121–130 of 314 posts
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Having no gun violence and having a higher life expectancy than America is not something to be proud of and not a useful benchmark. This comment is a prime example of Germany's inability to take external criticism - it nearly always devolves into comparison with America. You know many non-americans also criticise the state of Germany currently?
/s?
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I recently signed up for a simple prepaid phone plan in Germany (I have lived here for 2 years already, fully registered etc). I had to go through the full KYC process, after waiting over a week for a physical SIM card to be sent by post to me. After this, I wanted an eSIM (this was my original goal but this was not possible on initial signup). I had to contact customer support to send me one... by post. They only ac…
How recently? Nowadays there are a bunch of "app eSIM" companies competing in Germany that offer to get you an eSIM by just installing an app, KYC and credit card in 5 min
I would be surprised if you're talking about an eSIM service that give you a phone number.
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> comprehensive public transportation infrastructure, universal healthcare without administrative bloat, and urban planning that prioritizes livability over speculation. This can't be further from the truth. This is probably written by an American, and US is a very car-centric, but German infrastructure is a shitshow. Also healthcare is absolutely stiffled by bureaucracy. I have a friend who is a cardiologist. He say…
As someone who lived in multiple rich countries in Europe, let me tell you that the German healthcare system is awesome. It has a lot of problems, but it's head and shoulders above many-many other countries. You can actually get care by a qualified doctor, while this is absolutely not self-evident even in rich countries like the United Kingdom, and let's not talk about CEE countries.
Saying you can not get care by a qualified doctor in the UK is a completely false statement.
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> comprehensive public transportation infrastructure, universal healthcare without administrative bloat, and urban planning that prioritizes livability over speculation. This can't be further from the truth. This is probably written by an American, and US is a very car-centric, but German infrastructure is a shitshow. Also healthcare is absolutely stiffled by bureaucracy. I have a friend who is a cardiologist. He say…
>Also healthcare is absolutely stiffled by bureaucracy. I have a friend who is a cardiologist. He says that exactly half of his work time is paperwork. And not just paperwork, but German paperwork, where you manually type PDF fields one by one, then print, then sign, then scan and so on. Wait. That's exactly how paperwork has always worked for me in America. What am I missing?
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What’s your proposal? Give up?
Germany is actively killing innovation. I propose to stop for starters. Tho when the median voter is 55 and national motto is "that's how it was always done" and "Pensions are secure" - I don't put much hope. I still remember the outcry when the digital health cards were introduced.
Your other points are more or less true, I just like to think that people complain a lot and media obviously makes it worse.
Digital health cards, online tax declaration, etc. These things did happen. People complained, but these decisions were not reverted. That's the most important.
European research and innovation funding is absurdly gamed and just money wasted.
[1] Wikipedian Protester:
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Not sure what could be interpreted as sarcasm in my comment. It is pretty direct and on the nose.
> Having no gun violence and having a higher life expectancy than America is not something to be proud of and not a useful benchmark /s ?
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*executed well* but first regulated to death
I have an alternative theory about tech and growth in Europe - the rich are too greedy here and are not optimistic enough about growth. They: a) don’t fund risky things b) don’t believe Europe can create unicorns so it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy for their investments c) try to cash out too quickly from potentially huge businesses d) valuations are half the investment for double the equity, so of course the co…