I moved from the US to Germany 11 years ago. A lot of things have surprised me about living here with my kids.

Business insider ^ | 12/02/2023 | Naomi Kaye Honova

[ChicagoConservative27]

I'm originally from the United States, but I've lived in Germany for over 11 years.

Moving to Germany was not necessarily an extreme culture shock, but many things have surprised me — especially when it comes to raising my three kids, who have all been born here.

[Reverend Wright]

We have finally found someone that Brandon will actually deport - Germans that want to home school their kids.

[AlaskaErik]

Then it occurred to me those people don’t have doctors they can go to because they can’t afford it. When I want to go to the doctor, I descend in the elevator and slap my plastic insurance card that shows a picture of my smiling face on the front desk.

I have a doctor and not once did he ever recommend I take the needle. In fact, he never required patients to wear a mask. I never did take the needle and had a mild case of covid. My double vaxxed and boosted wife has had covid twice since and is sick much more frequently now. She now regrets taking the needle as do many other people I know. That's why less than 15 percent of Americans have gotten the most current booster. People are finally waking up and realizing what a scam this whole thing has been. And many doctors were part of this charade, which is why you can't even trust them.

[Gaffer]

I remember the same when I came up in the 50s

[Gaffer]

The author leaves out a LOT, IMO. I’ve lived in Germany in the 70s and even then the guest worker program was importing Turkish foreign nationals by the boatload to do the work Germans didn’t want to do. It’s far worse now according to my in-laws who live there now.

[Gaffer]

My GP told me that the vaccine wasn’t really a vaccine and that I probably shouldn’t take it due to my age and health.

[Bigg Red]

Well said.

[Berlin_Freeper]

I have a doctor and not once did he ever recommend I take the needle.

So you did exactly what I recommended and you didn't need me to do it.

I am happy to see fellow Americans doing well for themselves. Good on you!👏

I could post about people I know who have been vaccinated with no problem, which is all of them.

Fifteen percent of Americans are currently fully vaccinated against a virus that has become weaker.
That sounds about right for the most at risk.

[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "This is pure crappola."

Agreed. My wife and I were legal residents of Germany for decades. She worked mostly there, while I traveled to work in twelve different countries.

The article is indeed crappola. A review:

Lots of one sentence paragraphs.

Assertions without proof.

Living car-free, but not discussing the cost of owning and operating a car in Germany? Hmm.

Great bicycle infrastructure means what? Bike lanes painted onto streets?

"...a universal multi-payer healthcare system?" The Krankenkasse system costs as premiums are paid by employers with an employee share. It is not "universal." It is required to be in one of the many "systems." It is nor free.

RBGs. Really big graphics.

There are good things and bad things is many countries. In Germany among the bad things are German politicians. In our United States, the bad things are Democrat and RINO politicians.

We liked the aggressive enforcement of drunk driving laws in Germany. We like the freedoms here far better than there, not to mention inexpensive and legal right to "bear" weapons. We retired to our lovely sea island in the USA. And support Trump having a second chance to eviscerate the deep, administrative state.

[DesertRhino]

A car is freedom, a car is the ability to roam and explore. A car lets you pick the music, listen to talk the government would rather you didn’t. A car lets you drive somewhere remote and watch the sunrise, sunset, meteor shower or the Aurora. A car lets you get busy with your girlfriend, go see distant friends on a whim, rush to a bedside of a sick or dying person. A car lets you bring cool things home.

Who the hell would actually BRAG about being car free? That sounds infantile to me. Even Germans realize their car on an autobahn is one of the few places they are actually free.

[momincombatboots]

It is indeed. No closets, high taxation and you can forget about homeschooling or having the slightest voice in your life.
It’s the size of Oregon, just an European state that speaks a different language.

[FLT-bird]

Did your kids get used to the lower standard of living in Germany than they would have in America?

Did they get used to the lack of convenience? For example the inability to drive right up and park your car in German cities....the inability to go to the store whenever you wanted?

How about the censorship and lack of free speech that Americans enjoy? How did they take to that?

The German education system works fine but they will take tests that determine whether they go to a high school that gears them toward a university education or a high school that gears them toward a trade school education starting fairly early on. If your kid is a late bloomer....if they are just immature and don’t get serious about their studies until a later age....tough luck. Your kid is not going to graduate from a university. They won’t be given that chance. So somebody like me who was a high school dropout then got a GED....then an AA from a community college....then a BA from a good university....then a law degree.....then an MBA couldn’t do that in Germany. There just aren’t the on-ramps/flexibility in the German system like there is in the American education system.

Have your kids gotten used to the government taxing the bejeezus out of everything to pay for the “free” healthcare and all the other socialism? Probably not since they’re just kids but they’ll be introduced to that once they start working.

Say....what are your electricity and heating costs like? As kids they’re not paying that bill either but I imagine they’re getting used to wearing their coats even inside during the winter given how unaffordable it is to heat your home.

Have your kids gotten used to all the feral Muslims? Watch your daughters particularly closely and understand if they are targeted by these 3rd world savages imported into the country for sexual harassment or rape, there isn’t much the cops will do about it - oh and you can forget about any right to own a gun so as to protect your kids.

[Justa]

I think you fail to comprehend modern American health care. It has changed dramatically from your assumptions. I’ll be blunt.

-Doctors work in the interest of and in compliance to hospital administrators and government requirements. Only when the two coincide do they work in the interest of their patients.

-Hospitals work for pharmaceuticals and insurance companies and must comply with government regulations and approved procedures.

-Hospital administrators work to ensure compliance to government regulations and specifications of insurance.

-Hospitals have 8 administrators for each health care provider.

The well-being of patients is dead last. A healthy patient generates no revenue. They are considered non-compliant until they have been processed by the health care system.

[Chickensoup]

She qualified it. In my area which is safe...

[Adder]

What a vapid and useless article!

The author must be about 12.

I hope she stays there.

[Berlin_Freeper]

That’s paranoid.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I got to ‘carbon footprint’ in the first paragraph and stopped reading. Dreck.

[norwaypinesavage]

Honova is describing the way I grew up in a small midwestern town in the ‘50s. I walked, usually with friends, 6 blocks to school and downtown, starting in the first grade. I was even talked into ‘playing hookey one day and was picked up by a truant officer within 15 minutes. By second grade I had a bicycle and about a 1 mile radius of freedom to ride it, including playing at a creek a mile from home. The only thing limiting my freedom was fear of Polio, and that was eliminated after first grade ended with a sugar cube of the Saulk Vaccine, a vaccine that actually worked.

[fini]

You are right that there is an anti-vac crowd here. But you would see the same type of crowd that are pro-vac in a liberal group. I was working for the government when COVID ran across the world. Those of us that were not in Washington were full spectrum politically, but those from Washington were almost all liberal. Guess which people made policy. In the liberal crowd, you would think the Black death had come upon us.

Most of us are anti-vax, because we think we have been lied to. I tried to talk to my doctor about Ivermectin (when I went to my annual physical) and he told me that he is not allowed to talk about alternative treatments. Doctors that went against the vaccination were fired and some were sent medical associations to be punished. Additionally, the medical community in the USA refused to keep good data, so we do not really know what happened. I have a recording of the head medical person in the state of Illinois stating at a press conference, that if you go to the hospital for end stage cancer and pop positive for COVID, the hospital will record it as a COVID casualty. And if that person dies of that cancer, it will be recorded as a COVID death.

[Berlin_Freeper]

For the record a person could have great reasons or crazy reasons not to be vaccinated.
There are people who do not want to be vaccinated. OK 👍

[KobraKai]

All of Europe’s socialist lifestyle ‘advantages’ are due to American largesse. Yes, it’s amazing how much more affordable healthcare is when the United States is providing global defense.

America could have some amazing things going on socially as well if we didn’t have to dump $1 trillion/year on defense spending, not to mention all the supplemental and emergency aid packages we yearly give.