OPINION FROM WSJ
HEAD: Obama Promises Germany-Plus
By GABOR STEINGART, senior correspondent in Wa****ngton, D.C., for Der
Spiegel news magazine and author of the "The War for Wealth - The True
Story
of Globalization" (McGraw Hill, 2008
"When I begin to feel homesick for Germany, I have discovered a cheap and
easy way out. I simply turn on the TV and listen to a Barack Obama stump
speech.
The promised land of universal health care, secure pensions, a lot of
green-collar jobs and stable bridges brings me back to my home country. My
grandma, who has worked in a post office all her life, enjoys her pension
without having ever observed the stock market. Everyone who travels
through
the countryside can see thousands of windmills, but never a collapsed
bridge. And the best: My mom, my friends and everyone around them have
access to first-class medical services.
Sometimes it appears to me that Mr. Obama wants to trump all that. He has
promised not only a $160 billion program for new green-collar jobs, a
higher
minimum wage, affordable health care for everybody, a massive investment
in
infrastructure and tax-free status for pensioners who make less than
$50,000. All these nice things come with no tax increase for 95% of
Americans. Wow! That's Germany-plus!
I've been in the U.S. for a while, but if I remember my home country
correctly, all the German comforts come with a price. My grandma has paid
10% of her salary to the public pension system, and her employer has
matched
the contribution. For our health insurance everyone has to sacrifice 7% of
his or her earnings, which again is matched by the company. Fa****onable
windmills go along with extra taxes for fuel. A gallon of regular gas in
Munich or Berlin costs - fasten your seat belt - more than $8.
Not all of my fellow Germans are happy with this, but the overwhelming
majority of my fellow countrymen made their decision a long time ago. They
prefer big government. They have learned to live with growth rates far
behind and an unemployment rate far above the U.S.
Maybe I am being unfair to Mr. Obama. But it seems to me that the agent of
change was window-shopping in Germany without looking at the price tag.
You
should ask him for the bill."
********
Ya, ya, achtung der Obama-meister...vaat ist der cost-en-feffer? (Whew,
awful German parody, but you get the message.)
Dionysus
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