The Germans

CLAPTON

gfplux wrote: »

I live in Luxembourg and have been here a long time and have no desire to live full time back in England or anywhere else.
No Country can be described in a few sentences. I could describe Luxembourg as taking the best from its three neighbours (Belgium, France and Germany) and while I feel there is some truth in that, there is much, much more to a Country even one as small as Luxembourg.
Now well into my sixth decade and having been and still am well travelled I would describe the whole world chasing each other to the bottom.
What I mean by the bottom is....
Faster, quicker, greed, me too, look at me, want want want, selfishness and I could go on and on.
As mentioned by another poster parts of German Television are no better or worse than anything thought up on British TV but the Brits following on from the Americans have had more time on the journey to the bottom. French TV is also on its way.
Some say that a Nation gets the TV that it deserves. For me Popular television is a remarkably good window into a Country.

you watch too much TV

toby3000

Tancred wrote: »

The only thing that I don't like about Germany is that they mostly tend to live in rented apartments. Not sure about the wisdom of renting all your life, even if it's only £500 a month. Many UK pensioners get barely above that in income, so how would you cope in old age?

House prices in Germany are low, and German's save. My grandparents rented all her life, and when they retired they bought a house out right. My grandmother eventually sold it 10 years later for about the same as she paid, and didn't find that surprising. My parents bought a house in rural Germany for €15,000 a couple of years ago, so there's no need to rent into retirement.

CLAPTON

toby3000 wrote: »

House prices in Germany are low, and German's save. My grandparents rented all her life, and when they retired they bought a house out right. My grandmother eventually sold it 10 years later for about the same as she paid, and didn't find that surprising. My parents bought a house in rural Germany for €15,000 a couple of years ago, so there's no need to rent into retirement.

seems strange to pay rent most of one's life if one can purchase cheaply

toby3000

Depends how you look at it. My grandparents couldn't have bought a house where they were already living - in Stuttgart - so they moved to a much less industrial area. I think houses in big cities are much more expensive.

If house prices weren't constantly rising, does it make sense to buy with a mortgage? You're essentially renting from the bank. Renters have much more security in Germany. Plus Germans - especially the older generation I imagine - are very debt averse.

CLAPTON

toby3000 wrote: »

Depends how you look at it. My grandparents couldn't have bought a house where they were already living - in Stuttgart - so they moved to a much less industrial area. I think houses in big cities are much more expensive.

If house prices weren't constantly rising, does it make sense to buy with a mortgage? You're essentially renting from the bank. Renters have much more security in Germany. Plus Germans - especially the older generation I imagine - are very debt averse.

One 'rents' form the bank for only 20 or so years; and even in Germany inflation is not zero over 20-30 year timescales

Tancred

CLAPTON wrote: »

seems strange to pay rent most of one's life if one can purchase cheaply

It's the mentality. Debt in Germany is regarded as practically a sin - it doesn't matter whether you can afford it or not. One of the reasons is history; in the years between the two world wars Germany suffered severe economic problems and these helped the rise of the Nazis. Since then Germans have moved mountains to avoid any significant risk of this. Debt is associated with blackmail, poverty and crime.

gfplux

It is interesting that the fear of debt and inflation has persisted in the German memory. The period between the wars 1919 and 1939 ended over 70 years ago.
In the UK we seem to be able to forget rather too quickly our debt crisis and move on.
Perhaps we have a finer developed sense of greed.