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The Differences Between Germany and the United States

math-www.uni-paderborn.de

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Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#21

Post by Indyan »

vacri wrote: post #20
Indyan wrote: post #18

"Many extension cords still come without a third hole for grounding in the US. When you plug things into electrical outlets, you'll often observe cute little sparks. That never happens in Germany." So in Germany there is no concept of grounding? Why? Also, is there any scientific explanation behind no sparking in Gemany?

I think you have it backwards - he's saying that all German extension cords have a third pin for ground.

Oh yeah..I got it wrong. So, US doesn't have the concept of grounding? Surprising, but I suppose that does explain the sparks.

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#22

Post by maebert »

sfall wrote: post #13

Seems interesting but with a notable number of mistakes on the US, how much can I trust what is said about Germany? and how much has changed since he moved to the US?

Mistakes yes, but I think he got most of the core motifs right (on both the US and German side (I grew up in the latter)). With which points (concerning the US) to you disagree / which points to you find questionable (BRD)?

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#23

Post by maebert »

sch1zo wrote: post #3

just glanced though it but most of the stuff regarding Germany is pretty outdated

Then again, others are not (e.g. he references the abolishment of compulsory military service in 2011). I think the article is still under constant editing, it's just not possible to catch up with everything at once.

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#27

Post by tubbo »

"What are they afraid of?"

Have you not been paying attention in the last 50 years? We've made a hell of a lot of enemies, and before that it was communism, and before that it was world wars. Our military is strong because if it wasn't we would be getting attacked constantly. I'm pretty sure that a major reason why there haven't been any substantial terrorist attacks on the US since 9/11 is because our military will FUCK UP ENTIRE COUNTRIES if that happens again. Shit, we got launched into a 6-year war with 2 countries after an independent terrorist group blew up our building. If the KKK went to another country and bombed a building, would that country then attack and occupy us? Absolutely not! Because they can't.

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#28

Post by sdoering »

vacri wrote: post #20
Indyan wrote: post #18

"Many extension cords still come without a third hole for grounding in the US. When you plug things into electrical outlets, you'll often observe cute little sparks. That never happens in Germany." So in Germany there is no concept of grounding? Why? Also, is there any scientific explanation behind no sparking in Gemany?

I think you have it backwards - he's saying that all German extension cords have a third pin for ground.

Well grounding is built in (and required) into every socket. We have to main pins and secondary pins for grounding on most of the plugs. There are hovever some plugs for electronic devices, that do not have the grounding-pins.

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#29

Post by yummyfajitas »

woodpanel wrote: post #10

On charity: I see two reasons for these different approaches to charity: first, Americans distrust big organizations and third world governments; they fear that money they donate to global causes will trickle away in bureaucracies somewhere. Second, Germans intuitively don't feel much of a need to help local organizations or schools: "that's the government's job, that's what I pay taxes for." I think the main driver…

The German approach in my opinion does more to alleviate outcast-scale poverty.

I'd be curious how this actually plays out in practice.

In the US, we have a great document called the American Housing Survey. It breaks down what percentage of poor people (and non-poor people) own various goods - e.g., 75% of poor people own a car, 65% own a washing machine and 45% own their home.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/h150-07.pdf

Do you know of a similar German document? It would provide some facts to support/dispute your opinion.

Re: The Differences Between Germany and the United States

#30

Post by sdoering »

maebert wrote: post #23
sch1zo wrote: post #3

just glanced though it but most of the stuff regarding Germany is pretty outdated

Then again, others are not (e.g. he references the abolishment of compulsory military service in 2011). I think the article is still under constant editing, it's just not possible to catch up with everything at once.

This might be true. But a lot of info is clearly biased toward a negative image on Germany, when it comes to the outdated information.

So for example regarding privacy and data that is kept by you ISP - nothing on recent developement to abolish the 6-month periode in germany, as well as nothing on the recent developement in the US.

Just an example, but a lot of this comparison makes Germany look worse than it actually is.

disclaimer: I am from Germany and I really do not like a lot of things, that do go totally wrong here (imho).

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