Maybe it's me, but I get "some Germans are mean to us", but I don't get "we won't let the FD in to do their basic jobs". At that point, you have no desire to benefit from living in a developed country, and you should just go back home and enjoy the chaos there.

*WTF?*

I can't think of anywhere that FDNY would refuse to go, and we have an actual murder problem compared to your average German city.

FWIW, in the US and China, these spoiled brats aren't on state support. Are they on state support in Germany?

I suspect in most cases, they're just burdens on their parents and nothing more.

*but are too lazy and stupid to start an actual business.*

FWIW, there are so many stories of Haitian parents in the US who cringe and chastize their kids who want to start businesses, but it's because being a "marchande" is seen as a lower class position. I suspect there's some degree of that in the rest of the world for this social class, especially if the businesses aren't immediate money makers.

I think that's been one of the differences between us, given my sympathy toward the elitist climbers in this case...

No more ten year rent terms assuming insanely low rent increases? :-(

I assumed that rental regulations would cap the pricing, but if it permits increased based on the equivalent of CPI, I guess landlords that have been burnt recently are going to look for ways to recoup their investments...

FWIW, urbanists have noted that Germanic Europe is the weird place where ownership rates are low, and a few looked on with admiration of Germany's rental culture...

With that said, just as most low income Germans are unable to buy due to the high down payment amounts, low income Americans have similar issues with many having trouble just securing stable work and saving up enough to meet the 3% in some markets. At least the German renters have the option of long-term leases to fix their rental rates and unemployment to paper over things in case of unemployment. The American renter has none of these benefits.

Insert Joke: There are *dangerous* parts of Germany?

In contrast, as you're well aware, you can basically attempt to buy a home in the US with as little as 3% down these days, but that doesn't quite solve the problem in places where homes are already overpriced. It just makes the lending part easier for now.

Admittedly, I don't blame them as that would be a massive blow to their social pride and prestige, and a sign of failure...

Houses don’t create income.

Income can be used to buy houses.

In a country with minimal welfare and almost four decades of one child per family birth rates and some degree of emigration. This should create significant openings due to the missing labour supply!

OTOH, as some would argue, under Xi Jingping, people are somewhat spooked and China’s pandemic policies have doubled down on the notion that you can’t quite trust the PRC anymore. So maybe factories have moved to other places which leaves China with less employment opportunities…

It’s interesting that the US is doing better some core European countries given the stereotype in liberal circles about America’s off the charts inequality problem.

“May require paying coyote $10k and fighting off literal coyote.”

Crap, I thought that was just my personal problem. Thanks for making me realize other people have it as well. :-/

You finally have 1 BTC? :-)

I would assumed that you held some Etherium... :-)

I have coworkers that used to brag about throwing their huge OT into more speculatory stuff and showing off their accounts at various sites. Now they're doubling down with online gambling. :-/

Convertible back to Euros (or USD at worst).

Wait, so you’re only invested in Bitcoin?

*If a house depreciates in price, you can still live in it. You can't live in a money market account.*

Until the property tax and mortgage are unpaid. Then somebody is going to want that house back. With that said, I would hope that your crypto is easily convertible...

You can tell it’s German with the apples. :-)

Low budget film with an audience composed of the people who normally wouldn't go to theaters, but did in the form of various church and community groups. It's not that dissimilar from the Passion in terms of the audience.

I suspect this is one of the cases where the Chinese won't care about default as it would simply make the government even more dependent on the Chinese since nobody else will lend to them...

With that said, it's disconcerting that the Chinese are establishing bases in the Americas...