Comments by "Immudzen" (@Immudzen) on "Type Ashton" channel.

  1. I moved from the USA to Germany. I get paid about half of what my USA coworkers make. I am better off. It is not even close. They pay more than me for a MUCH worse apartment. They pay more for every living expense. Just to travel around they need to drive, take an uber, or some form of mass transit while the vast majority of my trips can be covered with walking and biking. I have more money at the end of the month. My life is less stressful. Some of my coworkers also want to move to Germany because even with the pay cut they end up better off.
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  2. I have relatives that VOTED to have the sidewalks removed in their neighborhoods and speed limits increased so they could get around faster and they complained that kids don't go outside and play anymore. They just could not get it through their heads that kids had no way to get anywhere and they made the area super dangerous for them.
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  3. I am from the USA and came to Germany for a PhD and decided to stay here. If i moved back to the USA I would be paid more and my consumption would be higher just to do daily tasks. Instead of walking or riding a bike to just about every store I would have to use something like uber or buy a car. That would increase GDP while making my life worse. My apartment would cost a lot more and that would increase GDP while before a worse apartment than most of those I can get here. I could also be fired at any point and that would also make my life a lot more about money than it is now. Even just hanging out with my friends in a bakery for a few hours and just talking is much cheaper in Germany than it is in the USA. It is also something I have seen a lot more people do in Germany than I ever experienced in the USA. In pretty much every way that matters I am better off here than in the USA and that is as someone in the top 5% of incomes.
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  4. I have friends come over and we make dinner and watch a movie together or play games together. It is horrible for GDP compared to us going out to eat and watching a movie in a theater. However, the first option, is MUCH better for us and our mental health and I think it is also better for society.
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  5. Overall I like DW in Germany. My German is very bad and they also do programs in English and whenever I listen to their news reporting it has been very factual and well explained. I started listening to them a LOT more during the pandemic. Several times per week they would answer viewer questions and put it on their youtube channel. They would have experts related to the question answer the questions and update the information as necessary. Having doctors and medical researchers answer the question without being filtered through a reporter was extremely helpful and it also helped create a lot more trust.
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  6. This is one of the reasons I like working in Germany. I have a nice remote job and I don't have tracking. I am highly productive but having my computer track me would be a pain in the neck. I do a lot of mental work and it is always better to think about something for a while before just working on it. Sometimes if I have a really hard modeling problem to solve I will even get up and walk around my apartment or even walk outside for a bit to try and think through the problem.
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  7. I am working in Germany and the company made it clear they would only contact me out of normal work hours if it was an actual emergency. For instance if the building caught on fire they would call everyone to make sure they are safe. Outside of that I am free to ignore any message or not even check until I get back to work. Since I work in an international group I can get emails and other work messages at any time on my work laptop but I have no obligation to check those at any time I am not working. This has made my life MUCH less stressful. I really appreciate it and this should just be the law.
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  8. I live near Aachen and I recently had a trip to Boston and compared my grocery prices between the areas. It was about 3x more expensive in Boston than it is where I live in Germany. When I look at cost of living calculators that also seems about right. What I notice is that areas of the USA I would never live in do have food that is about the same price overall but anywhere I would actually want to live has food and housing costs that are 2x-3x higher than in Germany.
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  9. I looked into this when I looked at staying in Germany or moving back to the USA. If I moved back to the USA I would need to live in the Boston area since that is where the office is. Even with a cost of living adjustment I would lose out BADLY on that move. The cost of living adjustment would not come even close to covering the rental difference. An 80 m^2 apartment in koln will run about 1400 but in Boston it would run about 3x that. I would also lose easy access of walking to grocery stores and other stores which would also increase the costs I would have to pay.
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  10. I read something recently in the USA that companies have been pushing for more tips for just about everything so they could reclassify the workers are tipped workers. That would allow them to save a lot on payroll. The price would not be decreased based on the lower costs but it would then be your job to pay the workers a tip so they have a living wage. So far I really like Germany where it just doesn't seem to have much of a tipping culture. In all the years I have been here I have normally just seen people say to keep the change on a transaction or they will give 1-2 euros.
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  11.  @hokieplaya  I have friends in the USA that are in the top 5% of incomes. They have still suddenly lost their jobs via text message and had to scamble to find another one. I have still seen them bankrupted with a serious medical issue. Where I live now I don't need a car at all. I can't just suddenly lose my job. A medical problem can't bankrupt me. I don't lose my healthcare if I lose my job. There is more to life than just making a pile of money.
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  12.  @mcmlxii4419  I have to admit I love living in Germany a lot more than I do when I go back to the USA for visits.
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  13.  @guill90  I was working with a USA company that was working with a German professor and they helped me get into a PhD program in Germany.
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  14. Dead Rising 3 was banned in Germany and is still not available in Germany and it had nothing to do with symbols. It was done on the basis of human like enemies and violence. There are quite a number of games that Germany has banned that have nothing to do with those symbols. I don't think they are doing it with new games. Technically they don't say they banned the game they just denied to rate it and you can' sell it without rating it so that is effectively banned.
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  15.  @phil1press  I never mentioned anything about the government doing that. Someone was complaining that people in Germany don't have as high of a ceiling on salaries as people in the USA. So the floor is much higher and the ceiling is lower. I just don't find that having a big house and a big car is what makes life better. I find that having time to spend with friends, being able to travel, not having to worry about health care all make life better. I find that being able to walk to the grocery store makes life better instead of using something like a car.
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  16.  @bansheezs  When I looked at Germany vs the USA I found that housing and food are both cheaper and medical care is much cheaper. Taxes are a little higher but not as much as you think. By the time you include federal, state, medical, retirement, unemployment etc. they are fairly close.
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  17. Most Americans I know are much worse off than I am in Germany despite some of them making more. The cost of living ends up so much higher it more than eats up all the difference.
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  18. I have been living in Germany for about 8 years now. I have never had any problems with my freedom of speech. The kinds of speech that are not allowed are also the kinds of things you should not be doing.
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  19.  @llms_react  I agree with you entirely. This kind of stuff is why I don't like comparing GDP. It goes up with a higher cost of living even if that does not provide a higher quality of life and bigger number does not make it better.
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  20.  @matsv201  Economists have studied this fairly carefully. Most of the inflation is caused by companies raising prices to increase profits. If I remember right that is about 85% of the cause of inflation. CEOs have even been bragging about it on their earnings calls.
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  21. Coming from the USA and living in Germany now I completely agree with you. Life is MUCH less stressful here. The local store is only a 5 minute walk away. There are a few restaurants in about a 5 minute walk from me or a lot more in a 15 minute walk to the city center and all the stores and restaurants there. It is a really nice place to live and it is so much quieter.
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  22.  @bansheezs  I lived in the USA my whole life. I only came to Germany for a PhD. I would not move to a rural area in the USA because the internet connectivity tends to be really bad and the options for things to do is quite limited. Having to depend on a car for everything seems really bad to me. I can't imagine ever living somewhere again where I can't just walk to most stores or ride my bike. I can live in a city in Germany and they are nice and quiet, I have lots of things to do, I can easily get around. German cities are also very safe.
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  23.  @CactusGirl-x7f  I looked at the total I would have in my pocket at the end of the month and I looked at Boston area for where I live in Germany. You are correct that taxes are higher in Germany but by the time you pay federal taxes, state taxes, health insurance, and other things that are all part of German taxes it is quite close.
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  24.  @CactusGirl-x7f  The USA used to have European style cities. Large areas where bulldozed to make more space for cars. Also that is not even a power the president has. It is not something that he can do at all. Just about any area where there are a lot of tech or biotech jobs is expensive to live. If you live away from the cities you have a long commute. If you have a 100% work from home job you can live anywhere but there is a limit on good places to live.
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  25.  @mdwlark1  I looked at what I would have to make to move to Boston compared to what I make in Germany just to break even on the increase in housing and food costs and it is quite a lot more. The equivalent of a 1200 euro/month apartment in Aachen seems to run about 4000 usd/month or more in Boston and the prices in Boston keep increasing rapidly.
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  26.  @TheKobiDror Definitely not gen z. I do wish we could make this world a better place.
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  27.  @phil1press  What are you talking about? Germany is a capitalist country. I don't like the idea that success in life depends on more stuff. I don't think it leads to healthy people or a society.
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  28.  @bansheezs  This channel and others have compared USA vs Germany for food and Germany is usually cheaper. That was also my experience the last time I traveled to the USA. For restaurants I have normally found that German prices are about the same or less once you include a tip. You can't just compare prices. Upward mobility has also been studied. To see how people do compared to how they are born. Germany does better for that also than in the USA. While it is true that in the USA you can go higher you can also go much lower. When I have compared the actual money I have at the end of the month vs coworkers living in various areas of the USA I usually come out ahead. The cost of housing is just so high in most of the USA and the medical care costs a lot more. Sure I could live far outside a city but then I would no longer be living in a walkable area and I would have to get a car. I enjoy the freedom of walking and biking where I need to go and HATE cars.
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  29.  @Ws-tc5jb  I am older than 25 and my parents did not help me to get to Germany or stay in Germany. I won't ever have children.
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  30. It is really sad that Germany has been so opposed to nuclear power. If Germany had fully switched to nuclear and got rid of all the coal and gas it would have made a significant positive impact on the climate. It is really sad that somehow green has meant anti-nuclear. It would also have meant that Germany would have never become so reliant on cheap Russian energy and that the economy would be doing better right now.
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  31.  @hirsch4155  Aachen is pretty sweet. You have direct trains to France, Netherlands, Belgium, overnight trains to Austria and many other places and ICE to Frankfurt. For a smaller city it is absurdly well connected.
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  32. I think I would build more mixed housing in areas to the poor are not just away from everyone else in order to provide better incentives to keep the places maintained. I would also make 3 story or so building with maybe 6 apartment in each one and put it under a rent to own type system so that while the federal government provided the housing the rent people paid was towards completely owning the apartment. This would help build wealth and help continued funding of the program while making is to the government does not permanently remain a landlord to most people.
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  33. Congratulations on your PhD in Germany. I am just about to finish my PhD in Germany also and will be staying in Germany. I have really enjoyed your vides.
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  34.  @christophresmerowski1824  Well so far that is not something I have encountered.
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  35.  @matthewhuszarik4173  I compared cities like Aachen, Cologne, Dusseldorf etch .in Germany along with various cities in the USA where I can reasonably expect to find a good job or it would be okay to work remote in with infrastructure for walking and biking. Germany ended up being cheaper.
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  36. @ what is an example of that? media bias rank has them listed as center-left and no factual mistakes in the last 5 years. If you are going to claim they are biased then you need to give an example.
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  37.  @nicholashartmann4525  You can go ahead and check out apartment prices yourself in Cambridge and Boston. It is insane. Also the cost of food there is also much higher than anything I have seen in Germany.
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  38.  @sebastiann4402  You are right that is what I am comparing since that is some of the options I have. If I moved back to the USA I would most likely end up in the Boston area. I would have VASTLY higher housing and food costs and I would need to take ubers to get anywhere instead of being able to walk, bike, or take trains. I would need to be paid more than 3x what I am now just to break even. I don't compare to Kansas because I would never live in Kansas.
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  39.  @annaneu9954  That is definitely a good point to mixed neighborhoods. I think it even helps you see people that don't make as much as you are still human and not just pawns to take advantage of. Sometimes I think the reason that the super rich are so out of touch with reality is they don't see anyone else as real anymore because they don't interact with them. An extreme example of this is Elon Musk where it feels like he thinks he is a human player in a video game and everyone else is an NPC.
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  40.  @MegaRitmos  Most of the areas where people live and travel in the USA has a density just as high as Germany. Look at the Boston to New York area. It is higher density that most areas in the EU but horrible transit. Also I think it is a problem there. Just commuting into Boston is miserable. Most traffic in USA cities is pretty miserable. That is why more transit is needed and cars are a failure. They just don't move enough people for the area they take up.
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  41.  @svr5423  I have FTTH, 5G cell coverage and public transport in Germany right now and I live in a small town.
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  42.  @gilliantracy7991  I am not far from Aachen in western Germany.
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  43.  @peter_meyer  It is expensvie because we build one off reactors instead of many reactors of the same type. Most of the expense issues related to nuclear power are issues caused by the greens.
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  44. I am in the same position. I came to Germany and have finished a Master's degree. I turned in my PhD thesis about two weeks ago and I am just waiting for my defense. I just started a full time job here and have decided to stay in Germany. I also still have some student debts from my undergraduate degree in the USA.
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  45. I don't think there is any viable future that is car dependent. The resources usage is too high, the maintenance is too high, and it makes life worse to live on a daily basis. We need walkable and bike rideable cities and transit connecting them. There is a place for cars but it should be very little usage. We have tried cars, it just isn't working.
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  46. The suburbs have weird winding streets that are not easy to navigate by car. They are designed that way to prevent through traffic which also makes them slow. In Germany usage of things like Amazon and food delivery is much lower than the USA because it is so easy to walk places. You can certainly order from Amazon if you want but if you can walk to the store in 10 minutes and get what you need that is even faster and you get some exercise. I am about to finish a PhD in Germany and start a full time job in Germany and my job will be 100% work from home. I still like having all the shops close by that I can just walk to. It is also very relaxing to just get out of the house and take a walk to the city center to get food and other stuff. If I need to go further the train station is about 8 minutes away.
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  47. I live in a smaller town in Germany in NRW and I normally shop at Netto because it is about a 3 minute walk for me and my groceries are a little cheaper than this.
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  48.  @bansheezs  I spent every summer in eastern Washington when growing up. Many of my relatives still live in rural areas. I don't want to go live in those areas.
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  49.  @fnjydtfdtjdtj  I am an American. I lived in the USA my entire life until I came to Germany for a Master's degree and PhD. The cost of living relative to income is lower in Germany compared to Boston. Boston is also far less walkable than most cities in Germany are. I have lived in both places and it is not even close. If you compare the most walkable area in the USA, and the cheapest house prices from another area of the USA, and the average pay from another area of the USA you can make it look better but that is not the reality. If you want to live somewhere that has good mobility in the USA the housing is expensive.
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  50.  @therealjantube  I find living in Germany is much less stressful. I had friends in the USA that did great but lost their jobs and have a very hard time getting a new one. Some are now working multiple jobs or far below their skill set. Medical costs can also destroy you even if you saved.
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