We hear all the time how good life is in this country, but many Americans have nothing to benchmark it against. It is usually our only experience.Frequently, we hear about the low cost of health care in Sweden of France and the damage being done to our uninsured and underinsured here. Some people get incensed as if it's un-American to say some things might be better elsewhere. Naturally, we don't always know whose reports are reliable or what things are being reported with an agenda.
For this reason I thought my friend's observations below were insightful and worth sharing. He had lived in Germany for a number of years. Came to the States in 2007 and was surprised how bad our roads were as well as our houses. I asked him in an email to elaborate on some of the differences between life in these United States and life in Germany. I share this exchange below.
Dear S.Thanks again for visiting Friday eve. I found your comments on the inferior quality of American roads and run-down-ness here to be interesting. I was wondering if you could go into more detail on that sometime. What was it like in Germany? Susie asked me a few questions that I failed to ask and didn't know re: the politics, the education system etc.
The very best to you and yours,
ed
Hi Ed and Susie,
This is a long-delayed response to your email, and I’ll try to answer some of the questions.
I think Germany has three things going for it. First, it is basically a homogenous culture, where most of the people think and act pretty much the same. So they can pass laws that actually represent the will of the people, and they are all willing to obey them. Second, they are Germans, and that means that their culture values things like quality, longevity, and promptness. So things tend to get done right the first time, and they are not afraid to pay a bit extra to get the best. Third, they are letting the U.S. spend its resources to be the leader of the developed world. They give a token amount to various good causes, but mostly they use their economic growth to benefit themselves. We spend an inordinate amount outside of our own country, particularly at this time.
If we had these three things going for us, we would be the leader of the world in deed, not just in word. However, our culture is hardly homogenous, and therefore we can hardly pass any laws that the majority of the people respect. We value what is inexpensive and transitory, and most everything around us shows it – houses, cars, clothing, body fitness, entertainment. And of course, we are spending billions in foreign countries that other countries are not.
The German school system separates children into two tracks at about 4th grade – one track into the trades and one track into the professions. I am not sure I like that, but one benefit of it is that the universities are not cluttered with people who have no business being there. And the blue collar workers are paid enough and given enough respect that they are happy with their lot and not always jealous of the "rich."
The politics of Germany is basically all the planks of the Democratic party platform taken for granted. There are no arguments about things like abortion, the environment, gay rights, etc. The society accepts all these "hot button" issues as already settled and not worth discussing. Our culture is still wrestling with these ethical issues, and there are many more Bible-believing people here than there.
Even the Bible-believing Christians in Germany are more liberal socially than we are here though. I might see that as a sign of maturity that comes from having a culture with ancient roots, or it might be a sign of a post-Christian society that is only going downhill morally. Both might be right.
Take care and God bless you and yours.
S.
P.S. I looked at your blog and it is very interesting. I added it to my "favorites" list and will explore it further!
3 comments:
>>>>>>>>>>And of course, we are spending billions in foreign countries that other countries are not.
If it were only mostly for development instead of mostly for destruction, that wouldn't be such a bad thing.
The great majority of US money being spent in foreign countries is military.
As far as non-military foreign aid, many other countries spend a much bigger proportion of their GDP than the US does.
I thought I should give a link to the claim I made above: http://salt.claretianpubs.org/stats/2005/01/sh0501a.html
Quote: "U.S. aid in terms of percentage of U.S. GDP is already the lowest of any industrialized nation in the world, though paradoxically in the last three years, its dollar amount has been the highest. And while U.S. aid has increased dramatically in recent years, much of the new disbursements have been related to the war on terror and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Israel and Egypt continue to make their annual claims to the lion's share of U.S. overseas aid."
There's a table at this link too, showing Official Development Assistance of various industrialized countries. Germany is at .28%, 12th on the list. The United States is 22nd on the list of industrialized countries, (at the bottom), at .14%. Germany donated $6.694 billion in 2003, and the US contributed $15.791 billion.
The population of Germany (in 2004) was 82,501,000, and that of the United States was 299,398,484 (estimated, 2006). http://www.geohive.com/cntry/usa.aspx
Then I looked up military expenditures by country, as well.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm
Worldwide expenditures (2004 estimate) were $1100 billion. US expenditures (2004 estimate) were $500 billion. Germany spent $35.1 billion.
Note 6 to the chart show that when money spent for the "war on terror" is included in US figures, it brings the 2008 figures up to $623.1 billion, over 17 times as much as Germany.
Note 7 was of interest too; it shows that Israel spent $7.2 billion of their own, plus $2.2 billion of US money.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm
I totally agree with you re: military vs giving for development. I have not stayed current with this, but 20 year ago or more we gave ten billion a year to Israel, five billion to Saudis and billions to all the rest of the Middle East in the name of peace. The world's a mess and the U.S. military-indutrial complex has not been a great peacemaker, despite the name of its missile.
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