@Aebblwoi
Americans are not afraid of the government (and even less of their state, as this is the level they can participate and which has the most direct influence to their lives), they just want the government to keep its nose out of their business, which is something completely different. This is also the reason why the US government could introduce procedures and regulations that violate human rights and even the US constitution. They probably should start to pay a bit more attention as to who is sitting in Washington, though.
Nationalizing banks is a bad idea. I'm all for a bit of socialism (especially when it comes to public services like transportation where everytime such a service has been privatized this lead to lower service and higher costs), but it's not purpose of the government to own everything (which is how most East European countries used to work, and all of them failed), it's purpose is to regulate where necessary. The reason why the banks could get away with what they did is because the governments (the US one, but also the governments of most other countries) failed to properly regulate the financial market. Of course, if a US president puts in a member of the banks as the one who should control them, then this is prone to fail. Governments (not only the US one!) should implement a proper, independent and strong authority to regulate the financial market, and this should include salary levels, bonusses and such. It should also have the power to impose sensible fines and requirements on those banks that don't follow.
As to temp workers, sorry but if you really believe that 60% of workforce in the companies you named consists of perms with high salary and 30 day of vacation then you're delusional. As German I happened to work in/with some of the companies you named (yes, in Germany), and two years ago the non-management workforce consisted of 70-80% temps, working for workforce providers which had 6months (production) to 12months (development) contracts for providing their service. Often the contracts were renewed, sometimes the provider was replaced with a cheaper one. The result was that the majority of the non-management staff had close to none job security, the fluctuation rate was very high, and the chances to be taken over into permanent employment was close to nil (in a 3 year period, out of 80 temps only two were taken over as perms). This was on other sites, onsuppliers, and even with competitors.
But lets talk about the "excellent" German healthcare system, provided by AOK, TK and other public healthcare providers, which every year provide less and less service for the money you pay them from your salary (of course private healthcare is available, but as it comes with a minimum salary requirement which is way above the average pay to prevent people from fleeing the public system you have to have a very good salary to be able to change to private health insurance). An "excellent" healthcare system where a simple box of Paracetamol tabletts, which can be bought in the UK for 19p in every supermarket, costs 3.70EUR in a pharmacy because they have the monopoly for selling drugs (including also the over the counter type of drugs which in other countries can be bought cheaply everywhere). A system where you pay for many medications yourself (or extra pay quite a bit more than the £7.50 you pay in the UK). Is your girlfriend/wife on the pill? If so, then the box of tablets (which btw is free in the UK) can easily cost between 20-35EUR in Germany. The extra charges you have to pay are constantly increasing. On the other side, especially with public health insurance, there is limited or even no access to many new diagnostics and treatment methods. Ever seen how prostate cancer is diagnosed in Germany? The procedure involves shooting (yes, shooting) two steel rods in your prostate through your bowel. Not only is this procedure extremely painful, it is also highly risky as it carries bacteria from your bowl into the prostate and other parts of the body, often causing infections. Also, this procedure comes with a high risk of resulting in incontinence and erectile disfunction. Most other countries use less butchery methods to diagnose prostate cancer, but not Germany, as this is still the standard method there.
You have to be very naive or live in a shell to believe the German health care system is "excellent". The only advantage over the UK system is that you often have access to specialists much quicker than in the UK, and the hygienic standard is generally (not always) a bit better (although the NHS has improved a lot in recent years).
As to my comment of BILD, I'm well aware that there are many other magazines available in Germany. However, BILD is the most read newspaper and it decides the public opinion, something which is used extensively by German politicians). Just have a look at the current attitude (I'd call it more a war against) jobless people and people requiring benefits (Hartz IV).
To cablegate: yes, it is embarassing (but I said that already), and the current reaction of the US government is riddiculous (I also said that already). However, it's hardly appropriate for Germany or UK (and many other countries) to hold their heads high. As I said, the US is quite good in keeping its real secrets secret. Those dealing with these real secrets (like the NSA) use a different system where access is much more stringently controlled. And this system usually works.
I agree that the US should get its issues sorted out (stop with the silly focus on terrorism, stop putting industry lobbyists into the government and other important positions, stop giving tax breaks to billionairs, and stop creating a mess in the world and in countries the US don't understand; start investing in education and infrastructure, start promoting entrepreneurship, start inviting the brightest and most talented as it used to be). And when we're at sorting things out, how about Germany stops pushing its own economy by exploiting other EU countries? After all, German export politics played a big part in the problems countries like Spain and Greece currently face.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
