Not to mention older people in eastern half of Germany are still thinking in Russian and consider Karl Marx the single greatest German. Not to mention that their grandchildren are way more leftist than their commie grandparents and taunt their commie old with a faul word ‘conservatives’.
The hope for Germany lies with its youth, as it does for most countries.
The oldies ARE finally dying out. When they are gone, their TOTAL welfare-ism will die with them. It was a "nanny state," really antithetical to Germans. They have always been "worker bees."
There still is the sense of government being the nipple off which folks suckle, which DOES have to do with the AMAZINGLY high taxes they pay. But, for those young Germans (and most youngsters) the world has expanded beyond reason--thanks to many factors. Those young Germans see it, talk to it via the Internet and fully participate in all that this "new" world has to offer.
My fear is the draining of U.S. coffers paying for TOO MANY Americans sucking off the gumin-nipple...and INSISTING on their RIGHT to do so, without ANY responsibility whatsoever connected to it.