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German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

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Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#191

Post by skeeter2020 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #122
formerly_proven wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High taxes with no matching value behind them is undeniably a negative.

> High taxes with no matching value behind them That is not the case for Germany. We have - even with all its shortcomings - a decent education system that's largely free and accessible for everyone, a decent healthcare system, a decent public transport system on local, regional and federal system, and a very decent social security network that covers unemployment, pension and elderly care. The US in contrast has nei…

My initial reaction is - then why is the US leading in so many areas, if based on your chracterization it's such a laggard? I'd argue it has the best in all categories, it's just not close to even distributed. "Decent" is completely inadequate for education, healthcare and transportation. These are far too important for " good enough, usually" solutions.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#192

Post by mousetree »

Beijinger wrote: post #185
ciclotrone wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it quite disturbing that high taxation is seen as a negative aspect of Europe. I lived in Italy, France and Germany, and I enjoyed public healthcare and education of very high standard at very affordable prices, and free in the limit that one cannot afford to pay for them. As a relative of a person with a chronic disease I can tell you that on the one hand if we are not bankrupt it is because of public healthc…

" I'm proud of contributing through my taxes so that anybody in need can have the same treatment irrespective of their economic situation." It is a big world my friend. And if millions come to use these services but don't pay in, the services get thinner and thinner. 1 Million Ukrainians came to German. Less than 25% have a job. The rest is financed by the taxpayer. Money, Rent, Health insurance... Edit: It reminds m…

As a German who pays a lot in taxes each year, I’m more than happy for those taxes to support our Ukrainian friends who are refugees during this terrible situation

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#193

Post by greenavocado »

albert180 wrote: post #175
greenavocado wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

INOVA in Northern Virginia charges $3000 for an uncomplicated vaginal birth. They have a code which rolls up many services into that code. There are additional in-hospital expenses such as the newborn hearing test which aggregate to about $400. If you have insurance your maximum cost out of pocket for the calendar year is between 5 and 15 thousand dollars (insurance covers everything above it). If you can't pay it al…

If Access to Health Care in the US is so great, why is infant mortality worse than in Cuba and they score dead last in every Health or Life Expectancy Metric among the G7?

In case you haven't noticed, the demographics of America have changed a little bit since 1990.

We also have a small problem with fentanyl.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#194

Post by Beijinger »

mschuster91 wrote: post #122
formerly_proven wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High taxes with no matching value behind them is undeniably a negative.

> High taxes with no matching value behind them That is not the case for Germany. We have - even with all its shortcomings - a decent education system that's largely free and accessible for everyone, a decent healthcare system, a decent public transport system on local, regional and federal system, and a very decent social security network that covers unemployment, pension and elderly care. The US in contrast has nei…

"a decent education system that's largely free and accessible for everyone"

I give your Universities a 2-3 (On a scale 1 Top, 5 fail). High schools are getting worse and worse due to the immigrants. So you would want to send your kid to a school without many immigrants, mainly due to language barriers.

"a decent healthcare system" Again, I give you a 2-3. More and more people are sucking services, fewer people pay in. Hey, alone 1 Million Ukrainians are insured, while less than 25% have a job. How long do you wait to see a specialist? >6 months!

"a decent public transport system on local, regional and federal system" Again grade 2-3. You have a functioning public transport system. But ask Switzerland what they think about it. Or look at China if you want to learn something about bullet trains.

"and a very decent social security network that covers unemployment, pension and elderly care."

Is on the brink of collapse. Pensions are great. For state employees. The rest gets retirement benefits. They are compared to the EU very low.

I don't have health insurance by the way. Germany has to take care of so many immigrants. Nothing left for me. And try to compete with them to find an apartment. The government pays for them. And the government is never late with payments, hence landlords prefer this.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#195

Post by greenavocado »

lupire wrote: post #134
greenavocado wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

INOVA in Northern Virginia charges $3000 for an uncomplicated vaginal birth. They have a code which rolls up many services into that code. There are additional in-hospital expenses such as the newborn hearing test which aggregate to about $400. If you have insurance your maximum cost out of pocket for the calendar year is between 5 and 15 thousand dollars (insurance covers everything above it). If you can't pay it al…

Why do I pay $25K/yr for my family? Is yours high deductible?

6,000 dollar deductible per person with total 15,000 dollar out of pocket maximum for the family. My current health plan is better because my company found a partner that aggregates many smaller companies to get better rates from insurers. Before this I was uninsured and would call many different providers to negotiate the best cash price for various procedures such as wrist MRI with contrast. I got cash quotes ranging from $850 to $3500 and got exactly what I needed from a local provider for $850. I called up several providers in Canada and they offered similar cash prices (on the low end) so it wasn't worth the 8 hour drive each way.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#196

Post by Nextgrid »

261582335426158 wrote: post #176
Nextgrid wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's my problem with high taxation, as someone who got burnt by it by virtue of living and paying taxes in the UK. I don't mind paying my fair share of tax if it means I get good value out of it, but the state of our healthcare here means that in practice the public healthcare system is no longer fit for purpose, so we are being forced to pay for a system that doesn't work and end up having to go private (and…

The key point to add is that (at least) 2 points must be true for this positive side of market to show: 1) There should be "forces" counterbalancing the move toward monopolies 2) It should be okay for the service to fail/die and/or it should degrade gracefully. For example book publishing is a wonderful field that can gain from free market dynamics while prison management is a terrible field for free market dynamics.…

The same factor that makes private prisons problematic also makes taxation problematic - in both cases you've got a captive market that can't opt out thus no pressure to provide a good, efficient service. In a hypothetical world where inmates could choose whether to remain in prison and which one to be in, private prisons would be competing for service quality. Actually we've got that, they're just called "hotels".

I wonder if the solution there would be to force politicians and everyone involved to exclusively use government-provided services - so as a condition of going into politics, you can't use private healthcare, your kids can't go to private schools, and you need to spend a day every year in a random prison and so on. Then it would mean the decision-makers got at least some incentive to make sure these services are functional and fit for purpose.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#197

Post by skeeter2020 »

albert180 wrote: post #175
greenavocado wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

INOVA in Northern Virginia charges $3000 for an uncomplicated vaginal birth. They have a code which rolls up many services into that code. There are additional in-hospital expenses such as the newborn hearing test which aggregate to about $400. If you have insurance your maximum cost out of pocket for the calendar year is between 5 and 15 thousand dollars (insurance covers everything above it). If you can't pay it al…

If Access to Health Care in the US is so great, why is infant mortality worse than in Cuba and they score dead last in every Health or Life Expectancy Metric among the G7?

It's a little more subtle than this, and of course subtlety is doesn't play well these days, but the US stats vary greatly across geography and ethnic lines. Cuba isn't a great comparison, beyond the shock of "they're worse than a bunch of commies!"

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#198

Post by ploxiln »

shellfishgene wrote: post #141
beezlebroxxxxxx wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is incredible the amount of private information that gets exchanged in Germany to access certain things. You brought up landlords, but I've heard crazy stories about job applications or applications to services that "require" an incredible amount of private information (often even including pictures too!) handed-over for completely obscure reasons with no recourse if your application is denied or simply ignored.

Are US "background checks" any better?

For renting apartments, it's just like this in NYC. But nothing like this in most of the country. I rented in Pittsburgh for a few years in college, and a suburb north of LA for a couple years after that, and the application documentation was much much less, pretty much just security deposit.

The issue in places like NYC (and some German cities like Berlin I gather) is that the extreme tenant protection laws mean that landlords have to go to extreme lengths to protect themselves from tenants. In NYC you could have a tenant not paying, damaging the property, and pushing out neighboring tenants, for well over a year before you can force them out, if they're ornery enough. It could kill your business, and it probably did kill the business of most landlords who didn't switch to extreme draconian documentation requirements in applications: multiple tax returns, multiple statements from all bank accounts, proof of employment, records of previous residences, contact info for previous landlords ...

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#199

Post by skeeter2020 »

Nimitz14 wrote: post #173
mschuster91 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> High taxes with no matching value behind them That is not the case for Germany. We have - even with all its shortcomings - a decent education system that's largely free and accessible for everyone, a decent healthcare system, a decent public transport system on local, regional and federal system, and a very decent social security network that covers unemployment, pension and elderly care. The US in contrast has nei…

Switzerland does everything better than Germany with far less taxes. And since we're trading anecdotes I've found US Healthcare to be the best compared to the 3 european countries I've lived in before.

your second point strikes at the crux: On the whole, the US sucks. At the top margin, it's the best in the world.

Re: German credit agency earns millions through unlawful customer manipulation

#200

Post by dkural »

ciclotrone wrote: post #102
ArmandGrillet wrote: post #37

Finally. Germany combines some of the worst aspects of the US (credit ranking, complicated abortion process, private healthcare if you want decent treatments) with the worst aspects of Europe (low digitalization, high taxation, recursive federalism: within the country and within the EU). A country like the Netherlands has its own issues (mainly housing) but doesn't have the myriad of pain points you can find in Germa…

I find it quite disturbing that high taxation is seen as a negative aspect of Europe. I lived in Italy, France and Germany, and I enjoyed public healthcare and education of very high standard at very affordable prices, and free in the limit that one cannot afford to pay for them. As a relative of a person with a chronic disease I can tell you that on the one hand if we are not bankrupt it is because of public healthc…

There is no capital gains tax - Germany has less progressive taxation than the United States! VAT in general is a regressive tax, that many EU countries inordinately rely on. A US-citizen has to pay taxes no matter where they reside, but the wealthier citizens of EU countries can easily evade taxes by domiciling themselves in various tax havens around the EU. Germany does a very poor job collecting taxes from the highest earners.
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