US should be as prosperous as ‘socialist’ Germany
I recently had a political discussion with a family member and was surprised to learn that “socialism“was ruining our country.
To her, socialism meant government programs like Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, unemployment compensation, food stamps, etc. She claimed that the proliferation of these programs would destroy our economy.
As evidence, she pointed to the “terrible” situation in European countries.
As it happens, I lived in Germany three different times during my life, for a total of about 20 years. I know what it means to live in a country like that.
The German constitution defines the country as a social market economy. In other words, the government has a responsibility to ensure that the interests of all are protected, even those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
This “social” principle has resulted in many benefits. When I got my first job at a German company, I felt like I was in – not a different country – but a different world. It was a part-time position for 20 hours a week. As a hospital employee, I was paid according to the pay scales negotiated by the public employees’ union, even though I was not a member. I was able to afford a small apartment and live modestly but comfortably. From the very start, I got five weeks of vacation a year.
While on vacation, I received my regular pay, plus an additional 50% as “vacation pay.” Once a year, I also got an extra month’s pay as Christmas money. I was automatically enrolled in the healthcare plan, for which the company paid half the premium. I also attended the university free of charge. Students even received a stipend while enrolled.
Every day, I used the city’s publicly subsidized and efficient subway, light rail, and bus system to get to work, to go shopping, or to take advantage of recreational opportunities.
My monthly transport pass even included trips on the excursion boats plying the large lakes outside the city. When traveling to other parts of the country, I used the fine, reliable railroad system built with the aid of government subsidies. I could go – and could afford to go – anywhere in the country without a car.
These social benefits did not wreck the German economy. Over the past 50 years or so, Germany has had a strong economy, usually with a small budget surplus (or occasionally a small deficit).
Their current national debt is only about $2 billion. In contrast, the national debt of the United States is about $28 trillion. Germany’s population is about 1/4 that of the United States, so, in relative terms, the national debt of the United States is roughly 3,500 times higher than the German debt.
Germany introduced social security and a health insurance system 1880s. The USA did not pass social security until 50 years later. Medicare took another 30 years after that. Another half century passed before Obamacare came along in 2010. We like to think of ourselves as the greatest and the best, so why is Germany always so far ahead of us?
There is no reason why the United States cannot enjoy the economic stability, prosperity, and social fairness found in Germany. We certainly have the resources. We just need to push aside the false mythology of “socialism” and get on with the business of building the country we know is possible.
We can do anything we want – if we want to. Columbus resident Randall Condra is a retired translator and a watercolor artist. He was a U.S. Army translator in West Berlin in the 1970s and later worked as a translator at the Free University of Berlin’s medical center. He worked for the German IT company Siemens-nixdorf in Munich in the 1990s.