Unknown Raceclass_name
US-Mal'Ganis
Stormstrike
Posts: 2,094
Talents: Shadow 1/2/0/1/2/2
Posted 13 February 2011 - 02:40 PM
So, I've been in Germany for a while, and I've decided that it's a good place to visit, terrible place to live.
Income tax is way too high. It's not the correct term, but I'm using it to describe any part of my salary that doesn't enter my hands. I'm losing something like 45% of my salary and it's just plain disgusting, especially considering the 'benefits' I pay for don't do anything for me. Most of it's probably going to unemployed drunks or some shit.
Not being able to shop on Sunday is debilitating. I forgot to buy groceries for the weekend, so today I have nothing to eat. I want to go to the Rewe and buy a sandwich or something small, but no, I have to go to a restaurant if I want food, because it's illegal for stores to open on Sundays.
A lot of people here are rude. No, it's not a cultural thing. I know that Germans tend to be blunt and usually don't understand sarcasm, and I factor that in, but I find most people I deal with just plain unfriendly and inconsiderate.
These people have no sense of personal space. This annoys the fuck out of me. I don't enjoy having the person standing behind me in the checkout line standing so close that they're breathing down my neck. I can actually tell whether or not someone is German by how close they stand while waiting in line.
The paperwork makes me cry. There's so much of it that it's not just excessive, it's ridiculous. The paperwork for my visa was actually very short and easy, but then there was a ton of other stuff unrelated to my visa, and most of it couldn't all be done at once. I think I had to go to the town hall on five or six different occasions because I had to wait for something in the mail before I could continue. There's no excuse for this bullshit.
The quality of food at grocery stores is generally poor. This was a huge letdown. When I think Germany, I think great food. The food served at restaurants is amazing, though. Also, they only have like three or four flavors of chips. I'm really craving salt and vinegar, which as far as I can tell, doesn't exist here. Also, grocery stores have next to nothing you can grab for a quick snack. If it's lunch time and I don't feel like eating something big, my only option is a bag of chips. The same goes for frozen dinners, they're hard to find and very poor quality. I don't have time to cook, so I'm stuck eating sandwiches pretty much every day.
My money is worth less here. I can get so much more for my money in North America. I'm just going on the assumption that this is because income disparity in Germany is so low, compared to North America. This makes Germany a really bad place to live for anyone with financial success.
There are some good points, like the clean air, public transportation, museums, and so on. Unfortunately, I just don't give a fuck about these things. It would probably be a nice place to live if you did care about it, though. It would probably also be a good place to live if you don't have a successful career, due to the lower level of income disparity, though. There seems to be a mindset similar to 'everyone living in Germany is part of the same community, people who are more fortunate have an obligation to help the less fortunate,' which I really dislike.
Anyway, overall, I'm very displeased with Germany. I expected much more.
tl;dr taxes are too high, no Sunday shopping is stupid, most people are rude, there's no concept of personal space, too much bureaucracy, grocery store food isn't very good, can't get much for your money, terrible place to live.
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