this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2025
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As someone who moved from the US to Germany almost two years ago I'd like to chime in here for anyone wondering if the two countries are really similar.
They're not, Germany is way better. Maybe not for everyone, definitely not in all aspects, but it's like teleporting to the future by 30 years.
I've lived in Kansas, Iowa, California, Florida, Colorado. I'm now living in Baden-Württemberg. Simply by moving to Germany I now walk or train everywhere (no car), my vacation doubled (6 weeks not including holidays), I have worker protections (it's not as easy to fire me), unemployment would cover something fuckin crazy like 80% of my current salary if I was fired (I'm not worried about this but what a relief to know society wouldn't just grind me up if I got a short streak of bad luck), medicine is easier to get and healthcare is a marginal cost every month (compared to self hundred in the US), I make slightly more money after conversion and my take home is roughly the same (so the whole taxes are so high thing is offset by cost of living and line items being removed like healthcare and car). The grocers are better here but the restaurants were almost universally better in the US, at least compared to where I'm currently living. I have a quick path to citizenship, people speak great English in general (but I'm learning German cause I want this to be a permanent move). And I can make day trips to multiple countries' major cities by train.
It's night and day. Again, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, it's not necessary the best at things everyone may care about, but the average metric rose a meaningful amount simply by crossing a border (lol to simplify the process).
The US is just way behind in the metrics that matter, human-centric, quality of life metrics. I say all of this not to say "wow US bad", to gloat or what have you, but to say "it can get better and it could get better quickly if political power was redistributed to those who cared about quality of life instead of GDP or their stock portfolio.
AMA
Just to give the exact numbers, unemployment in Germany normally covers 60 % of your average salary over the last year. Or 67 % if you have a child.
And yeah, I would not like to live in USA.
You did not list mississippi as a place you have lived and so you have no way to be sure there isn't something about mississippi culture you would like enough better.
actually you didn't list any culture factors and culture is very important inithis discussion.
I almost upvoted this as very funny, likable satire. Oops!
If the point of your comment was to say "you have not lived in every town in every state in the US and thus can't say for certain Germany is better" then you're missing the central thrust of my argument.
I'm speaking to the law of averages, I'm talking about the universal improvements one would experience if they moved to a country like Germany. No place in the states has all of the benefits I've listed and nearly everywhere in Germany does. So for people who care about those things and are wondering if other countries like Germany have it better across the board, the answer is yes. Yes they do have it better (and everyone in the US could too).
I think culture is a buzzword, an excuse for grading a place based on biases and vibes. There is no culture in Mississippi that will provide me more vacation, there is no culture that will pay me more money, there is no Mississippi culture that will improve the states average reading scores or lower their hate crime statistics. Culture is a proxy vibe for other more tangible more desirable statistics. If I want to know how the culture values intelligence and education I look at their educational stats. Or how generous and charitable, I look at how they treat immigrants and the homeless and those who've lost their jobs. It's that whole concept of "a system's purpose is what it does", a places culture is what that culture produces. And in that light the US suffers greatly comparatively.
But if we go strictly off of vibes - a good culture for me would be one of generosity from my neighbors, from the businesses I support. A good culture would be the warmth of introductions and the quick witty humor of new friends. Supporting rapid progress, helping those in need, valuing art and creation, spreading global peace, challenging power structures and the redistribution of wealth from those who have far too much to those who have far too little, etc etc.
Don't you think all of those are easier behaviors to cultivate when the average person isn't overworked, is fairly compensated, is safe in their work and housing, etc? Cause I think so.
So no, there isn't a place in the US today that I would like to live in over Germany. And that's not even discussing a 10 year forecast. What does the US look like in 20 years vs Germany? Do you think Mississippi has universal healthcare in 20 years? How about a mandatory vacation minimum of 4 weeks? How about a well connected rail system? Pick how many decades you think it'll take for the culture in Mississippi to improve to the point where they value these thingsx then pick how many decades it would take to enact them. Then consider moving to Germany and time traveling by X number of decades. Do you get it now?
i think mississippi has a better culture than germany based on your definiton. Though 'soft benefits' like vacation are better in germany.
The larger point is everwhere is a nice place to live and so you end up arguing small details.
Are you reading what I'm writing? How could you have and still argue that Mississippi has a better culture? I made multiple points that irrefutably prove, at least by my definition, that Mississippi is not the better place to live. In fact, by my definition which again is not an objective truth but just my place of discussion, Mississippi wouldn't qualify as one of the top 30 or 40 best places to live in the United States even, let alone the world. Because the average person in Mississippi is statistically doing worse than the average person New York or Washington or pick literally any of the top like 30 states, I'm positive across most statistics those other states are better.
No, vacation, healthcare, general safety, labor rights, these are not "soft" benefits. These are tangible facts. You are way more likely to get shot in Mississippi than you are in Germany, your children an order of magnitude more, those are not soft benefits.
Listen, Internet stranger and anyone else reading this, I'm not on team Germany. You should not be on team Mississippi. I am not arguing sports here with you and one of us has to win and one of us has to lose. I'm talking about reality, and we all win if we all realize there are many countries doing better than the US (including and especially Mississippi) in most desirable metrics. I'm not saying Mississippi is a bad place to live and anyone who lives there should feel bad. I'm saying the people of Mississippi could implement 20 days of minimum vacation and be instantly better off without the system collapsing. And they should.
To the larger conversation, I'm saying the US (including and especially Mississippi) is behind in real human metric compared to their European counterparts and people should not believe that they are similar - unless they cannot parse reality and refuse to accept facts. Pretending the US is doing well prevents or discourages real change from happening.