It’s probably true that the net salary is lower than some other comparable countries, although Denmark for example has also a quite low net salary.
I feel the important bit is what you get for the net salary deduction. In Germany you have:
- Free Education including University
- A decent mostly free health system, health care insurance
- unemployment insurance so your life does not completely unravel if you are made redundant and others are dependent on your salary
- elderly care insurance
- child care (could be better)
- police that is not completely reduced to the absolute minimum
- infrastructure that mostly works
All of this is not perfect by any means, but you do have the feeling to get something back for your deductions. YMMV
In some other even well developed countries it often feels like public services run on a shoestring and are just enough not to collapse.
And some public services are in my opinion easier achieved if the state runs them, like infrastructure, transport, health and welfare services or police/security. You can go with private services and the lowest bidder but my feeling is that’s a downward spiral of what you get out of it in the end.
So if you feel you get adequate services or services that otherwise are difficult to achieve I think it’s ok to have a higher salary deduction.
Obviously this is a quite subjective subject, not one sock fits all.