. It simply does not make anysense except to cement class based differentiation. (Even teachers knowing that will give a child of academics more likely a Gymnasium path then a worker/social security family child, even though they have the same grades)
That is straight up bullsh*t. Typical elitist, talking about his privileged position. You are 9 years old and some people decide on your grades if you will go to university or not. That literally changes your life. The idea that you can simply swap is too idealisitic. Of course it possible, but reality and theory are very different. I would argue every single day that the main reason for the splitting is the support of the parents. If your parents are academics, you will go to the better form. If you are raised by a single mother, you will go to the worst. Your friends in school will have the same situation at home and it is basically impossible to leave the maze because no one in your school actually thinks about anything else. It is rarely because of intelligence per se. The German school system is old-fashioned, it discriminates against the poor and the uneducated families. Elitists who would be going to the worst school if they did not have such a privileged situation at home are certainly talking about how fair the system is, just to make themselves feel like they accomplished something. In most cases, you did not accomplish anything.
I view our school system as a relict from the past, designed for three social classes, with upper class children expected to got to uni, middle class children become office clerks or doctor's assistants and lower class children learning to do handy work (my grandpa actually left school pretty early to start working in a mine, I think no one would have ever expected him to go to uni, this probably would have been a ridiculous thought even). It's just that no one seems to have bothered to change it. The possibility to leave the boundaries of your class was probably added later on. But it's a well known fact that children from poor/"socially weak" families still are given a bad start and are basically discriminated against within the system. With inclusion and such, kids with learning difficulties or mental problems might have a better chance nowadays, but back in my school days... well, good luck, or good night, whatever. I personally prefer a system where kids aren't separated according to their alleged social potential and am glad there are at least Gesamtschulen available as kind of an alternative.
@@kingofmontechristo So what would suggest the US system where you have to pay through the nose to get your child an education then become bankrupt as a parent after kindergarten? Isn't that beneficial to elites as well they just put their kids in the best schools as well ?
There is a swabian (south germany) saying: "Schaffe, Schaffe Häusle baue" which means "Work, Work and build a house" which is part of (not only the south german) mentality. So work hard and you can built your live - while alot of others live like "Build a house, and than just work as hard as you really need to to pay the dept".
@@Schokelmei working hard makes rich. even with a normal job, if you live cheap you can save up to a house before youre 30. especially if your parents are invested in you and dont kick you out the moment you have a job.
@@rey6708 You guys are kinda both right here^^. True, if you have a good career going, you can buy a decent sized house (depending on region) with only money from your labor. However, you wont ever get "rich" through labor alone. And yes, statistically, the highest indicator of financial success, both in germany and the US, is already having a lot of wealth through your family. This coupled with the fact that taxation on money from labor us much higher than taxation on money made from other money (interest, compound interest, owning company shares, etc.), that old saying "making millions is easy, only the first one is really hard" still hold true.
@@random.3665 if you think having millions on your bank account is when youre rich youre wrong. having enough money to live a good life makes you rich, having assets that your children inherit makes you rich. everything more than that is unnecessary wealth that nobody should ever be allowed to possess.
By the way, in Germany we call our economy the "social market economy", which is essentially capitalism. However, as a complement, we have a social system in place to ensure that everyone receives similar good education, healthcare, and retirement provisions. This is why we have higher taxes and additional social contributions. This also means that the higher contributions ultimately benefit the taxpayer themselves to a large extent, and in the end, they are generally better and more affordably provided for than if they had to pay for these services individually but with fewer social contributions. At least, that's the idea behind this system. So yes, taxes and socoal contributions are much higher, but in my opinion, the money is very well spent. And yes, that's just my opinion, but I believe that the measure of how good a society is lies in how well the poorest members of that society are faring and in the opportunities available for individuals to achieve prosperity. After all, the wealthy will naturally always fare very well; that has been the case already in monarchy and feudalism alike.
Taxes vs. gross/net: don't confuse gross/net with taxes. In Germany, net income is not only after taxes, but also after health insurance and other stuff (health insurance cost is a percentage of your gross income, capped somewhere). Other countries may have a tax funded health care system, which technically implies higher taxes, and still the gross/net difference could be less.
Honestly i agree that the "sorting system" of children at that young age into like different schools based off of their "knowledge" seems rather controversial AT FIRST, but you can still make it big even if you got sorted into the lowest. I for example remember my parents always telling me to do good in school in the first 4 grades so i get sorted into a good school but i used to be very lazy back then so i got sorted into the lowest one where you basically get teached to become like a carpenter or something but i really did not like that idea so later in 7th grade i started to work harder for it and after finishing in that school i had the opportunity to go to the next higher one to get better education. I finished that too and at the end i now study computer sience at university. So even if you get sorted into the lowest at first, it's not like you will never be able to do anything else.
My brother did the same. He finished with straight As and can now even afford to take less money but work 4 days a week. It felt weird to choose my destiny at age 10, though.
I would've preferred if they did it after 6th grade instead of 4th grade. And for a while it worked like that. There was the Orientierungsstufe, grade 5 and 6, and that worked pretty well. Kids at the age of 10 don't really know what they (realistically) want to do in life. Their wished professions are things like astronaut or policeman or stuff like that.
The video says that Germany kept its patents after the Second World War, but I know that there were patents that Germany lost and that other countries simply took.
The German patents have been taken after WW2 by the USA and Britain as war reparations. As result the German inustry needed new inventions and the new inventions have been better than the old ones wich are than used by the USA and Britain. For example, Mercedes already built a car with fuel direct injection in the early 1950s, the 300SL Gullwing (3l in-line six-cylinder with 215 hp). In the USA, this performance required a V8 big block carburetor engine with a displacement of over 6 liters.
I was taught from a young age: "Don't spend more money than you have. Always put something aside for a rainy day." Borrowing money was always uncomfortable because it felt like you weren't strong and successful enough to fulfill your own desires and goals. Work harder, save longer. All it takes is a little more time to fulfill something, not more debts, because you have to pay them back, it just postpones the problem. And that is a deep, integral part of our culture and society. My 4 year old son saves every cent he gets from us or from grandma and grandpa. Most of the time it's small change, change that just gets in the way in your wallet. He always says, "Thank you. Then I can soon buy a really big toy and not just a small one." Greetings from Germany ;)
In Germany there is a good training system for every job you want to learn for three to five years, whereby you also have to attend vocational school twice a week. Once you have completed your training you have more opportunities to find a job.🙂🐰🐇
Very good video from Visual Economic, BUT as a german living in germany, I have to totally disagree with the point about depts. One huuuuge problem we have right now are missing investments into infrastructure. And by this I am not talking about streets, I am talking about schools, kindergardens and the technical infrastructure for all institutions. And the goverment/parliament not allowing itself to go into debt for future investments is THE worst thing one could possibly do (as shown in the video itself its inevitable for future success). I only stated the parliament as well since a change of this specific law would require 2/3 majority, which the current goverment doesnt have. Germans are also not allergic to depts in general but it depends on the kind of depts. Going in dept for longterm investments (buying plot of land, house, apartment, new kitchen for 20k etc.) is totally ok for everyone I know (if you can afford the monthly repayment rate as well as the interest charges, that has obviously to be calculated). But going in dept for small stuff like a new refrigerator while the old still works or daily stuff is unwise as long as its not necessary. Either you can afford it or you cant. Also even though germany has so many hidden champions (companies leading in a specific marketsector while no one knows them actually) right know it feels that we lack in knowledge and entrepreneurship in the "quite" important tech industry. Which may have been caused by all those bureaucracy about setting up a business hindering innovations. For example: It took the big car companies so long to "re"-invent electric cars, that a chinese law from the early 2010s about a quota for electric car sales compared to combustion cars brought them all in outrage. (Which brought me, being 17 at the time at a huge outrage ;D) And since some big german companies got in my eyes to comfortable with their situation they oversaw the upcoming trends and needed to catch up hard. I think and hope, that they managed to do that. But as far as I know it mostly happened via buying start-ups, since they were so hard behind. I know its usual to by a working start up for big companies since you avoid all the risks, but not after a huge market has already developed, there you should already be in possession of those start-up ideas and shape the market yourself. Which was and is the german quality in engineering.
The reasoning "We don't want to go into debt, we have to think of the next generation" is very short-sighted - the next generation will have to spend tons of money to invest in repairing/upgrading infrastructure, which will probably be much more expensive than doing it now.
@@UtamagUta not necessarily, since you buy the car you leased. The loss of value is 50% in the first 3 years. So just lease it for a few years, then buy it.
Another reason is a functioning healthcare system where people are neither afraid of calling in sick (actually encouraged to do so in order not to spread germs) nor afraid of getting a huge bill for going to the doctor since medically necessary treatments are free or just cost a nominal fee like 5 or 10 Euro. A healthy population can also be productive.
Not really. In my experience, in case of buying a house it's one of the few occasions where it's pretty much accepted to go into dept and most people even aspire to this. The reason many don't do that is simply that you just can't afford it (you don't get the credit, except you want to live in a remote village with some hillbillies).
@@armin5577 Buying a house or financing a car are the two main factors for loan financing. Unfortunately, many people forget that the installment purchase for electronics or furniture made in a store or in an online retail business is also a loan and, yes, this installment payment is also reported to Schufa. Since the financial crisis of 2008, lending guidelines have been significantly tightened, especially for long-term loans (mortgages ~ a total of around 30 years), and the so-called disposable income shrinks with every price increase in the cost of living.
Amazing that a discussion is even possible about German economic recovery after WW2 without going into the Marshall Plan and the subsequent forgiveness by the US of 2/3 of this debt.
That has a reason. It is higly debated how much the Marshall Plan even did for Europe. Yeah, it helped a bit. But most experts say the after-war boom would have happened anyway. And it wasn't 2/3 of the debt that was forgiven by the US. They gave Westgermany 1.4 Billion and they paid back 1 Billion. Which is less than 1/3 forgiveness of debt after more than 40 years of paying it back.
I would like to explain the family reasons a little more. There are two reasons for this. Reason number one: There were five of us at home, my father was a civil servant and at the time the saying "a civil servant's jacket is tight but warm" was still the norm, money and especially living space were scarce at the time and so my father decided that only one of us would be allowed to study, the other four should leave the nest as soon as possible. Reason number two: I was the renegade, the apostate, the black sheep in the family. My nickname was "Olaf, the destroyer" because I immediately took apart any and all toys. Unfortunately not just my toys, but also those of my siblings. I also ran away from home twice. I was picked up once in Cannes and the other time in Berlin. Considering that we lived in Rosenheim at the time, I got pretty far back then. However: With this CV, the choice could not have fallen on me. So at the young age of 14 I was sent to Reit im Winkl to do an apprenticeship as a chef, a place high up in the Alps and far from home. But even there I started to improve some kitchen appliances by taking them apart and sometimes not being able to put them back together. I still remember the huge automatic potato peeling machine well. I then learned the trade of radio and television technician, which I also completed with a journeyman's certificate. I then emigrated to Australia and tried to teach myself the secrets of mathematics by self-study. It was only supposed to be a holiday, but after five years I returned to Germany and read in a newspaper that you could now get your intermediate school leaving certificate with state funding. I couldn't resist. I called Mr. Les Free, my boss at the TCN9 TV station in Sydney, and told him that I probably wouldn't be coming back. And you know the rest. High school diploma, university degree and doctoral studies graduating with a Ph.D.
My grandma once told me, i always should have 3 times my wage always accessible in my bank account. The rest I should invest or buy nice things. This way in emergencies like a broken car or something I can always pay that with my money in the bank account and don't have to take debts. Smart lady.
Fact: The French sometimes call Germans the "Bosch", because the Bosch logo used to be on so many products from Germany since such a long time ago...😅 ...super iconic German company!
Sorry to have to contradict you, but that's not where the term Boches comes from. "Les boches" is a derisive term used by the Allies during World War I, often collectively ("the Boche" meaning "the Germans"). It is a shortened form of the French slang portmanteau alboche, itself derived from Allemand ("German") and caboche ("head" or "cabbage"). Boche was first used in the underworld of Paris about 1860, with the meaning of a disagreeable, troublesome fellow. In the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 it was not applied to the Germans, but soon afterward it was applied by the Parisian printers to their German assistants because of the reputed slowness of comprehension of these foreign printers. The epithet then used was tête de boche, which had the meaning of tête carrée d'Allemand (German blockhead or imbécile). The next step was to apply boche to Germans in general. The company Robert Bosch GmbH was founded later, in 1887. ;)
A fellow German here ... not fact: the "Boche" word is explained in several documentaries about World War 1 even in German (I remember at least one series by the ZDF, where it was stated that this means something similar to "Holzkopf"/"Block Head") even if the explanation is shorter than that of @Frenchie100. You can also read it in the German Wikipedia article "Boche". So I have to agree to with him on this topic. Just because "Bosch" and "Boche" do sound the same, doesn't mean it shares the origin.
@@FinsthaI did just copy&paste the wiki entry! ;) As a dual nationality French&German growing up in France, I did make good use of both words sounding the same: I remember another young kid "insulting me" by telling me "sale boche!" (f'ing / dreckiger boche!) many years ago, and I was very glad that my older brother had taught me what to reply: just mimick the widely known French Bosch commercial slogan: "Bosch, du travail de pro!" ("Bosch, expert's work"/"Bosch, Arbeit von Profis") :) Check "Publicité Bosch 1994" on daily motion if you want to hear the badass voice in the original! ;)
The school system in Germany is not perfect and not really fair. But if you really want to and make an effort, anyone can achieve anything. Even as an adult, you always have opportunities to improve. I started a new apprenticeship two years ago for health reasons and I'm currently doing my Bachelor's degree alongside my work. Incidentally, I was previously a truck driver and I'll be 50 in May. 😅
Depends on what you call fair. If you are a bright mind you get the best chances in a system like that, and that is fair. If for some reason you bloom late, you can switch to a higher school and get the same advantages. I would not call it fair for people wanting education, putting effort in and having the natural ability (which sadly isn't evenly distributed for all people) to give up their great education so you can sit next to them. Its not like the lower levels were bad and people couldn't get good jobs.
@@charis6311 It's about "fairness" being a relative aspect in our education system. Streamlining all 3 into one to make it fair would hurt everyone outside the middle. So you'd have high IQ people most likely being bored to make the lower IQ feel better. (Sidenote that IQ doesn't mean you have to be a total dumbass, just shows difference in cognitive abilities.)
Yeah but one of the Problems of the free higher Education is that germany nowadays has a big shortage on craftsman of all areas because Most people wanna go to universities
And because a lot of smaller companies and tradespeople are quite resistant to change regarding working environment and atmosphere. Treating an apprentice like an idiot or slave, disregarding labor protection laws etc. - there are reasons why young people often prefer to work in a factory: regulated work hours and income, unionized etc.
Not really. The education system has been around longer than the shortage. People simply saw their parents work for small money with a big physical impact and don't want the same for themselves. Then there's also a resistance to "modernise" their thinking, like taking the opinion of an apprentice as automatically less than their senior coworker. Nobody likes to work and possibly work more without feeling appreciated or have some second reenactment of bullying in school.
Putting a shit-ton more money into education and access to education in the US would pretty much fix all the problems we have today. But no, banning books, putting restrictions on free speech and the freedom of choice is more important. At this point I'd gladly even pay more in taxes here in Germany if it went into improving your education system.
The most important aspect has been omitted. Diligence, honesty and work ethic. Just compare the quality of finishing of buildings in Germany and the UK.
Houses are one of the few exceptions for many germans for debt because the dept is usually secure, but most germans woudln't buy christmas presents or a vacation on loan. But houses: yeah. We don't have that much houses because they are very expensive and the bureaucracy around building and buying houses are a nightmare (there was a saying: the comlexity of the chinese emperors bureaucracy was a joke compared to the complexety of prussia ... and we germans are, from an adminstration standpoint still prussians ... sorry bavarians, but it's true)
Having complex laws isn't neccessarily bad. For tax law f.e. it is said, that 80% of the world's literature about taxes regards german tax law. But thats not because it's "complex" or "difficult" - its the same "add this, minus that, choose from these varieties" as everyone else, just.. more detailed and with less loop holes. There's a reason it took into the 90s before american hedgefonds could destroy social housing in germany or into the 2010th before China fell into bigger businesses and even f' Bezos rather hangs around whatever "eUrOpeAn hEadQuArTeR" he takes, where he pays as little taxes as possible or can evade them by designed loopholes (and plays shti with VAT, I really really hate verything about the one-stop-shti, drop-shop-shti and every other VAT-nightmare)
@@blatterrascheln2267 it is understandable that they want to evade taxes. Imagine earning 10 million euro and you have to pay 5 million for taxes. That is straight up theft. Have you watched The Walking Dead? The season where Negan forces everyone to pay him a little bit of their resources regularly for protection? That is straight up the same things except that some things are more useful like infrastructure, but the idea that you force somebody to participate in it, it is theft.
@@kingofmontechristo I suspect that there are many people who pay for Christmas presents and holidays in credit cards which they cannot pay off completely at the end of the month - effectively a loan, but this is much more likely to be the case in the USA or GB than it is in Germany. That is the point that the OP was making. (I have lived in both Germany and GB, so do have a good insight into the different attitudes to saving and debt).
26:22 Bosch is not only a German company, but Bosch also improved a chemical procedure invented by Haber ~1900s to sythesise ammonia efficiently, which resulted in artificial fertilizer being commonly available. Haber was also the "father of toxic gas" during WW1, which is often forgotten, but without him and Bosch, most people would not be alive today.
It is good that setting up a buisness is difficult. That means much less scam buisnesses and much more people REALLY think about if their business will work before opening another crappy shop that goes broke in 2 weeks.
The marshal plan wasn’t the real reason because UK and France also benefits from that. The difference was, Germany focused on civil goods while the other focused on rebuilding the military. Also Germany used the money to create a bank that would lend money will small interest rates to firms and private ppl and this bank still exists with the original money pit into it. Also the high education plays a role. With the debts, in Germany you go into debts normally only if you buy a house, apartment or a car. Not for other consumer goods.
Nowadays I‘d say a big majority of kids go to highschool/gymnasium. Because in Germany people think that everyone else is stupid. I used to give private tutor lessons in Switzerland and all of the German immigrant families tried to get their kids to pass the highschool entry exam so hard, anything else was not an option. In Switzerland only a small percentage passes this exam, most do apprenticeships and they are definitely not regarded as lesser anything. I also had many students that moved here and started in highschool bc in Germany they had visited highschool too but most dropped out because the level was higher. This three tier system was definitely loosened up, there are now too many students going to highschool (Gymnasium) who would be better off doing something else. Also lots of ‚Problemschulen‘ with too many unintegrated immigrants are a problem too. The PISA study results for Germany were unsurprisingly bad. I feel like they are about to loose their biggest asset and instead of preserving education they welcome this change.
Interessant, dass du die Schulen so vergleichst. Ich schreibe mal Deutsch.. Früher waren Realschulen und Hauptschulen in Deutschland auch ok oder angesehen. Handwerker war ein absolut angemessenes Berufsziel. Aber seit der Agenda 2010 und Hartz IV und dem damit verbundenen harten Konkurrenzkampf, den die meisten mit Abstieg in die Unterschicht verlieren, ist so ein Druck da. Bei euch kann immer noch fast jeder von seinem Einkommen leben, auch ohne Akademiker zu sein. Und daher ist logischerweise auch eine Schule für Nichtakademiker eine Option. Man kann Schulen nicht von ihrer Gesellschaft isoliert betrachten.
A lot of people in Germany are complaining about the high taxes and social security/health insurance costs (and from the plain figures, they are right) but honestly, when I realize how well maintained the infrastructure (yes, there are exceptions), safe living, extraordinary good healthcare, education and security is, I am glad to contribute!
@@ericm.8110_Your_ Germany ist not the Germans Germany. You Putin lover should maybe think about building your home somewhere else since you will NEVER get the politics you want over here. There is enough space in the east.
it's just that we like to complain. We complain about everything. We complain about how our trains are always late, when we have one of the best public transport networks in the world. (After perhaps the swiss and japanese) We complain about high taxes, but also gladly use all the tax-provided services and are fine with having them. We complain about the weather, but we have neither crazy heatwaves, floods, hurricanes or tornadoes. Or at least not nearly as bad as many other places in the world. All of those things exist in sort of a very tame version. We complain how bad education is and how bad we do in international statistics, when we are still around spot 20, which makes is part of the top 10% in the world.
@@ericm.8110 Schauen Sie doch einfach mal in die Expat-Studie rein. Dort wurden ausländische Arbeitnehmer zu verschiedenen Punkten bezüglich ihrer Erfahrungen befragt und die Sicherheit einer der wenigen Punkte, wo wir wirklich gut abgeschnitten haben im Vergleich zu den anderen Ländern.
There is the big Problem though, that the social system relies WAY too much on citizens that make low + middle income while people with high income get even ritcher every day.
1) Why is the German education system so good even though we still use overhead projectors everywhere and have relatively little internet access?! 2) I have to express this one point to your Mr. Trump (or his economic advisors) - of course Germany has been hiding its very good productivity behind a comparatively soft currency (euro) for decades. If we had the DM (German mark) again here (as some "specially educated" people from the AfD etc. are demanding), the local products would be unaffordably expensive and Germany would have an extremely massive problem in exports (which is a huge part of the German economy ).
re 1) How did Einstein become so good at math when all he had to learn it from was printed books and lessons on blackboards? Without 3D-rendered multimedia presentations (in 4k) and interactive smartboards, he should have been unable to grasp those concepts.
@@HenryLoenwind Sorry, that was just an "insider" based on other films in reactions so far in which it is always presented that way (as it usually is).... As a practitioner, the only thing that annoys me as a practitioner is this ridiculous approach, as if even more technology ( which already clearly leads to even more stupidity) lead to some particular improvement in learning. Here in Germany, digitalization in schools (as it is propagated by politicians, among others) is mostly NOTHING other than a cover-up of the politics that have led to the conditions that can be criticized (shortage of teachers, equipment in schools, classes that are too large, inclusion, lack of language skills of migrant children...).
The use of different classroom media does not improve quality of education in most subjects. Actually writing, reading, maths, chemistry, physics and so on are best learned by doing it on your own on paper (or a tablet if you really need, but it tends to steer the pupils focus away from the subject)
if Germany had a better government in the past 20 years that would have focused on the important stuff Germany could have become as rich as the US or more. now those days are over. we would need a miracle to still be relevant in 20 years
why is everyone refering to social security payments as taxes? health insurance, job insurance, retirement . are all of that are not taxes as the state doesnt get any of it and are still reffered to as taxes in all those videos about german salary. if you loose jour job you get payed around 60% of the last income for up to one year. health cost are coverd and copay does only exist only in symbolic doses like 10 euro for each day in hospital etc. only serious copay is for tooth replacement . once you get to the retirement age you recive around 50% of your salary for the rest of your life. for non of that you have to pay for with your net salary, its alreaydy covered. if you are married with a child you would pay zero tax in the first bracket and barly any in the second. the more you earn the higher the tax is. the idear is : everyone contributes to society accoding to his abilitys. ofc that system is not perfect and does not function always as intended, but paying into a insurance is not a tax.
If I want to be optimistic I just watch foreign videos about Germany - then it all doesnt sound so bad... many points he mentioned are not wrong but a bit out-dated I feel. The focus on stability left us in the dust when it came to modernize the country, and without getting too political the actions during the last decade lead to a clear divide in the populations political opinions and broke unity... doesnt help that the national football team kept doing poorly too. Now we are the only major industrial nation with a negative growth (actual shrinking economy), business want to leave the country - education is also not adaptation, again modernization in slow motion, economic pressure due to energy costs, and much more - sure its bad for many but our inactivity and focus on stability / lets just not do "anything" / for years got us into a pretty sticky situation. Well there is a lot wrong here, but many basic parts still work and if we pull ourselves together like our forefathers did then we probably can turn this into a chance for a great change and rise once more... lets be hopeful i guess - anyway thanks for reading and take care
Germany could lift the tax load from the middle class by taxing the Rich and Finance Markets more, but the Middle class doesn't have a Lobby that whispers into the Politicians ears and makes them little presents here and there.
Taxing the rich would just make them go somewhere else and the whole money would be lost... If they had to stay where they are this would be an option... But we live in a globalised world so you can move wherever you want...
@@robintusk3442 Nein, es stimmt. Viele reiche Deutsche Leben in der Schweiz, und viele Ärzte. Bin selber Deutsch, arbeite für eine Britische Firma hier in der Schweiz, und hab viele Deutsche Arbeitskollegen. Mein Hausarzt und die Gynäkologin meiner Frau, sind beide aus Deutschland.
well many rich German people and doctors move to Switzerland bc of the lower taxes. I am German myself and live in Switzerland. It's "Auswanderungsland" Nr.1 of Germans
We dont need to tax doctors. I talk about the ultra rich. Wealth taxes are higher in most european neighbor countries. We should tax labor less and very high capital more, I'm speaking 3 million should be free. All above this figure, there would be a small percentage. And no, the biggest or mid-size-family companies wouldnt all leave. Where do they go and what would moving cost them? To cyprus? Also, theres lots of instruments (laws) a state can implement that make it harder to move. They should just pay their fair share, be forced to pay higher wages and not pay billions to their shareholders. For smaller companies, they can be helped with affordable and stable energy prices, qualified workers, et cetera.
16:45 It's very much possible to change schools later on if you have the grades. On the other hand, some students struggle in the higher level school and voluntarily change to a lower one and do better there. It's not a solid, unchangeable decision
@@gregorygant4242 That's what you would initially assume, yes. But you have to think this through to understand it properly. Before your body gives up, your mind has already done so. This is difficult for many to understand as long as they believe only in matter and not in the invisible power of spirit. Learn more about Goethe so you may realize the depth of this wisdom. Note: Google English Translator doesn't even know the right word for "Materie" and delievers "matter" instead. That says a lot, because of course the definition of the word is important first before you can learn to understand it (Socrates). The English language there already lacks the means to reach the German level. All American philosophers must at some point learn German in order to make real progress.
@@gregorygant4242 Not quite. Education helps you make better decisions in what you buy for the little money you have and helps you fend off the influence of advertisements. Which, e.g. leads you to buy fruit and vegetables instead of processed food in bright containers that only tell you it's cool to eat that stuff.
@@charis6311 You're missing my point. I mean you can know an encyclopedia of knowledge and have lots of degrees but it you are poor ,starving it won't help your body it will give up the ghost.
@@gregorygant4242 Oh yes, in this extreme case of course you are right. You can't live on thin air alone. But I meant there are degrees of destitution and there education most certainly does help.
The Nordic countries are roughly the same as Germany, although they are much smaller in population. Ford didn't invent a car they existed long before Ford. What he did was to start making cars that were not custom built but produced cars on assembly lines that looked exactly the same. Thanks to a Swede he got hold of in Sweden - Mått-Johansson (Carl Edvard Johansson) his combination measuring set consists of 102 pieces of steel that can be combined in around 20,000 combinations. The size is from 1 to 201 millimeters with increments of 0.01 mm. The pass pieces could be combined with each other in different ways to be able to provide all the dimensions needed in industrial production. That kit made it possible to manufacture car parts that fit from one car to another and that the car part did not just fit a single car.
Ryan, International Education means not the social, means the Education is all over the World in History, geography and so, NOT only about USA like in Amerika!!;)
I don’t say he‘s totally wrong, but there is more to Germany being the fourth biggest economy in the world. And that‘s the size of the population. Looking at GDP per capita Germany comes in at number 12 behind most Scandinavian countries which don‘t have the separated school system like Germany. And that‘s also showing when you compare PISA results between all those countries and Germany. And that is going on for a long while now. Also Germany is among the worst countries in Europe when it comes to how the income of your parents decides about your ability to get higher education. Without some of our key industries that are successful world wide we wouldn’t be the ranked that high. We‘ll see when it comes to transition to renewable energy and electric cars. Many solarpower companies have already left Germany and windpower is almost already in Chinese hands. And when the auto industry doesn’t pay attention they will share their fate. And when it comes to development of infrastructures like the internet, Germany is way behind other countries in Europe. Also digitalization of Government is one of the lowest in the EU. And this will some day going to bite us back.
There is a lot to say about Agenda 2010 and debt stuff... our companies may not be in huge debt, but that is because we let foreign countries go into debt for us instead of raising wages and use internal consumption.
Let's not forget the American genius of the Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program) not just in terms of money but in trying to make Europe more connected, more stable and more in line with American values at the time. (From Sweden).
I just want to explain the wage chart a bit more, as this was a bit rushed. An employee is payed his net wage, which is his gross wage minus applicable taxes (that differ due to certian factors like children, family and so on) and the employee part of the social security insurances (health, pension, unemployment and long term care insurances). This would be the difference between the last two columns for Germany and the 2nd/3rd columns for Spain. The employer on the other hand has to pay the gross salary _plus_ the empolyer portion of social security insurances and the contribution for the compulsatory casualty insurance. Also, there are some more contributions. This total sum is column 1. This means that an employee who earns a gross salary of about 105k will earn about 57k in net salary - but the total cost the company has to pay is about 120k.
Something that tends to be forgotten is the huge impact of the Marshal plan. With the industry being stripped due to the reparation payments, no money, so they used the old factories as payment, the industry was able to spent all the money from the Marshal plan into new tools and factories.
After the war we also had millions of young refugees from former german settlements in eastern countries which had no land and forced to work in the industry. They also were highly educated and eager to become rich again. An example is Zeiss which was rebuild in West Germany by east germans fleeing from the russians.
An educated Workforce makes companies more efficient. Germans also rarely change their profession. Workers here learn their Profession 3 years after they finish school. Usually is 50/50 Practice at the Workplace and theoretical in professional school. In the end, you do the final exam. This makes career changes more difficult but allows companies to have good professional workforce.
Germany shows that working more doesn't mean more work is done. We have the lowest annual work hours in the world but have the 19th highest GDP per capita and the 18th highest when adjusted for purchasing power. So a german work hour is worth a lot. As example. The average US worker works 35% more, but makes only about 21% more money when adjusted for purchasing power. Which means the one hour of work of the average german worker is worth about 12% more than one hour of work of the average american worker. The german could take a 7 minute break every hour and still be as productive as the american worker, who then works 50% more. And if we look at the country with the highest annual working hours, Colombia, it becomes even more extreme. They work about 79% more, but their purchasing power adjusted GDP per capita is only 18% of germany, which means the typical german working hour is worth about 460% more. And those are adjusted for purchasing power, which means relative to the local market. A colombuan worker has to work 5.5 times longer to buy something in Colombia, than the german worker has to work to buy the same thing in Germany.
Actually, you can see that the western part of germany did well because of many programs from the west like the marshal plan. The contrary was eastern germany. Additionally you get the economy much easier running if you can build everything new. I dont think that had anything to do with the politicians of this time... maybe excluding the us ones that started the support plans
Something especially people from the US often misunderstand. Is that Taxes are not just something You pay. But are something that Pays things. Business and Industry needs 3 things to be Succesful. 1. Infrastructure that can Support and Supply whatever Industry or Business so it can actually work and be Competetive. 2. Healthy Workers which are Available and Skilled/Learned enough that they can Work for You. 3. A Demand from Paying Customers for whatever You offer. And here is the thing. 1. and 2. are heavily Subsidized by Taxes. If the Business needs to Pay for these themselves. Its often just so Cost Prohibitive that the Business has no Chance to ever Compete. Hence why there is only 2 Options for Succesful Business. You either go the American Way. Which is Radical Capitalism where Taxes are so Low and Social Systems are so Non Existant that the Companies can Work so Cheaply that they can Pay for these 2 things themselves. Albeit this often means that Specialist Workers are Super Expensive while Unskilled Workers end up a Disposable Ressource that gets handled like Cattle. The Big Benefit of this is massive Growth Rates because the Companies can make massive Profits very Quickly as long as they have enough Capital to Invest. Or You go the European (German) Way. Which is Social Capitalism where Taxes and Social Systems are High but the Companies in Exchange have access to Infrastructure and Educated Workers without needing to provide all of this themselves. This will often cause Larger Companies to have a Harder Time of getting large Profit Margins. And Specialist Workers will often move to other Countries. But the Big Benefit is an Unparalleled Stability which allows for a Stable and very Crisis Resistant Economy where People and Companies are Safe in knowing that their Critical Needs are maintained by the State.
The table at 4:15 seems to have some bias. Even including the highest tax classes and social security deductions I could not reproduce the difference between gross and net salary in Germany (and also not the difference between employee cost and net salary - even with their figures the net should always be more than half of the employee cost.) 4:50 That is not taxes, but taxes plus social security insurances (the insurance share is for most people far higher than the tax share). 4:53 The corporate tax rate was in 2008 reduced from 25% to 15% of taxable income plus 5,5% of the tax sum as 'solidarity surcharge' (for the costs caused by reunification and some other events), which than adds up to 15.825% of taxable income. The business tax is raised by the municipalities based on business profits; it is highest in the either most attractive or the most indebted cities. 5:32 The minimum wage in Germany is currently (since 2024) 12.41 Euro per hour, which puts Germany on fourth place in Europe (6th place worldwide) between Ireland and Belgium. Some weeks before the video was published it was set in October 2022 at 12 Euro per hour or 480 Euro per week if working 40 hours per week, before October 2022 it was 10,45 Euro. The minimum wage is normally set by a common comitee of the confederation of employers' associations and the confederation of trade unions, the rise in 2022 however was determined by the parliament. 6:30 That is mostly due to some bureaucracy, but it also depends on which kind (and size) of enterprise or company you want to start. 11:30 That tradition was destroyed by the Nazis - partly by driving away the most intelligent scientists (including, but not ending with Einstein), partly be replacing renowned university professors with their party followers, partly by killing the most promising of the younger generation in the war and in prisons. 12:20 But at that time the economy did not really flourish. The protection did not help to get competitive advantages. The Great Depression hit Germany hard, many companies went bankrupt or had to be sold to foreign investors (like the then biggest German car producer Opel, sold to GM), and the resulting unemployment helped the Nazis to gain power (as well as some conservative politicians and anti-democratic entrepreneurs) - even if the preceding government had already started some job creation schemes like building the first Autobahn sections. The Nazis then concentrated on the armament industries, their programs mostly financed by debt (which they later started to repay with loot first taken from Jews and other persecuted people and then from the spoils of war). 13:20 You need also a well thought out political economic system like the so called social market economy (a more accurate name would be competion-oriented market economy as it was called by one of its visionaries) with a strong anti-cartel or antitrust office, a redistribution policy to secure economic fairness as well as domestic consumption, promotion of social partnership, economic freedom while at the same time restricting "big players" to secure an economic balance of power, measures to secure economic and financial stability and other elements. The Germany of the 1950s was however also far less "interventionistic" than the UK or French governments. 13:48 The biggest recipients were the UK with nearly 25% and France with about 20%. Italy got nearly 11%, Germany about 10%, the Netherlands 7%, Austria 5%. The funds were mostly used to subsidize imports from the USA, while the European governments had to spend the same sum into counterpart funds to be used for recovery projects. A main difference was for Germany and Austria, that they had to pay back most of the funds; therefore they used the funds mostly for loans (while e.g. the UK used it to pay back debts). The German credit institute for reconstruction still manages the surplus of the reimbursements and uses it together with funds from other government programs to give low-cost loans in the course of those programs.
It's not just taxes, it's all social contributions - that is why they said "40% of the cost of companies is social" - because it is. It's just that 20% flows directly from the company (Arbeitgeberanteil der Sozialversicherungen) and 20% is going from the gross salary.
I want to correct that you're talking Körperschaftsteuer, but that's collected by the federal state and only is for "corporations", like GmbH, KG, AG etc pp. The business tax set and collected by the municipalities is Gewerbesteuer. That's with a set amount (often something between 300% and 480%) of "Gewerbesteuermessbetrag", 3,8% of the taxable income (aka, income minus certain stuff and a tax ecempt amount of 24.500 EUR). They're not the same. Otherwise you're totally right.
@@blatterrascheln2267 Apparently my wording was a bit imprecise. You're right, they are different. The 7% from the video are the 3.5% you mentioned multiplied with the minimum assessment rate (Hebesatz) of 200%, and the taxed amount (the Gewerbesteuermessbetrag) is based on the profit the business made, but with different cutbacks, addbacks and allowances.
One huge difference is respect for labour. In the USA and Canada we treat manual and even skilled labour and the people who do it like garbage. We pay them as little as possible and treat it as shameful. It's not true in Germany. If you are good at your labour job and act with pride, you'll be paid well, have job security, and never have to hang your head when you say where you work.
What beautiful if it was like that. But respect of labour has dropped like everywhere else in the western world. Factory workers earn half of what they earned in the late 90ies by now. And what job security?
Unfortunately for Germans the country is in steady decline, deviating more and more with time from the now outdated overall description given in the video. It's like a train with an engine that stopped working a while ago. The train is still going forward due to the large momentum it built up in the past. And all passengers sitting in their comfortable seats keep telling each other how beautiful the view is and how smooth the ride has been so far. In reality, they all know that something is terribly off. That didn't start yesterday, but has been going on for more than a decade.
One more important point about education, to get certified as a trained professional in germany you have an apprenticeship of three somtimes even 4 years which combines learning on the job in company and specialised classes of school. Its called "duale Ausbildung". This gives german employers a deep understanding of their field of work. And many companies doesn't even hire people that aren't certified this way as trained professionals, unless they have an university degree of course. An other point that might be considered is that until some years ago national service was mandatory in germany which gave people a comon understanding of how things should come together, what helps a lot to integrate new employees or in coorperation of different companies.
11:03 Ford made cars affordable for the lower income classes and changed/influenced the shape of american citydesign. Most of your infrastructure is made for cars from the start because a hugh number could afford one. It is weird that the americans never see that as an achievment on its own.
It is but Americans have become too dependent on their cars and don't use public transport or even walking much today . They have become lazy in that regard !
Illegedly when Ford said to a union leader that in future the workers would become redundant because of machines, the union leader asked who was going to buy his cars then. Expensive workers are big spending consumers, that works in a national economy. Off shoring and money printing has destroyed that upward circular development.
Oh man! You have no idea about German unions and say they don't help you! Bullshit!! The unions negotiate the wages and salaries of the employees!! just like the marginal conditions of the employment relationship (weekly working hours, bonuses for overtime, etc.) If you don't know that, you shouldn't throw garbage about it. I've been in the union for 45 years and I'm proud of it.
After WW2 germany did't just pulled itself up by its bootstraps. The Allies helped it back on its feet to be able to fight against the UDSSR. So there was a strong insentive to get Germany running again
Unions are where i live collaborating with the companies, both making sure that people get paid and agreements are held up, (mom worked for one of the many the unions) and making sure the company survive, it is a collaboration. Strikes are rare but they do happen. Both employer and employee need each other.
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yes 40% on high incomes but you dont pay on hospitals on pharmacy on education etc etc......
It's not 40%. People should finally understand that its not taxes that's so much but social insurance. Tax can be as low as 12% or even 0 on income under a certain range. Just because taxes and social insurance is both collected direktly from the employer doesn't mean "it's all taxes". Also, he probably counted in the part for social insurances that employers pay on top of every employee.
@@blatterrascheln2267i think it's 40% that you don't get in general (although the number is about 35%) but then you pay sales tax and tax on everything else again. So 50% of your money being tax/social security is a decent estimate.
Take a time machine back to the 70s, 80s or 90s but be careful to end up in the western part. Now that the communists and their allies rule us for almost 19 years everything is going down. But most of us reject to notice that because our ancestors created enough wealth which we are currently using to pay for all the populist programmes. Also a lot of people have unneeded jobs that pay them a lot of salary but are devastating for the economy as a whole. When the people born in the 60s will retire we will have enormous problems because there don't come enough young qualified people to fill the empty positions. Also to further increase the problems we experience an enormous immigration in quantity of people but a very low or even lower than emigration in quality of people.
@@arnodobler1096 Achja? Schauen Sie sich mal die Handwerker an, die Sie für ein schönes Leben brauchen. Wie viele davon sind Ü50, werden also wahrscheinlich innerhalb der nächsten 10 Jahre in Rente gehen? Was unseren Wohlstand sichert sind keine Gleichstellungsbeauftragten, Burn-out-Beamte oder arbeitsuntaugliche "Neubürger", sondern Arbeiter, die Werte schaffen oder zumindest darin unterstützen dies zu tun. Das ist Grundlagenwissen in Volkswirtschaft. Wohlstand entsteht im Leistungsprozess, alles andere ist nur Umverteilung, aber nicht Schaffung.
You missed the part with the Marshall Plan. You Americans funded the German economy massively after the war. Without that money our quick recovery would have been impossible. Thanks a lot.
8:50 In Germany the state pays for the education. I only pay about 700$ per year for university and that's mainly for the public transport ticket. Also almost everyone goes to public schools that are for free.
In Germany, students not only go to regular school for a long time, then go to university, but also alternativ complete two-stage vocational training. This consists of parallel learning of the craft profession in companies and additional state training in vocational schools.
Imagine that, employer and unions working together?! The calamity! When I still lived in Germany, my company where I worked had a union office, right on the premises. Nobody lost any sleep over that, as they do here, in the States. Also, a common motto is: Work smarter, not harder.
Yup, the unions have always been strong in Germany and were never in a "war" with the employers. They aren't seen as "taking your wages" but instead as a, well, union of workers that represent you and your interests. And we can't forget that the second largest political party in post-WWII Germany existed before the war as well and originally started as a socialist workers party, but moved more towards a realpolitik social democracy angle. Generally the german economy is described as "social market economy", where a lot is like in typical free market capitalism, but it also has some socialism-influenced things, like government regulation. In general the government oversight is there to ensure that the market is fair and competitive, for companies, workers, and consumers alike.
As a German kid growing up I learned from my grandfather to never buy anything on lease/ credit… never buy a new car unless you can pay it all in cash. Then in around 8th-9th grade my economics teacher said the same thing and literally gave us calculation exercises like “If product A costs $1000 and you save up $50/month it will take you a bit over 1,5years to save up the money to buy in cash. But if you buy a $1000 product today and sign a down payment plan for $50/month over 2 years the product will cost you $1200 in the end.” And his point being was that we have to learn to delay gratification and always save money. That’s normal German education up until ca 10-15years ago. I think it is much less strict nowadays.
and no blender is from a dutch developer started: "Blender was created by Ton Roosendaal, a Dutch art director and self-taught software developer." (on the blender homepage in "history"
i still remember how we used copper wire in school to pretty much build a rudimentary "electric engine" in the 90s 😀 didn't rotate very fast but it moved🙂
Ryan, we pay high taxes, true. But what do we get ? Free healthcare, education, retirement fund, unemployment and social support and more. So you can compare to what you get and how much you pay for it. Free education, isn't that a universal right, fundamental to equal opportunities ? For me it is. When I was still working, 50 % of my salary went to the state. But from the left over I could buy me a house, car and go on yearly holiday abroad. My children went to school and I did not worry about healthcare cost. Now I am retired and have no financial worries. That is our freedom. Make your choose. And our companies make profit, are thriving. And I am Belgian but that is comparable to Germany, our neighbors. In America they say and believe that all this will kill the economy. The Germans and Europe as a whole, proves the opposite. But the American can't and DONT WANT to see it, as they are the greatest and the best But they are FREE to believe whatever they want.
Not buying houses and not going in debt has been a looong point of heated discussion between me (German) and my wife (Norwegian) … as a German I never expected to be able able to buy a house anytime soon/ possibly when I’m around 45 years old. But in Norway it is expected to first buy a 1-room apartment, then sell it and buy a 2-room, then sell it and buy a 3-room and get married and when the kids come by a small row-house and make money on each. It’s such a different mindset!
Many Americans don't really understand that Europe is capitalist. I mean modern capitalism was born in Europe. It isn't an American invention. It definitely is America's passion, though.
Capitalism and Communism was born in Europe...
@@Keksemann666 Yes, but I am not talking about communism, am I?
@@LalaDepala_00 i just said that both major economic models have been invited here. Same with social market economies
I would add that yes it is clearly capitalism with a social spin. Europe takes care of its citizens even if they are not employed currently.
@@Keksemann666 but that’s not the point of the comment nor of the video. It’s like me saying I like apples because they taste so good and you saying, hey oranges taste good as well. While your statement is not wrong (subjectively) it has nothing to do with the initial statement
And a sixth reason: a lot of the big companies in Germany are still family-owned and not on the stock market. So they were able to make better long-term decisions and save from hedgefonds trying to suck out every dollar out of the company. But this changes, too.
Sadly yes i call it the american capitalism. And sadly every political party like this kind of capaitalism cause they love short time wealth
Thanks good we still dont lick jewish boots!
Even the big companies are still family controlled. Most prominent example: VW
and if you want to be a little cynical, you could add that German companies in family hands all sympathized with the National Socialists, or were Nazis themselves.
Same in Austria! I know the owner of Europes biggest (card/family-) game company because our kids go to the same school and they want to keep it family owned too! Despite their market being not just Europe but the US. I think it’s a good „trend“!
"Wait, your guys's minimum wage actually goes up? Oh my God, what an interesting concept" - meaning, in the USA, the minimum wage is steadily decreasing?! I almost dropped the hammer and sickle from my hand when I heard that!
🤣 you commie Europeans! 😉
Not decreasing per se, but when money gets worth less(inflation) and minimum wage stays at its level, then yes, minimum wage is decreasing
chill ya sickle commie boai
@@nahui9010 minimum wage went up from 12.00€ to 12.41€ this year, and will rise another 41 cents next year.
😂
In Denmark children have had to be educated for 7 years since 1814. It was after the state bankruptcy if 1813, and the saying goes the then king Frederik VI stated that "just because we're poor doesn't mean we have to be stupid too" 🤭👑
Sounds like a smart man!
Um a question is that the same for your neighbours like Norway , Sweden ?
Just asking .
Germany is 8 years, but usually if only the lowest possible grad with 8 years is possible (like special ed) they add another one or two years that are structured like training in trades, to have kids being 16 like everyone else before entering actual work force as trainee. The regular graduation is after 10 years, most common is abitur after 12 years.
Primary Education started in Germany in the 18th century already, children were mandated to go to school in the Kingdom of Prussia in the second half of the 18th century, even though the plan behind that was to keep the children from working in the fields, so that they could become soldiers later. This changed during the Prussian Reforms in the first decade of the 19th century, when the educational focus became much clearer.
@@GiladPellaeonallgemeine Schulpflicht in Preußen wurde 1717 eingeführt.
What is ALWAYS forgotten to mention about German school education is that you can always get a higher education. For example, if you went to the "worst" school, you can go to a higher school afterwards. For example, I also had problems at school as a child. The older I got, the better I got, which is why I went to a higher school afterwards.
Yeah but like the Eurovision Song Contest we try to win the race to the bottom in the school „Pisa test“ which assesses the level of knowledge of pupils.
@@koaschten You know PISA is a scam right?
@@koaschten That's because most people write on their phones with the autocorrect. I notice it myself that I sometimes have to think about how to write something, etc. Most people just don't feel like learning anything anymore. And in Germany, the security is so good that many people don't feel like working anymore - unemployment benefit, etc. In other countries that don't have that, you have to learn and work otherwise you'll have nothing to eat or a place to live. Nevertheless, our system is there so that if you get better later or learn how to learn properly for yourself, you have the opportunity to catch up. So if you put in the will and effort, you can still achieve it later.
Yes. My cousin was in Hauptschule at first, but got himself in control starting his 9th year at school. Now he's an engineer (computers).
To put the 4th point into perspective here's a little anecdote: I grew up in Germany as the second child in a poor middle class single parent household. I started educating myself in software development at the age of 11, got my first job in the field at 14 while I was still in school. I graduated at 17 and immediately joined the work-force as a software engineer. Two years later I enrolled at a distance university while working full-time and got my bachelors degree in BIS three years later, the same year I founded my own company. With the profits I kept my mom afloat until retirement and bought her a flat. Until this day I've never taken on a single loan.
That's why cheap access to education is so important, without it my vita would have likely ended in that single parent household 😑
Welcome to the 1% that made it. Germany is the country where born poor almost all the time equals "stays poor".
Eindrucksvolle Biografie. Viel Erfolg und Lebensglück weiterhin
There're always exceptions like you. The modern young German doesn't have the slightest idea what hard working means before 23/24 years.
no shade at all but starting at age 11 is crazy
@@Schokelmei to change that it maybe would be a good idea to let the state found the schools and not the towns and comunities, so the education is not depentent on the twon your school is in. Then every school could get a simular founding and therefore more equal oportunities in reforming and modernizing.
In 1592, the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken (German: Herzogtum Pfalz-Zweibrücke) was the first territory in the world to introduce compulsory education for girls and boys.
Thank you for the info, I‘ve been to Zweibrücken many times
Yay, my home town! 😊
After they became Protestant. For Protestants it was quite important to become literate and be able to read the bible.
10:37 Exactly! Thank you, I was looking for this comment! And in 1538 the first Gymnasium (grammar school) in Europe along with an exemplary school system was in Strasbourg which was part of Germany. It was under the influence of Strasbourg, that the first compulsory education for girls and boys in the world was introduced in the Duchy of Palatinate-Zweibrücken in 1592.
It was actually not appreciated by the parents because they wanted their children to work in the fields and not be in school. xD
For most Germans the first loan they take is for a house, maybe a nice car. I don't know any German who would take a loan on a holiday or just miscellaneous things - it also is frowned upon buying stuff you cannot buy out of pocket. "If you can't afford it now, then save for it for a later date"
"Don't buy what u can't afford (to pay)."
is the version i grew up with.
It's crazy to think to go into debt for a vacation or other small things.
Car? Sure increases mobility and "range" to work, and kinda necessary in rural areas.
House? Well those things are not exactly cheap if done right, and can be a multi generational investment on top.
But a vacation?
The biggest difference between a car or house and a vacation is that the money isn't consumed. Even after you spend the money, you now have the house or car, the value of which should be at least the amount you borrowed. So technically taking out a loan for a house or car doesn't put you in the red.
@@BunjiKugashira42 well most cars lose too much value to be direct type of value stabiblity but it increase your Option on the employee market so if you not in fancy cars it maybe translate in an surplus if you find a good payed job where you would be not able to take without it
@@asasdad1041 Only new cars loose that much value that quickly. If you buy a used car, the devaluation is pretty stable. So for new cars you need a considerable downpayment out of your own pocket. The repayment of the loan should then be planned, so that the car (despite devaluation) is always worth more than the remaining loan. You should also have insurance on the car that covers at least the size of the loan.
If you can't afford the downpayment or the amount of repayment, then you can't afford that car. Look for a cheaper one.
@@BunjiKugashira42 well by used cars you can have the case that repairs and maitannces exceed the value of the value of the car. at best you know HOw to fix the car yourself. i do not know how an insurance would help there i know no insurance that covers normal maitanence failues only maniufactures garuntees up a specific usage limit too repari it and thats mostly for their new cars/checked by their mechanics and resold directly from Them . for me cars are tools to get from a to B no something in would say would be good in fixing my money value in by simpling usage vaule lost +maintances i would say you lose more money on cars since i have 0 mechanicals skills to fix it myself so maitance exceed the money lost on inflation oppose i do not use a car
The hourly minimum wage since january 2024 in germany is 12,41€/h
FYI: That's $13.38 at the moment.
@@vonBlankenburgLPFyi, that's almost double the US with lower costs of living than most of the US
@@wannes9125 But still, you can't afford an apartment in most bigger cities on your own with that.
@@itskyansaro It's easier in a bigger city, because you'll get Wohngeld for the high rent. If you live in a small village you'll get less Wohngeld, but you do need a car to get to work, which is much more expensive than the Deutschlandticket. And there is no support for the costs of the car.
@@itskyansarothat is why I don't get why the people want to be there. It is far more comfortable to live in a mid sized town somewhere for less than 1000€ a month for everything (rent, energy, food and if you really have to an affordable car) why do I know it is possible because at my university most students live like this. In our city the student dorms for 200€ to 250€ per month (this includes water, heating, electricity and internet) are on the more expensive site per square meter. But directly attached i.e. 100m to the campus. If you say using the bicycle 1,5 km to university every day is ok for you, you can get 35 m² for 400€ ish with everything.
What people most of the time don't really get when talking about taxes is: you're not getting 60.000 Euros from the companys payment of 120.000 Euros. You get aaaaall these services (social and other), infrastructure, education, etc etc as well. And they are worth a LOT! So you walk home with money in your pocket, but you walk on a road that you can actually walk on. If you break your leg during this walk - you're covered. And you can really focus on getting healthy again because you don't have to worry about hospital bills, your student loan that you're still paying back, how much money you have to put aside so your kids can go to college as well.... You get the point? 😉
Yup, road infrastructure, public transport, education, police, fire fighting, and much more is paid (or at least subsidized) with taxes. Healthcare is just a very small part of it.
It is not 50% TAXES it is DEDUCTION. That’s a difference. Part of it is health care, part is Rentenversicherung (pension plan), part is Arbeitslosenversicherung so you‘ll have an income when you’re unemployed.
Yes, free education is an investment that pays off. The better educated a person is, the better the job, the more the taxes he pays over his whole professional life.
And if you lost your job, you receive money for the until you find a new one. In all cases you have a health insurance!
That’s a additional reason that taxes in Europe are also higher.
Child care is wildly expensive in the US, too. My German friend says it's very affordable for anyone in Germany.
The German education system is divided into three tiers, but it remains very transparent and permeable even after completion of education. I am the perfect example of this. At the age of 14, I finished my schooling with completion of elementary school. Due to family reasons, I had to pursue an apprenticeship and learned cooking. I dropped out of this apprenticeship because, as I will explain shortly, it did not align with my talents. I then learned the trade of radio and television technician, which I practiced for about 4 years. After that, the German state gave me the opportunity to obtain my intermediate school-leaving certificate (BAS) and then I was also allowed to obtain my high school diploma (BOS). During this time, I received financial support from the state, enabling me to focus on school. After obtaining my high school diploma, I began studying computer science and mathematics at the Technical University of Munich, which I successfully completed. I then obtained a doctoral position at the Technical University of Munich and completed this study with a Ph.D. The German state indeed endeavors to foster talents, and it does so with great success.
US: Vom Tellerwäscher zum Millionär
Deutschland: Vom Koch-Azubi zum Uni-Prof
@@hessidave Ja, ich hätte mich um eine Professur bewerben können (Darmstadt Fachhochschule), ich habe dann aber lieber eine recht erfolgreiche Unternehmung in Italien gegründet, (SuSE Italia).
@@olafborkner Is that Linux ?
@@gregorygant4242 Yes. I am the founder of the SuSE-Italia branch.
@@olafborkner "Hauptsache Italien"! 👍
4:57 Wait a second... I know this shop. It's in Tübingen, right in the middle of Baden-Württemberg. 5:21 also Tübingen, in front of the town hall.
And a quote by Robert Bosch:"I don't pay good wages because I'm rich, I'm rich because I pay good wages."
Wasn't it Ford who decided to increase the wages after his car was so successful?
Which makes sense. A well paid worker is more eager to go to work. A well paid worker wants to stay wit the company. When workers stay, you don't have to train new workers all the time.
If I were a boss and an applicant would flat out declare "I'm here because you pay your workers." they get a point in my book, because they're honest. I want them to do work. They want to work because I pay them for it.
A very important point is the high end German vocation system for non academic jobs. No matter if you are want to become a bakerman, mason, electrician, plumber or hair stylist for example - You have to pass an apprenticeship of regularely three years in a company which has a person with a "Meistertitel" (kind of masters degree for craftsmen who is additionally trained in business administration and pedagogy to be allowed to run a company) to train you PLUS almost theoretical training in specified vocational school classes. The scedules and final exams are unified and done by an independend chamber and the state, so the level and content of education is comparable in every company and employees can easily find a job in another company if they want or need to.
And in contrast to other countries (USA) you get paid (a bit) during that time and not need to pay.
Die duale Ausbildung macht es
Obwohl es immer noch deutliche Unterschiede von Bundesland zu Bundeslan gibt....
Although there are still significant differences from state to state...
@@christophkagermeier6417 Auf jeden Fall. Nicht auszudenken, wie es mit der Qualität bergab gegangen wäre, hätten gewisse Kräfte in der Regierung Schröder hier ihren Kahlschlag durchgesetzt mit ihren Visionen von staatlichen Berufsbildungszentren zur Umgehung der bösen Betriebe bei der Ausbildung... Sie haben damals dennoch z. B. mit Abschaffung der Meisterpflicht, etwa im Fliesenlegerhandwerk, schon genug Schaden angerichtet. Keine Meister, keine Ausbildung => Fachkräftemangel, "Ich-AG"-Pfuscher, Umgehung von Sozialabgaben dadurch und als Resultat oft Schwarzarbeit und Pleiten mangels betriebswirtschaftlicher Ausbildung. War von allen mitdenkenden Menschen auch so antizipiert gewesen und alles hat sich leider so bewahrheitet wie damals an die Politiker geschrieben - aber Rot und Grün bauen in ihrer Wirtschafts- und Bildungsferne, Naivität und geistigen Unbedarftheit immer erst Scheiße und wundern sich dann hinterher über das vorhersehbare Ergebnis und die Konsequenzen...
@@reinhard8053You get paid here as well. Only ergo therapists have to pay for their education. But in Germany you can't open a company in that sector without having a Meister title.
Germans are not entirely against debts, there are things that are seen as worth going into dept for them. Buying or building a house is way up on that List👌🏽
And many including conservative politicians dont udnerstand the difference between debt in a social economy and in your own private one
@@FAL87 Ah yes gotta love that schwarze null
@@quark1010_ Very political of you... but it isn't really the best idea to go deeply into debt with the nation neighter... this brings short term relieve but long term a lot of problems and less money...
But you save a ot before you buy a house, so your debt isn't that high.
@@ContinuumGaming to forbid investions with debt is quite stupid to be frankly. thats the problem. After covid and now would have been the best time for investments from the side of the state to power the economy. But because of the black zero, its not possible and now we have a declining economy.
My favorite part is still how my country managed to turn the label "made in Germany" from a warning sign into a sign of quality 😂
As a German, the crazy thing about our economy is, I find, that you can go to any small, unremarkable German town of 10,000 to 50,000 people. It can be in the middle of nowhere. Within that town there will be at least one company that is among the world leaders in some very specific technology. And that company will be more than 100 years old and have had several generations of the same family not just owning it but also working for it on the factory floor.
YES, 'education' is THE solution, for everything. For Americans, too 😉
Education is everything!!!!
It helps even against people like Trump xD
As George Carlin put it, "the companies and super rich want a population just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, but not educated enough to be capable of critical thinking."
@@alidemirbas6566 Not just science, but education. Your facts reach you trough the glasses of your personal ideology if you're not educated. If you for example didn't learn to overcome your own poor opinions and then to follow difficult thoughts of writers smarter than yourself. (((I'm not talking about people who don't even accept facts as true - they will one day realize that if they make their intellectual Doppelgänger to a chosen godlike figure, it will have horrendous long-term effects. Meanwhile they are flying high and are delighted that all intelligent people are afraid of their idol, afraid and worried about THE WORLD)))
@@alidemirbas6566 Not just science, but education. Your facts reach you trough the glasses of your personal ideology if you're not educated. If you for example didn't learn to overcome your own poor opinions and then to follow difficult thoughts of writers smarter than yourself. (((I'm not talking about people who don't even accept facts as true - they will one day realize that if they make their intellectual Doppelgänger to a chosen godlike figure, it will have horrendous long-term effects. Meanwhile they are flying high and are delighted that all intelligent people are afraid of their idol, afraid and worried about THE WORLD)))
Let's be honest, in the US you separate kids according to the zip code and social status, at least the German system is more fair based on the results
don't forget skin colour and language. They even put little Mexican children in concentration camps in America.
Yeah, I still remember watching "Beverly Hills 90210" back then and how "she pretends to live with her grandmother so she can go to the good school" shocked me. Today people in bigger cities might try to get their kids in a school with less children with migration background, but the difference in the education + equipment of schools isn't that big.
@@hypatian9093 Indeed. All the schools still use overhead projectors.
Is it? I remember we got separated for middle school based on our parents education (in 1998). Our results were secondary.
@@h4nzman118 anecdotal and probably false.
Seperating children into 3 types of school sounds pretty drastic at first, but you have to understand 2 things: Firstly they're not stuck in that path. If they excell in a "lower" schoolform, they absolutely can change to the other types or the other way around, and even when they're done with Realschule or Hauptschule, they can do the additional 2 years in the "highest" form of school afterwards to still earn their Abitur (the diploma you need for uni). Secondly: If it becomes clear that a child will never go to university, they can focus their education more towards other fields that will be more relevant to their later worklife instead of being forced to learn things designed to prepare for university courses they'll never attend anyway. They obviously will get a solid education in all fields at the "lower" schoolforms too, but they'll not need to dive into higher mathematics for instance.
Additionally the "lower" schoolforms end 2 years earlier, giving the graduates a head start into the Jobmarket where they can do a Ausbildung to become a Master of their chosen craft and start to earn money right away. This makes for a situation where at the age when germans who went to university first enter the jobmarket without any practical experience, the germans who went the Ausbildung-route already have years of experience in their field, earned money the whole way and stand in life with both feet firmly on the ground.
That is the idea, it obviously doesn't always work out this way for everyone, but that's why the system is designed this way.
They can change. But it's a complicated PITA process and you might need to redo a year.
But most importantly whatever your grades are in 4th year does not reflect at all how you will be 4 years later. It simply does not make anysense except to cement class based differentiation. (Even teachers knowing that will give a child of academics more likely a Gymnasium path then a worker/social security family child, even though they have the same grades)
It's a strict but efficient system to see what the child is good at and wants to do in his life .
That is straight up bullsh*t. Typical elitist, talking about his privileged position. You are 9 years old and some people decide on your grades if you will go to university or not. That literally changes your life. The idea that you can simply swap is too idealisitic. Of course it possible, but reality and theory are very different.
I would argue every single day that the main reason for the splitting is the support of the parents. If your parents are academics, you will go to the better form. If you are raised by a single mother, you will go to the worst. Your friends in school will have the same situation at home and it is basically impossible to leave the maze because no one in your school actually thinks about anything else. It is rarely because of intelligence per se.
The German school system is old-fashioned, it discriminates against the poor and the uneducated families. Elitists who would be going to the worst school if they did not have such a privileged situation at home are certainly talking about how fair the system is, just to make themselves feel like they accomplished something. In most cases, you did not accomplish anything.
I view our school system as a relict from the past, designed for three social classes, with upper class children expected to got to uni, middle class children become office clerks or doctor's assistants and lower class children learning to do handy work (my grandpa actually left school pretty early to start working in a mine, I think no one would have ever expected him to go to uni, this probably would have been a ridiculous thought even). It's just that no one seems to have bothered to change it. The possibility to leave the boundaries of your class was probably added later on. But it's a well known fact that children from poor/"socially weak" families still are given a bad start and are basically discriminated against within the system. With inclusion and such, kids with learning difficulties or mental problems might have a better chance nowadays, but back in my school days... well, good luck, or good night, whatever.
I personally prefer a system where kids aren't separated according to their alleged social potential and am glad there are at least Gesamtschulen available as kind of an alternative.
@@kingofmontechristo So what would suggest the US system where you have to pay through the nose to get your child an education then become bankrupt as a parent after kindergarten?
Isn't that beneficial to elites as well they just put their kids in the best schools as well ?
There is a swabian (south germany) saying: "Schaffe, Schaffe Häusle baue" which means "Work, Work and build a house" which is part of (not only the south german) mentality. So work hard and you can built your live - while alot of others live like "Build a house, and than just work as hard as you really need to to pay the dept".
And that's the most untrue thing to tell people. Working hard doesn't make you rich. Having rich parents makes you rich.
@@Schokelmei working hard makes rich. even with a normal job, if you live cheap you can save up to a house before youre 30. especially if your parents are invested in you and dont kick you out the moment you have a job.
@@rey6708 You guys are kinda both right here^^. True, if you have a good career going, you can buy a decent sized house (depending on region) with only money from your labor. However, you wont ever get "rich" through labor alone. And yes, statistically, the highest indicator of financial success, both in germany and the US, is already having a lot of wealth through your family. This coupled with the fact that taxation on money from labor us much higher than taxation on money made from other money (interest, compound interest, owning company shares, etc.), that old saying "making millions is easy, only the first one is really hard" still hold true.
@@random.3665 if you think having millions on your bank account is when youre rich youre wrong. having enough money to live a good life makes you rich, having assets that your children inherit makes you rich. everything more than that is unnecessary wealth that nobody should ever be allowed to possess.
By the way, in Germany we call our economy the "social market economy", which is essentially capitalism. However, as a complement, we have a social system in place to ensure that everyone receives similar good education, healthcare, and retirement provisions. This is why we have higher taxes and additional social contributions. This also means that the higher contributions ultimately benefit the taxpayer themselves to a large extent, and in the end, they are generally better and more affordably provided for than if they had to pay for these services individually but with fewer social contributions. At least, that's the idea behind this system. So yes, taxes and socoal contributions are much higher, but in my opinion, the money is very well spent.
And yes, that's just my opinion, but I believe that the measure of how good a society is lies in how well the poorest members of that society are faring and in the opportunities available for individuals to achieve prosperity. After all, the wealthy will naturally always fare very well; that has been the case already in monarchy and feudalism alike.
Taxes vs. gross/net: don't confuse gross/net with taxes. In Germany, net income is not only after taxes, but also after health insurance and other stuff (health insurance cost is a percentage of your gross income, capped somewhere). Other countries may have a tax funded health care system, which technically implies higher taxes, and still the gross/net difference could be less.
Honestly i agree that the "sorting system" of children at that young age into like different schools based off of their "knowledge" seems rather controversial AT FIRST,
but you can still make it big even if you got sorted into the lowest.
I for example remember my parents always telling me to do good in school in the first 4 grades so i get sorted into a good school but i used to be very lazy back then so i got sorted into the lowest one where you basically get teached to become like a carpenter or something but i really did not like that idea so later in 7th grade i started to work harder for it and after finishing in that school i had the opportunity to go to the next higher one to get better education. I finished that too and at the end i now study computer sience at university.
So even if you get sorted into the lowest at first, it's not like you will never be able to do anything else.
My brother did the same. He finished with straight As and can now even afford to take less money but work 4 days a week.
It felt weird to choose my destiny at age 10, though.
I would've preferred if they did it after 6th grade instead of 4th grade.
And for a while it worked like that. There was the Orientierungsstufe, grade 5 and 6, and that worked pretty well. Kids at the age of 10 don't really know what they (realistically) want to do in life. Their wished professions are things like astronaut or policeman or stuff like that.
The video says that Germany kept its patents after the Second World War, but I know that there were patents that Germany lost and that other countries simply took.
Fanta for example ;)
The German patents have been taken after WW2 by the USA and Britain as war reparations. As result the German inustry needed new inventions and the new inventions have been better than the old ones wich are than used by the USA and Britain. For example, Mercedes already built a car with fuel direct injection in the early 1950s, the 300SL Gullwing (3l in-line six-cylinder with 215 hp). In the USA, this performance required a V8 big block carburetor engine with a displacement of over 6 liters.
Always reminds me of that Top Gear scene.
"sevunnn leeder veeee eight modurrr. 200 horsepowers. How do they get so few horsepowers from a V8 motor?"
I was taught from a young age: "Don't spend more money than you have. Always put something aside for a rainy day." Borrowing money was always uncomfortable because it felt like you weren't strong and successful enough to fulfill your own desires and goals. Work harder, save longer. All it takes is a little more time to fulfill something, not more debts, because you have to pay them back, it just postpones the problem. And that is a deep, integral part of our culture and society. My 4 year old son saves every cent he gets from us or from grandma and grandpa. Most of the time it's small change, change that just gets in the way in your wallet. He always says, "Thank you. Then I can soon buy a really big toy and not just a small one."
Greetings from Germany ;)
In Germany there is a good training system for every job you want to learn for three to five years, whereby you also have to attend vocational school twice a week. Once you have completed your training you have more opportunities to find a job.🙂🐰🐇
Very good video from Visual Economic, BUT as a german living in germany, I have to totally disagree with the point about depts. One huuuuge problem we have right now are missing investments into infrastructure. And by this I am not talking about streets, I am talking about schools, kindergardens and the technical infrastructure for all institutions. And the goverment/parliament not allowing itself to go into debt for future investments is THE worst thing one could possibly do (as shown in the video itself its inevitable for future success). I only stated the parliament as well since a change of this specific law would require 2/3 majority, which the current goverment doesnt have. Germans are also not allergic to depts in general but it depends on the kind of depts. Going in dept for longterm investments (buying plot of land, house, apartment, new kitchen for 20k etc.) is totally ok for everyone I know (if you can afford the monthly repayment rate as well as the interest charges, that has obviously to be calculated). But going in dept for small stuff like a new refrigerator while the old still works or daily stuff is unwise as long as its not necessary. Either you can afford it or you cant.
Also even though germany has so many hidden champions (companies leading in a specific marketsector while no one knows them actually) right know it feels that we lack in knowledge and entrepreneurship in the "quite" important tech industry. Which may have been caused by all those bureaucracy about setting up a business hindering innovations.
For example: It took the big car companies so long to "re"-invent electric cars, that a chinese law from the early 2010s about a quota for electric car sales compared to combustion cars brought them all in outrage. (Which brought me, being 17 at the time at a huge outrage ;D) And since some big german companies got in my eyes to comfortable with their situation they oversaw the upcoming trends and needed to catch up hard. I think and hope, that they managed to do that. But as far as I know it mostly happened via buying start-ups, since they were so hard behind.
I know its usual to by a working start up for big companies since you avoid all the risks, but not after a huge market has already developed, there you should already be in possession of those start-up ideas and shape the market yourself. Which was and is the german quality in engineering.
The reasoning "We don't want to go into debt, we have to think of the next generation" is very short-sighted - the next generation will have to spend tons of money to invest in repairing/upgrading infrastructure, which will probably be much more expensive than doing it now.
I was wondering how can you afford buying brand new cars (auto country after all) without going into debt?
@@UtamagUta In my opinion smart people dont buy new cars, its a waste of money. Just do leasing for a while and then buy it. 😉
@@manuelvo1798but you end up paying more . The % is bigger leasing that buying in installment purchases
@@UtamagUta not necessarily, since you buy the car you leased. The loss of value is 50% in the first 3 years. So just lease it for a few years, then buy it.
Another reason is a functioning healthcare system where people are neither afraid of calling in sick (actually encouraged to do so in order not to spread germs) nor afraid of getting a huge bill for going to the doctor since medically necessary treatments are free or just cost a nominal fee like 5 or 10 Euro. A healthy population can also be productive.
Not wanting to go into dept is another reason why so few people buy houses in Germany
Oh haha, you said it yourself
Not really. In my experience, in case of buying a house it's one of the few occasions where it's pretty much accepted to go into dept and most people even aspire to this. The reason many don't do that is simply that you just can't afford it (you don't get the credit, except you want to live in a remote village with some hillbillies).
doubt that
@@armin5577 Buying a house or financing a car are the two main factors for loan financing.
Unfortunately, many people forget that the installment purchase for electronics or furniture made in a store or in an online retail business is also a loan and, yes, this installment payment is also reported to Schufa.
Since the financial crisis of 2008, lending guidelines have been significantly tightened, especially for long-term loans (mortgages ~ a total of around 30 years), and the so-called disposable income shrinks with every price increase in the cost of living.
*debt
Amazing that a discussion is even possible about German economic recovery after WW2 without going into the Marshall Plan and the subsequent forgiveness by the US of 2/3 of this debt.
That has a reason. It is higly debated how much the Marshall Plan even did for Europe. Yeah, it helped a bit. But most experts say the after-war boom would have happened anyway. And it wasn't 2/3 of the debt that was forgiven by the US. They gave Westgermany 1.4 Billion and they paid back 1 Billion. Which is less than 1/3 forgiveness of debt after more than 40 years of paying it back.
And it's not, as if Germany is not regularly dragged before international court to pay repercussions to countries affected by our war mongering 🤷
I would like to explain the family reasons a little more.
There are two reasons for this.
Reason number one:
There were five of us at home, my father was a civil servant and at the time the saying "a civil servant's jacket is tight but warm" was still the norm, money and especially living space were scarce at the time and so my father decided that only one of us would be allowed to study, the other four should leave the nest as soon as possible.
Reason number two:
I was the renegade, the apostate, the black sheep in the family. My nickname was "Olaf, the destroyer" because I immediately took apart any and all toys. Unfortunately not just my toys, but also those of my siblings. I also ran away from home twice. I was picked up once in Cannes and the other time in Berlin. Considering that we lived in Rosenheim at the time, I got pretty far back then.
However: With this CV, the choice could not have fallen on me. So at the young age of 14 I was sent to Reit im Winkl to do an apprenticeship as a chef, a place high up in the Alps and far from home. But even there I started to improve some kitchen appliances by taking them apart and sometimes not being able to put them back together. I still remember the huge automatic potato peeling machine well. I then learned the trade of radio and television technician, which I also completed with a journeyman's certificate. I then emigrated to Australia and tried to teach myself the secrets of mathematics by self-study. It was only supposed to be a holiday, but after five years I returned to Germany and read in a newspaper that you could now get your intermediate school leaving certificate with state funding. I couldn't resist. I called Mr. Les Free, my boss at the TCN9 TV station in Sydney, and told him that I probably wouldn't be coming back. And you know the rest. High school diploma, university degree and doctoral studies graduating with a Ph.D.
My grandma once told me, i always should have 3 times my wage always accessible in my bank account. The rest I should invest or buy nice things. This way in emergencies like a broken car or something I can always pay that with my money in the bank account and don't have to take debts. Smart lady.
Blender wasnt made by germans, it was a Dutch man/company
Originally from the Dutch animation studio NeoGeo, later taken over and established as an open source project by Ton Roosendaal.
Cinema 4D was startet by germans …
aah, makes sense with the orange color palette
Fact: The French sometimes call Germans the "Bosch", because the Bosch logo used to be on so many products from Germany since such a long time ago...😅 ...super iconic German company!
Sorry to have to contradict you, but that's not where the term Boches comes from. "Les boches" is a derisive term used by the Allies during World War I, often collectively ("the Boche" meaning "the Germans"). It is a shortened form of the French slang portmanteau alboche, itself derived from Allemand ("German") and caboche ("head" or "cabbage"). Boche was first used in the underworld of Paris about 1860, with the meaning of a disagreeable, troublesome fellow. In the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 it was not applied to the Germans, but soon afterward it was applied by the Parisian printers to their German assistants because of the reputed slowness of comprehension of these foreign printers. The epithet then used was tête de boche, which had the meaning of tête carrée d'Allemand (German blockhead or imbécile). The next step was to apply boche to Germans in general.
The company Robert Bosch GmbH was founded later, in 1887. ;)
A fellow German here ... not fact: the "Boche" word is explained in several documentaries about World War 1 even in German (I remember at least one series by the ZDF, where it was stated that this means something similar to "Holzkopf"/"Block Head") even if the explanation is shorter than that of @Frenchie100. You can also read it in the German Wikipedia article "Boche". So I have to agree to with him on this topic. Just because "Bosch" and "Boche" do sound the same, doesn't mean it shares the origin.
@@FinsthaI did just copy&paste the wiki entry! ;) As a dual nationality French&German growing up in France, I did make good use of both words sounding the same: I remember another young kid "insulting me" by telling me "sale boche!" (f'ing / dreckiger boche!) many years ago, and I was very glad that my older brother had taught me what to reply: just mimick the widely known French Bosch commercial slogan: "Bosch, du travail de pro!" ("Bosch, expert's work"/"Bosch, Arbeit von Profis") :)
Check "Publicité Bosch 1994" on daily motion if you want to hear the badass voice in the original! ;)
Taxes pay for services. Happier, healthier, wealthier people in Europe
The school system in Germany is not perfect and not really fair. But if you really want to and make an effort, anyone can achieve anything. Even as an adult, you always have opportunities to improve. I started a new apprenticeship two years ago for health reasons and I'm currently doing my Bachelor's degree alongside my work. Incidentally, I was previously a truck driver and I'll be 50 in May. 😅
Depends on what you call fair. If you are a bright mind you get the best chances in a system like that, and that is fair. If for some reason you bloom late, you can switch to a higher school and get the same advantages.
I would not call it fair for people wanting education, putting effort in and having the natural ability (which sadly isn't evenly distributed for all people) to give up their great education so you can sit next to them. Its not like the lower levels were bad and people couldn't get good jobs.
@@axell964 That is what i said
Viel Erfolg noch beim Studium!
@@axell964 I don't quite understand what you wrote. about giving up education so you (who?) could sit next to them?
@@charis6311 It's about "fairness" being a relative aspect in our education system. Streamlining all 3 into one to make it fair would hurt everyone outside the middle. So you'd have high IQ people most likely being bored to make the lower IQ feel better. (Sidenote that IQ doesn't mean you have to be a total dumbass, just shows difference in cognitive abilities.)
I’m from Germany and currently designing a Porsche 911 GT3R while watching your video and randomly talking bout blender…😂😂
Yeah but one of the Problems of the free higher Education is that germany nowadays has a big shortage on craftsman of all areas because Most people wanna go to universities
The same was in Poland, but it's starting to change.
And because a lot of smaller companies and tradespeople are quite resistant to change regarding working environment and atmosphere. Treating an apprentice like an idiot or slave, disregarding labor protection laws etc. - there are reasons why young people often prefer to work in a factory: regulated work hours and income, unionized etc.
Not really. The education system has been around longer than the shortage. People simply saw their parents work for small money with a big physical impact and don't want the same for themselves. Then there's also a resistance to "modernise" their thinking, like taking the opinion of an apprentice as automatically less than their senior coworker. Nobody likes to work and possibly work more without feeling appreciated or have some second reenactment of bullying in school.
Putting a shit-ton more money into education and access to education in the US would pretty much fix all the problems we have today. But no, banning books, putting restrictions on free speech and the freedom of choice is more important.
At this point I'd gladly even pay more in taxes here in Germany if it went into improving your education system.
The most important aspect has been omitted. Diligence, honesty and work ethic. Just compare the quality of finishing of buildings in Germany and the UK.
Houses are one of the few exceptions for many germans for debt because the dept is usually secure, but most germans woudln't buy christmas presents or a vacation on loan. But houses: yeah. We don't have that much houses because they are very expensive and the bureaucracy around building and buying houses are a nightmare (there was a saying: the comlexity of the chinese emperors bureaucracy was a joke compared to the complexety of prussia ... and we germans are, from an adminstration standpoint still prussians ... sorry bavarians, but it's true)
No one would buy christmas presents and a vacation with a loan :D
Having complex laws isn't neccessarily bad. For tax law f.e. it is said, that 80% of the world's literature about taxes regards german tax law. But thats not because it's "complex" or "difficult" - its the same "add this, minus that, choose from these varieties" as everyone else, just.. more detailed and with less loop holes. There's a reason it took into the 90s before american hedgefonds could destroy social housing in germany or into the 2010th before China fell into bigger businesses and even f' Bezos rather hangs around whatever "eUrOpeAn hEadQuArTeR" he takes, where he pays as little taxes as possible or can evade them by designed loopholes (and plays shti with VAT, I really really hate verything about the one-stop-shti, drop-shop-shti and every other VAT-nightmare)
@@blatterrascheln2267 it is understandable that they want to evade taxes. Imagine earning 10 million euro and you have to pay 5 million for taxes. That is straight up theft. Have you watched The Walking Dead? The season where Negan forces everyone to pay him a little bit of their resources regularly for protection? That is straight up the same things except that some things are more useful like infrastructure, but the idea that you force somebody to participate in it, it is theft.
@@kingofmontechristo I suspect that there are many people who pay for Christmas presents and holidays in credit cards which they cannot pay off completely at the end of the month - effectively a loan, but this is much more likely to be the case in the USA or GB than it is in Germany. That is the point that the OP was making.
(I have lived in both Germany and GB, so do have a good insight into the different attitudes to saving and debt).
The minimum wage is 12,41€ or $13,38
the minimum wage it can be more !
26:22 Bosch is not only a German company, but Bosch also improved a chemical procedure invented by Haber ~1900s to sythesise ammonia efficiently, which resulted in artificial fertilizer being commonly available.
Haber was also the "father of toxic gas" during WW1, which is often forgotten, but without him and Bosch, most people would not be alive today.
Robert Bosch , a German industrialist who founded the company in Stuttgart in 1886 !
Robert Bosch was the uncle of Carl Bosch, who took part in the invention of the "Haber-Bosch-Verfahren" (ammonia synthesis)
It is good that setting up a buisness is difficult. That means much less scam buisnesses and much more people REALLY think about if their business will work before opening another crappy shop that goes broke in 2 weeks.
The marshal plan wasn’t the real reason because UK and France also benefits from that.
The difference was, Germany focused on civil goods while the other focused on rebuilding the military. Also Germany used the money to create a bank that would lend money will small interest rates to firms and private ppl and this bank still exists with the original money pit into it.
Also the high education plays a role.
With the debts, in Germany you go into debts normally only if you buy a house, apartment or a car. Not for other consumer goods.
Nowadays I‘d say a big majority of kids go to highschool/gymnasium. Because in Germany people think that everyone else is stupid.
I used to give private tutor lessons in Switzerland and all of the German immigrant families tried to get their kids to pass the highschool entry exam so hard, anything else was not an option. In Switzerland only a small percentage passes this exam, most do apprenticeships and they are definitely not regarded as lesser anything.
I also had many students that moved here and started in highschool bc in Germany they had visited highschool too but most dropped out because the level was higher.
This three tier system was definitely loosened up, there are now too many students going to highschool (Gymnasium) who would be better off doing something else.
Also lots of ‚Problemschulen‘ with too many unintegrated immigrants are a problem too.
The PISA study results for Germany were unsurprisingly bad. I feel like they are about to loose their biggest asset and instead of preserving education they welcome this change.
Interessant, dass du die Schulen so vergleichst. Ich schreibe mal Deutsch..
Früher waren Realschulen und Hauptschulen in Deutschland auch ok oder angesehen. Handwerker war ein absolut angemessenes Berufsziel. Aber seit der Agenda 2010 und Hartz IV und dem damit verbundenen harten Konkurrenzkampf, den die meisten mit Abstieg in die Unterschicht verlieren, ist so ein Druck da.
Bei euch kann immer noch fast jeder von seinem Einkommen leben, auch ohne Akademiker zu sein. Und daher ist logischerweise auch eine Schule für Nichtakademiker eine Option.
Man kann Schulen nicht von ihrer Gesellschaft isoliert betrachten.
"A question a lot of you might ask, how did germany become so rich?"
Komm JETZT in die Gruppe und finde es heraus!
Porsche Cayman S!
When Lambo?
A lot of people in Germany are complaining about the high taxes and social security/health insurance costs (and from the plain figures, they are right) but honestly, when I realize how well maintained the infrastructure (yes, there are exceptions), safe living, extraordinary good healthcare, education and security is, I am glad to contribute!
„Security and Germany." 😂
Greetings from Germany. (:
@@ericm.8110_Your_ Germany ist not the Germans Germany.
You Putin lover should maybe think about building your home somewhere else since you will NEVER get the politics you want over here. There is enough space in the east.
it's just that we like to complain. We complain about everything.
We complain about how our trains are always late, when we have one of the best public transport networks in the world. (After perhaps the swiss and japanese)
We complain about high taxes, but also gladly use all the tax-provided services and are fine with having them.
We complain about the weather, but we have neither crazy heatwaves, floods, hurricanes or tornadoes. Or at least not nearly as bad as many other places in the world. All of those things exist in sort of a very tame version.
We complain how bad education is and how bad we do in international statistics, when we are still around spot 20, which makes is part of the top 10% in the world.
@@ericm.8110 Schauen Sie doch einfach mal in die Expat-Studie rein. Dort wurden ausländische Arbeitnehmer zu verschiedenen Punkten bezüglich ihrer Erfahrungen befragt und die Sicherheit einer der wenigen Punkte, wo wir wirklich gut abgeschnitten haben im Vergleich zu den anderen Ländern.
There is the big Problem though, that the social system relies WAY too much on citizens that make low + middle income while people with high income get even ritcher every day.
Reason number five: We still have Overheadprojektors 💪
1) Why is the German education system so good even though we still use overhead projectors everywhere and have relatively little internet access?!
2) I have to express this one point to your Mr. Trump (or his economic advisors) - of course Germany has been hiding its very good productivity behind a comparatively soft currency (euro) for decades. If we had the DM (German mark) again here (as some "specially educated" people from the AfD etc. are demanding), the local products would be unaffordably expensive and Germany would have an extremely massive problem in exports (which is a huge part of the German economy ).
re 1) How did Einstein become so good at math when all he had to learn it from was printed books and lessons on blackboards? Without 3D-rendered multimedia presentations (in 4k) and interactive smartboards, he should have been unable to grasp those concepts.
That does not change the fact that the euro is robbing people of their savings and pensions.
@@HenryLoenwind Sorry, that was just an "insider" based on other films in reactions so far in which it is always presented that way (as it usually is).... As a practitioner, the only thing that annoys me as a practitioner is this ridiculous approach, as if even more technology ( which already clearly leads to even more stupidity) lead to some particular improvement in learning. Here in Germany, digitalization in schools (as it is propagated by politicians, among others) is mostly NOTHING other than a cover-up of the politics that have led to the conditions that can be criticized (shortage of teachers, equipment in schools, classes that are too large, inclusion, lack of language skills of migrant children...).
The use of different classroom media does not improve quality of education in most subjects. Actually writing, reading, maths, chemistry, physics and so on are best learned by doing it on your own on paper (or a tablet if you really need, but it tends to steer the pupils focus away from the subject)
if Germany had a better government in the past 20 years that would have focused on the important stuff Germany could have become as rich as the US or more. now those days are over. we would need a miracle to still be relevant in 20 years
why is everyone refering to social security payments as taxes?
health insurance, job insurance, retirement . are all of that are not taxes as the state doesnt get any of it and are still reffered to as taxes in all those videos about german salary.
if you loose jour job you get payed around 60% of the last income for up to one year.
health cost are coverd and copay does only exist only in symbolic doses like 10 euro for each day in hospital etc. only serious copay is for tooth replacement .
once you get to the retirement age you recive around 50% of your salary for the rest of your life.
for non of that you have to pay for with your net salary, its alreaydy covered.
if you are married with a child you would pay zero tax in the first bracket and barly any in the second.
the more you earn the higher the tax is. the idear is : everyone contributes to society accoding to his abilitys.
ofc that system is not perfect and does not function always as intended, but paying into a insurance is not a tax.
Robert Bosch once said: I can't pay high wages, because i'm rich, i'm rich because i pay high wages.
Mandatory school system since the 19th century led to almost 100 % alphabetization.
Feels like we dropped to below 50%
alphabetization --- the act of arranging something in the same order as the letters of the alphabet
Literacy ----- the ability to read and write
If I want to be optimistic I just watch foreign videos about Germany - then it all doesnt sound so bad... many points he mentioned are not wrong but a bit out-dated I feel.
The focus on stability left us in the dust when it came to modernize the country, and without getting too political the actions during the last decade lead to a clear divide in the populations political opinions and broke unity... doesnt help that the national football team kept doing poorly too. Now we are the only major industrial nation with a negative growth (actual shrinking economy), business want to leave the country - education is also not adaptation, again modernization in slow motion, economic pressure due to energy costs, and much more - sure its bad for many but our inactivity and focus on stability / lets just not do "anything" / for years got us into a pretty sticky situation. Well there is a lot wrong here, but many basic parts still work and if we pull ourselves together like our forefathers did then we probably can turn this into a chance for a great change and rise once more... lets be hopeful i guess - anyway thanks for reading and take care
Germany could lift the tax load from the middle class by taxing the Rich and Finance Markets more, but the Middle class doesn't have a Lobby that whispers into the Politicians ears and makes them little presents here and there.
Taxing the rich would just make them go somewhere else and the whole money would be lost...
If they had to stay where they are this would be an option... But we live in a globalised world so you can move wherever you want...
@@naviro6672that's a myth. Read other people's stance on this.
@@robintusk3442 Nein, es stimmt. Viele reiche Deutsche Leben in der Schweiz, und viele Ärzte. Bin selber Deutsch, arbeite für eine Britische Firma hier in der Schweiz, und hab viele Deutsche Arbeitskollegen. Mein Hausarzt und die Gynäkologin meiner Frau, sind beide aus Deutschland.
well many rich German people and doctors move to Switzerland bc of the lower taxes. I am German myself and live in Switzerland. It's "Auswanderungsland" Nr.1 of Germans
We dont need to tax doctors. I talk about the ultra rich. Wealth taxes are higher in most european neighbor countries. We should tax labor less and very high capital more, I'm speaking 3 million should be free. All above this figure, there would be a small percentage. And no, the biggest or mid-size-family companies wouldnt all leave. Where do they go and what would moving cost them? To cyprus? Also, theres lots of instruments (laws) a state can implement that make it harder to move. They should just pay their fair share, be forced to pay higher wages and not pay billions to their shareholders. For smaller companies, they can be helped with affordable and stable energy prices, qualified workers, et cetera.
16:45
It's very much possible to change schools later on if you have the grades. On the other hand, some students struggle in the higher level school and voluntarily change to a lower one and do better there. It's not a solid, unchangeable decision
13:05 "It is the mind that builds the body!" (J.W. Goethe)
Well yes up to a point if you are dirt poor and starving your body quits no matter what you've learned!
@@gregorygant4242 That's what you would initially assume, yes. But you have to think this through to understand it properly. Before your body gives up, your mind has already done so. This is difficult for many to understand as long as they believe only in matter and not in the invisible power of spirit. Learn more about Goethe so you may realize the depth of this wisdom. Note: Google English Translator doesn't even know the right word for "Materie" and delievers "matter" instead. That says a lot, because of course the definition of the word is important first before you can learn to understand it (Socrates). The English language there already lacks the means to reach the German level. All American philosophers must at some point learn German in order to make real progress.
@@gregorygant4242 Not quite. Education helps you make better decisions in what you buy for the little money you have and helps you fend off the influence of advertisements. Which, e.g. leads you to buy fruit and vegetables instead of processed food in bright containers that only tell you it's cool to eat that stuff.
@@charis6311 You're missing my point. I mean you can know an encyclopedia of knowledge and have lots of degrees but it you are poor ,starving it won't help your body it will give up the ghost.
@@gregorygant4242 Oh yes, in this extreme case of course you are right. You can't live on thin air alone. But I meant there are degrees of destitution and there education most certainly does help.
The Nordic countries are roughly the same as Germany, although they are much smaller in population.
Ford didn't invent a car they existed long before Ford. What he did was to start making cars that were not custom built but produced cars on assembly lines that looked exactly the same. Thanks to a Swede he got hold of in Sweden - Mått-Johansson (Carl Edvard Johansson) his combination measuring set consists of 102 pieces of steel that can be combined in around 20,000 combinations. The size is from 1 to 201 millimeters with increments of 0.01 mm. The pass pieces could be combined with each other in different ways to be able to provide all the dimensions needed in industrial production. That kit made it possible to manufacture car parts that fit from one car to another and that the car part did not just fit a single car.
Ryan, International Education means not the social, means the Education is all over the World in History, geography and so, NOT only about USA like in Amerika!!;)
FYI - fulltime workmonth is 4.35 Weeks * 5 workdays * 8 hours Netto worktime (like 8 - 16:30 with 30 minutes break) The hour minimum is ~13€
I don’t say he‘s totally wrong, but there is more to Germany being the fourth biggest economy in the world. And that‘s the size of the population. Looking at GDP per capita Germany comes in at number 12 behind most Scandinavian countries which don‘t have the separated school system like Germany. And that‘s also showing when you compare PISA results between all those countries and Germany. And that is going on for a long while now. Also Germany is among the worst countries in Europe when it comes to how the income of your parents decides about your ability to get higher education.
Without some of our key industries that are successful world wide we wouldn’t be the ranked that high. We‘ll see when it comes to transition to renewable energy and electric cars. Many solarpower companies have already left Germany and windpower is almost already in Chinese hands. And when the auto industry doesn’t pay attention they will share their fate.
And when it comes to development of infrastructures like the internet, Germany is way behind other countries in Europe. Also digitalization of Government is one of the lowest in the EU. And this will some day going to bite us back.
25:10 "how do you leave out the USA?".
Well, you see: at the top of the graph there it says developed countries
There is a lot to say about Agenda 2010 and debt stuff... our companies may not be in huge debt, but that is because we let foreign countries go into debt for us instead of raising wages and use internal consumption.
I wouldnt say we do it more than most other western countries...
Well yes, but it's smart, isn't it
Let's not forget the American genius of the Marshall Plan (European Recovery Program) not just in terms of money but in trying to make Europe more connected, more stable and more in line with American values at the time. (From Sweden).
Little detail to be corrected... Germany is now the 3rd largest economy in the world as it just bypassed Japan for the first time in history.
wut japan lost it's 3rd place?
@@kleinerfarmer1 yes
The fight of two export nations that export finished products and knowhow.
I just want to explain the wage chart a bit more, as this was a bit rushed. An employee is payed his net wage, which is his gross wage minus applicable taxes (that differ due to certian factors like children, family and so on) and the employee part of the social security insurances (health, pension, unemployment and long term care insurances). This would be the difference between the last two columns for Germany and the 2nd/3rd columns for Spain. The employer on the other hand has to pay the gross salary _plus_ the empolyer portion of social security insurances and the contribution for the compulsatory casualty insurance. Also, there are some more contributions. This total sum is column 1.
This means that an employee who earns a gross salary of about 105k will earn about 57k in net salary - but the total cost the company has to pay is about 120k.
Something that tends to be forgotten is the huge impact of the Marshal plan. With the industry being stripped due to the reparation payments, no money, so they used the old factories as payment, the industry was able to spent all the money from the Marshal plan into new tools and factories.
Sorry, but that is a myth. If you dig deeper you will find that it was paid back more than 100%.
After the war we also had millions of young refugees from former german settlements in eastern countries which had no land and forced to work in the industry. They also were highly educated and eager to become rich again. An example is Zeiss which was rebuild in West Germany by east germans fleeing from the russians.
Bruh the guy presenting agenda 2010 as something positive wtf
It was ...
An educated Workforce makes companies more efficient. Germans also rarely change their profession. Workers here learn their Profession 3 years after they finish school. Usually is 50/50 Practice at the Workplace and theoretical in professional school. In the end, you do the final exam. This makes career changes more difficult but allows companies to have good professional workforce.
Germany shows that working more doesn't mean more work is done. We have the lowest annual work hours in the world but have the 19th highest GDP per capita and the 18th highest when adjusted for purchasing power. So a german work hour is worth a lot.
As example. The average US worker works 35% more, but makes only about 21% more money when adjusted for purchasing power. Which means the one hour of work of the average german worker is worth about 12% more than one hour of work of the average american worker.
The german could take a 7 minute break every hour and still be as productive as the american worker, who then works 50% more.
And if we look at the country with the highest annual working hours, Colombia, it becomes even more extreme. They work about 79% more, but their purchasing power adjusted GDP per capita is only 18% of germany, which means the typical german working hour is worth about 460% more.
And those are adjusted for purchasing power, which means relative to the local market. A colombuan worker has to work 5.5 times longer to buy something in Colombia, than the german worker has to work to buy the same thing in Germany.
Our comeback after WWII is because our politicians back then actually knew wtf they were doing, compared to today...
Actually, you can see that the western part of germany did well because of many programs from the west like the marshal plan. The contrary was eastern germany. Additionally you get the economy much easier running if you can build everything new. I dont think that had anything to do with the politicians of this time... maybe excluding the us ones that started the support plans
@@FAL87 They at least allowed those parties to be there 🤷♂️
Something especially people from the US often misunderstand. Is that Taxes are not just something You pay. But are something that Pays things.
Business and Industry needs 3 things to be Succesful.
1. Infrastructure that can Support and Supply whatever Industry or Business so it can actually work and be Competetive.
2. Healthy Workers which are Available and Skilled/Learned enough that they can Work for You.
3. A Demand from Paying Customers for whatever You offer.
And here is the thing. 1. and 2. are heavily Subsidized by Taxes.
If the Business needs to Pay for these themselves. Its often just so Cost Prohibitive that the Business has no Chance to ever Compete.
Hence why there is only 2 Options for Succesful Business.
You either go the American Way. Which is Radical Capitalism where Taxes are so Low and Social Systems are so Non Existant that the Companies can Work so Cheaply that they can Pay for these 2 things themselves. Albeit this often means that Specialist Workers are Super Expensive while Unskilled Workers end up a Disposable Ressource that gets handled like Cattle.
The Big Benefit of this is massive Growth Rates because the Companies can make massive Profits very Quickly as long as they have enough Capital to Invest.
Or You go the European (German) Way. Which is Social Capitalism where Taxes and Social Systems are High but the Companies in Exchange have access to Infrastructure and Educated Workers without needing to provide all of this themselves.
This will often cause Larger Companies to have a Harder Time of getting large Profit Margins. And Specialist Workers will often move to other Countries.
But the Big Benefit is an Unparalleled Stability which allows for a Stable and very Crisis Resistant Economy where People and Companies are Safe in knowing that their Critical Needs are maintained by the State.
The table at 4:15 seems to have some bias. Even including the highest tax classes and social security deductions I could not reproduce the difference between gross and net salary in Germany (and also not the difference between employee cost and net salary - even with their figures the net should always be more than half of the employee cost.) 4:50 That is not taxes, but taxes plus social security insurances (the insurance share is for most people far higher than the tax share). 4:53 The corporate tax rate was in 2008 reduced from 25% to 15% of taxable income plus 5,5% of the tax sum as 'solidarity surcharge' (for the costs caused by reunification and some other events), which than adds up to 15.825% of taxable income. The business tax is raised by the municipalities based on business profits; it is highest in the either most attractive or the most indebted cities.
5:32 The minimum wage in Germany is currently (since 2024) 12.41 Euro per hour, which puts Germany on fourth place in Europe (6th place worldwide) between Ireland and Belgium. Some weeks before the video was published it was set in October 2022 at 12 Euro per hour or 480 Euro per week if working 40 hours per week, before October 2022 it was 10,45 Euro. The minimum wage is normally set by a common comitee of the confederation of employers' associations and the confederation of trade unions, the rise in 2022 however was determined by the parliament.
6:30 That is mostly due to some bureaucracy, but it also depends on which kind (and size) of enterprise or company you want to start.
11:30 That tradition was destroyed by the Nazis - partly by driving away the most intelligent scientists (including, but not ending with Einstein), partly be replacing renowned university professors with their party followers, partly by killing the most promising of the younger generation in the war and in prisons. 12:20 But at that time the economy did not really flourish. The protection did not help to get competitive advantages. The Great Depression hit Germany hard, many companies went bankrupt or had to be sold to foreign investors (like the then biggest German car producer Opel, sold to GM), and the resulting unemployment helped the Nazis to gain power (as well as some conservative politicians and anti-democratic entrepreneurs) - even if the preceding government had already started some job creation schemes like building the first Autobahn sections. The Nazis then concentrated on the armament industries, their programs mostly financed by debt (which they later started to repay with loot first taken from Jews and other persecuted people and then from the spoils of war).
13:20 You need also a well thought out political economic system like the so called social market economy (a more accurate name would be competion-oriented market economy as it was called by one of its visionaries) with a strong anti-cartel or antitrust office, a redistribution policy to secure economic fairness as well as domestic consumption, promotion of social partnership, economic freedom while at the same time restricting "big players" to secure an economic balance of power, measures to secure economic and financial stability and other elements. The Germany of the 1950s was however also far less "interventionistic" than the UK or French governments. 13:48 The biggest recipients were the UK with nearly 25% and France with about 20%. Italy got nearly 11%, Germany about 10%, the Netherlands 7%, Austria 5%. The funds were mostly used to subsidize imports from the USA, while the European governments had to spend the same sum into counterpart funds to be used for recovery projects. A main difference was for Germany and Austria, that they had to pay back most of the funds; therefore they used the funds mostly for loans (while e.g. the UK used it to pay back debts). The German credit institute for reconstruction still manages the surplus of the reimbursements and uses it together with funds from other government programs to give low-cost loans in the course of those programs.
It's not just taxes, it's all social contributions - that is why they said "40% of the cost of companies is social" - because it is. It's just that 20% flows directly from the company (Arbeitgeberanteil der Sozialversicherungen) and 20% is going from the gross salary.
I want to correct that you're talking Körperschaftsteuer, but that's collected by the federal state and only is for "corporations", like GmbH, KG, AG etc pp. The business tax set and collected by the municipalities is Gewerbesteuer. That's with a set amount (often something between 300% and 480%) of "Gewerbesteuermessbetrag", 3,8% of the taxable income (aka, income minus certain stuff and a tax ecempt amount of 24.500 EUR). They're not the same. Otherwise you're totally right.
@@blatterrascheln2267 Apparently my wording was a bit imprecise. You're right, they are different. The 7% from the video are the 3.5% you mentioned multiplied with the minimum assessment rate (Hebesatz) of 200%, and the taxed amount (the Gewerbesteuermessbetrag) is based on the profit the business made, but with different cutbacks, addbacks and allowances.
One huge difference is respect for labour. In the USA and Canada we treat manual and even skilled labour and the people who do it like garbage. We pay them as little as possible and treat it as shameful.
It's not true in Germany. If you are good at your labour job and act with pride, you'll be paid well, have job security, and never have to hang your head when you say where you work.
What beautiful if it was like that. But respect of labour has dropped like everywhere else in the western world. Factory workers earn half of what they earned in the late 90ies by now. And what job security?
Unfortunately for Germans the country is in steady decline, deviating more and more with time from the now outdated overall description given in the video. It's like a train with an engine that stopped working a while ago. The train is still going forward due to the large momentum it built up in the past. And all passengers sitting in their comfortable seats keep telling each other how beautiful the view is and how smooth the ride has been so far. In reality, they all know that something is terribly off. That didn't start yesterday, but has been going on for more than a decade.
One more important point about education, to get certified as a trained professional in germany you have an apprenticeship of three somtimes even 4 years which combines learning on the job in company and specialised classes of school. Its called "duale Ausbildung". This gives german employers a deep understanding of their field of work.
And many companies doesn't even hire people that aren't certified this way as trained professionals, unless they have an university degree of course.
An other point that might be considered is that until some years ago national service was mandatory in germany which gave people a comon understanding of how things should come together, what helps a lot to integrate new employees or in coorperation of different companies.
11:03 Ford made cars affordable for the lower income classes and changed/influenced the shape of american citydesign.
Most of your infrastructure is made for cars from the start because a hugh number could afford one.
It is weird that the americans never see that as an achievment on its own.
It is but Americans have become too dependent on their cars and don't use public transport or even walking much today . They have become lazy in that regard !
Illegedly when Ford said to a union leader that in future the workers would become redundant because of machines, the union leader asked who was going to buy his cars then. Expensive workers are big spending consumers, that works in a national economy. Off shoring and money printing has destroyed that upward circular development.
Oh man!
You have no idea about German unions and say they don't help you!
Bullshit!!
The unions negotiate the wages and salaries of the employees!! just like the marginal conditions of the employment relationship (weekly working hours, bonuses for overtime, etc.)
If you don't know that, you shouldn't throw garbage about it.
I've been in the union for 45 years and I'm proud of it.
After WW2 germany did't just pulled itself up by its bootstraps. The Allies helped it back on its feet to be able to fight against the UDSSR. So there was a strong insentive to get Germany running again
Unions are where i live collaborating with the companies, both making sure that people get paid and agreements are held up, (mom worked for one of the many the unions) and making sure the company survive, it is a collaboration.
Strikes are rare but they do happen.
Both employer and employee need each other.
yes 40% on high incomes but you dont pay on hospitals on pharmacy on education etc etc......
It's not 40%. People should finally understand that its not taxes that's so much but social insurance. Tax can be as low as 12% or even 0 on income under a certain range. Just because taxes and social insurance is both collected direktly from the employer doesn't mean "it's all taxes". Also, he probably counted in the part for social insurances that employers pay on top of every employee.
@@blatterrascheln2267i think it's 40% that you don't get in general (although the number is about 35%) but then you pay sales tax and tax on everything else again. So 50% of your money being tax/social security is a decent estimate.
25:31 houses are just very expensive and rare. You dont want to renovate or build a new house. And most people are happy in flats.
Where is this wonderful country "Germany" he is talking about?
look at a map
Exactly. Only on paper. Not in reality.
Take a time machine back to the 70s, 80s or 90s but be careful to end up in the western part.
Now that the communists and their allies rule us for almost 19 years everything is going down. But most of us reject to notice that because our ancestors created enough wealth which we are currently using to pay for all the populist programmes.
Also a lot of people have unneeded jobs that pay them a lot of salary but are devastating for the economy as a whole.
When the people born in the 60s will retire we will have enormous problems because there don't come enough young qualified people to fill the empty positions.
Also to further increase the problems we experience an enormous immigration in quantity of people but a very low or even lower than emigration in quality of people.
@@matthiasbehrendt6112 🙈
@@arnodobler1096 Achja?
Schauen Sie sich mal die Handwerker an, die Sie für ein schönes Leben brauchen.
Wie viele davon sind Ü50, werden also wahrscheinlich innerhalb der nächsten 10 Jahre in Rente gehen?
Was unseren Wohlstand sichert sind keine Gleichstellungsbeauftragten, Burn-out-Beamte oder arbeitsuntaugliche "Neubürger", sondern Arbeiter, die Werte schaffen oder zumindest darin unterstützen dies zu tun.
Das ist Grundlagenwissen in Volkswirtschaft. Wohlstand entsteht im Leistungsprozess, alles andere ist nur Umverteilung, aber nicht Schaffung.
You missed the part with the Marshall Plan. You Americans funded the German economy massively after the war. Without that money our quick recovery would have been impossible. Thanks a lot.
Simp
These days are OVER.
So siehts aus, Ampelregierung sagt Hallo. Wirtschaftsminister weiß nichtmal was Insolvenz ist.
Finally someone with sense.
8:50 In Germany the state pays for the education. I only pay about 700$ per year for university and that's mainly for the public transport ticket. Also almost everyone goes to public schools that are for free.
Germany has the worst shool system in Europe thats sad
I think france is way worse.
I disagree
Right, they didn't even teach you how to write school😂
Not really.
@@Vince-gf7xrhave you never in your life made a typo?
In Germany, students not only go to regular school for a long time, then go to university, but also alternativ complete two-stage vocational training.
This consists of parallel learning of the craft profession in companies and additional state training in vocational schools.
unfortunately soon a thing of the past
No
Yeah the political trends in germany are really scary. People forget history.
yea socialism doesn't work
@@k2p104i am frightened. I as a queer disabled and jewish descendant, feel like it aint safe anymore
@@k2p104 people should vote for AFD
Imagine that, employer and unions working together?! The calamity! When I still lived in Germany, my company where I worked had a union office, right on the premises. Nobody lost any sleep over that, as they do here, in the States. Also, a common motto is: Work smarter, not harder.
Yup, the unions have always been strong in Germany and were never in a "war" with the employers. They aren't seen as "taking your wages" but instead as a, well, union of workers that represent you and your interests. And we can't forget that the second largest political party in post-WWII Germany existed before the war as well and originally started as a socialist workers party, but moved more towards a realpolitik social democracy angle.
Generally the german economy is described as "social market economy", where a lot is like in typical free market capitalism, but it also has some socialism-influenced things, like government regulation. In general the government oversight is there to ensure that the market is fair and competitive, for companies, workers, and consumers alike.
As a German kid growing up I learned from my grandfather to never buy anything on lease/ credit… never buy a new car unless you can pay it all in cash. Then in around 8th-9th grade my economics teacher said the same thing and literally gave us calculation exercises like “If product A costs $1000 and you save up $50/month it will take you a bit over 1,5years to save up the money to buy in cash. But if you buy a $1000 product today and sign a down payment plan for $50/month over 2 years the product will cost you $1200 in the end.” And his point being was that we have to learn to delay gratification and always save money. That’s normal German education up until ca 10-15years ago. I think it is much less strict nowadays.
and no blender is from a dutch developer started: "Blender was created by Ton Roosendaal, a Dutch art director and self-taught software developer." (on the blender homepage in "history"
im actually an Bosch apprentice, we all get nice unlimited (time) jobs after that. Thats how they make a lot of money
i still remember how we used copper wire in school to pretty much build a rudimentary "electric engine" in the 90s 😀 didn't rotate very fast but it moved🙂
Ryan, we pay high taxes, true. But what do we get ? Free healthcare, education, retirement fund, unemployment and social support and more. So you can compare to what you get and how much you pay for it. Free education, isn't that a universal right, fundamental to equal opportunities ? For me it is.
When I was still working, 50 % of my salary went to the state. But from the left over I could buy me a house, car and go on yearly holiday abroad. My children went to school and I did not worry about healthcare cost. Now I am retired and have no financial worries. That is our freedom. Make your choose. And our companies make profit, are thriving. And I am Belgian but that is comparable to Germany, our neighbors.
In America they say and believe that all this will kill the economy. The Germans and Europe as a whole, proves the opposite. But the American can't and DONT WANT to see it, as they are the greatest and the best But they are FREE to believe whatever they want.
Not buying houses and not going in debt has been a looong point of heated discussion between me (German) and my wife (Norwegian) … as a German I never expected to be able able to buy a house anytime soon/ possibly when I’m around 45 years old. But in Norway it is expected to first buy a 1-room apartment, then sell it and buy a 2-room, then sell it and buy a 3-room and get married and when the kids come by a small row-house and make money on each. It’s such a different mindset!
I doubt Belgium had such a high percentage of literate people when they didn't even have mandatory school education before WW1.
16:10 school years. It also depends whether a country considers kindergarden / daycare / preschool to be counted as school years.