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Posted on 07/10/2003 8:36:57 AM PDT by presidio9
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:49:23 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Four years ago, the German social-welfare system rescued Renate Franke.
Soon after her mother died of cancer that year, her son was diagnosed with the same disease. Emotionally drained, Ms. Franke, then 48 years old, quit her job at an electronics company. The state stepped in, sending her to a spa for three weeks and paying her jobless benefits that were close to 60% of her former wage.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
MWAHAHAhahahahahahaha!!
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Hope I spelled that right....
That's true. It wasn't widely reported but the West Germans have had an awful time integrating with their East German brethren, because over 40 years of the communist "work ethic" had made the East Germans a somewhat different breed.
And Germans are now facing what we went through starting in the 1980s. For instance, the on-shore oil and gas industry tanked, untold thousands of trained American geologists and geophysicists were forced to find new careers or else, now the IT market has been tanking, it just goes on and on. The Germans have to face it, it's "root hog or die".
I know exactly what this is saying in regards to the woman being given all that time off. When I ran the Army legal office in Munich in 1982-85, we had a German secretary who went to her doctor every April and got put on medical "cure" as they called it for the entire summer. The doctor who did this was the doctor for the German Olympic team in Munich, who just so happened to be friends with this woman and her husband, who also worked for the German olympic committee. But, of course the good ole rich U.S. Army had to pay her stinking salary while she went to their "summer house" in the mountains near Austria and "rested" up from her hard days of sitting on her fat ass in our office doing nothing. It is harder to fire a German government employee of the US government than it is to fire a US government employee (which means you CANNOT fire either basically unless they kill someone on duty!).
We finally were able to get the German head of employment at the Civilian Personnel Office to give us a temp hire in the summer to cover for this woman being out. Of course, he was happy to add another German civilian to the payroll. Finally, the fat #&@$% retired, with a nice pension of course, to her "summer house" in the stinking mountains (probably to bow to her old framed photos of her fuehrer since we all always suspected her to be an old Nazi (but, of course, you could never find any older Germans who would admit to having liked Hitler or being an ex-Nazi, they simply did not exist!).
When I lived on the economy, my German neighbor owned five flower shops, including the one at the Frankfurt airport. He told me he would be a very rich man if he did not have to pay 50% of his income to socialist taxes. He did not like work 12-15 hours a day, sometimes 7 days a week keeping his shops going, to pay for all the welfare. He told me back in 1977 or 78 that someday that system would ruin Germany. I guess his predictions have come home to roost.
Simply, socialism fails, does not work, has failed everywhere it has been tried, yet the democrats seem to think they can make it work here. If they do get into power and put in socialism, life as we know it here is over. We will all be broke, begging the stinking government for a permission slip to visit the doctor, by medicines, go to the store, buy a car (if you can afford it on 1/2 wages). Simply, socialism sucks! Just like the Klintons.
The immediate post-war generation worked like demons to rebuild the country and did an admirable job. But their children (the generation of Joschka Fischer) and grandchildren grew up spoiled by the prosperity created by their elders and by a socialist cocoon that divorced them from reality. They came to live in "Scharaffenland" = "Cloud-Coo-Coo-Land."
LOL! To put it diplomatically!
We should strive for courtesy, although I can't convince my German-born friend of that. Gerlinde immigrated from Germany in 1958 and is a naturalized American citizen. She returns to Germany every year to visit her family. Her family lives in West Germany, and there's no way of politely saying how much they look down on the slothful, filthy, conniving, communist East Germans. :)
Back in the early 90's when hubby was still active duty and were living in Germany, the same sort of thing happened. This German civilian employee on base thumped her little toe on a box or something, went the (German) MD who:
a) declared the toe was broken and
b)that at her age (45ish) it was "inadvisable" for her to recieved "agressive" treatment. And therefore he was proscribing for her 6 wks of essentially staying at home and resting her foot on a pillow. She did and, as in the case you mentioned, she got paid for the entire 6 weeks.
Now, the reason I remmeber this is b/c about the same time, in a fit of clumsliness, I took a nasty spill while stepping off a curb. To make a long story short: Pain got so bad I finially went to the MD. Turns out I had 2 broken toes-- toe bones, that is, in the instep of my foot.
The military MD Rx motrin and sent me on my way.
"Is that it?" I asked, "Aren't you going to do anything? Bandaged it or put it in a case or something?"
"Nope, we don't do that anymore," he said. "Just take the Rx as needed. Soak it in cold water if it hurts too bad and try and stay off it as much as you can. It'll hurt like crazy for while than it'll start getting better."
It was about that time I started looking at the German government/unions in a slightly more jaundice manner.
It's simple, I see no need in wasting words, beating around the bush. I have also had those who love and supported communism shooting at me trying to kill me because I was the hated American (in Vietnam). I support the Constitution, which I swore to protect and defend. That oath I assume did not stop only because I retired from the military. I love this country as founded by the Founding Fathers, not what the Beast thinks it should be. My feelings for that bunch, the socialist democrats, run deep. I was raised by a democratic voting, southern democrat father. Today, I know he would NEVER cast a vote for a democrat. He simply would never agree to what they have become. He would have run to the republican or liberterian parties because he was a conservative, hardcore flag loving American. He would never have put up with the crap the demoCommunist party how pukes out to us.
I also approach matters in a simple manner. I have had people say to me that they did not like me because I was a conservative, soldier, patriot, etc., while I have lived in this socialist hell hole of Sodom on the Sound (Seattle). I look them directly in the eye. I tell them to look closely at my face. I ask them, "do you see written anywhere, anywhere at all on my face that I give a rat's ass what you think of me?" It is simple, I don't care what they think of me, that does not bother me in the least bit. I will continue to fight and defend the country I love. The country as it was founded. Have a good day!
Aye, they're stubbon there all right. When I see a twenty four hour grocery store in an average town in Germany- that's when I'll know things are different. That used to be irritating as hell- not getting off work in time to make it to the shops before they closed...
Out of curiosity, what's the reliability of cars made in America versus cars made in Germany?
I hope S. Korea considers this if they get a chance to reunify with a collapsed N. Korea.
And oddly enough-this is probably he most unbelieveable part of the story--during that entire month of May it barely rained a drop, in fact my lawn almost turned yellow.
Well, during that month he spent almost 18 hours a day (where I lived during the summer the hours of daylight are very long, reaching the point where the sun rose at about 3 am and went down at about 11pm) outside drinking iced coffee and reading.
I was in complete disbelief at some of the things I witnessed in that country.
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