Comments by "John Luetjen" (@jehl1963) on "Feli from Germany" channel.

  1. Actually you were correct when you said that collecting data about "race" is "racism 101". It is, as MLK famously spoke about in his "I have a Dream..." speech. More recently Supreme Court Justice John Roberts pointed out that "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminatingly on the basis of race". Going back to the future that MLK dreamed about “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Here in the US we seem to have missed that point.
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  2. A couple of things that you didn't mention: Germany has a VAT tax of 19%, which the US does not. So every dollar spent in Germany is taxed coming(via the Income Tax) and going (via VAT). So economically speaking, you can add the 19% to the income tax rate to see the total tax bite. So 35% + 19% gets you above 50%. The point about the roads is kind of unrelated, since in the US they are maintined by the states or local governments, and the quality varies widely depending on the efficiency of the government which is managing the maintanance. The other hidden healthcare cost that you didn't mention is that Germany's system throttles technical development by virtue of limiting the medical spending. This is why people with cancer in Canada (and elsewhere) often try to come to the US for treatment. I know that my relatives in Germany often buy supplimental health insurance in order to have access to treatments which are not available on the basic governmemt funded health insurance.
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  3. Feli; I love you channel and have been enjoying watching your journey for years. But I noticed something which I feel that I should point out. At 34:50 in today's video, you mentioned that you are still a German citizen and would have voted if your ballot had arrived in time. If you look back at your video of 29-December, 2024 where you shared how you became a US citizen, specifically at 23:48 , you swore -- on camera -- the Oath of Allegiance to the United States which states (my emphasis added): "I hereby declare an oath, that I absolutely and entirely RENOUNCE and abjour ALL ALLEGIANCE AND FIDELTIY TO ANY FOREIGN prince, potentate or STATE SOVEREIGNTY OF WHOM , OR OF WHICH I HAVE HERETOFOR BEEN A SUBJECT OR CITIZEN, ... AND THAT I TAKE THIS OBLIGATION FREELY WITHOUT ANY MENTAL RESERVATION OR PURPOSE OF EVASION... While the US may no longer actively kick people out for maintaining duel citizenship, you freely and willfully made this promise on camera in front of all of your viewers. Are you being honest to yourself and your new country by only taking advantage of the benefits of citizenship when it suits you (like when you want to leave and return to the US), without also being mindful of the obligations of citizenship?
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  4. @dkwannabe  Please note my choice of words. I said "every dollar (or Euro) spent...". Rent being an exception that I wasn't aware of. Yes, I save money too, but money which is saved is eventually spent. It's just a question of WHEN the VAT is paid. Just because the significant impact of the VAT isn't obvious because it's hidden in the price doesn't mean that it doesn't have a profound impact on the economy. VATs are also very regressive because lower income people can afford to save less. Also essentials like food still have a VAT (7%), which is even more regressive. While an income tax is like being held up by the government at gunpoint, a VAT is like an intestinal parasite. You may not be aware of it, but it will still suck the life from you. The only fair way too compare total tax rates is to compare the percentages of the total economy taken up by the government spending.
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  5. Come to Boston. Arnold's "ah's" would fit right in!
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  6. Article 5.2 Speech is limited by another person's right of "personal honour"??? That sounds like it's right out of early medieval thinking. Is this remedied by a duel ??? Someone's honor is impinged because I suggest that their previously stated opinion is stupid (not the speaker mind you, but what they spoke is stupiid). I think that I see the problem. The German constitution was obviously written by lawyers given that it is 444 pages long!!!! 444 pages! The US constitution is 4 pages long (hand written).
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  7. I'm pretty sure the questions about torture and genocide are a result of the Nazis (and others) sneaking into the US after WWII. Many did. Nowadays these questions can be used against bad actors from the Ukrainian war, Cambodia's killing fields, and any of the wars or ethnic cleansing events in Africa or elsewhere. The catch is that if at some future time it is determined that a person involved in those events lied on their application, this is a federal crime, and grounds for revoking the citizenship and expelling or jailing the person in question, irrespective of if they had broken any laws while performing those acts.
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  8. Governments always think that they can "boost the economy" by spending more money. But the reality is that a government can't boost an economy since they don't produce anything, and the only way for an economy to grow is by producing more. A government can only "boost an economy" by taking (aka. taxing) and spending (other people's money) less, which frees up more money for producers (aka. private citizens) to invest in labor or productivity -- which produces growth. Growth is what increases the overall wealth of an economy.
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  9. "Germany is pretty Anglesized...". Of course it is! Where did the Angles (as well as the Saxons, Jutes, etc) come from? Germany!
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  10. A flip-side to your flip-side about the German medical system is that the state controlled medical insurance doesn't support medical innovations. Picture a combination of the bureaucracy that you described, with the costs limited by frugal managers. There are, and have been, many medical treatments which were available and common in the US which were not in places like Germany and Canada. Cataract lens replacement surgery was becoming common in the US in the early 1990's. This apparently was not available until considerably later to my relatives in Germany. Cancer treatments (while often expensive) are also far more common in the US than in Canada, the UK and Germany. It also seems like joint replacement surgeries are far more available in the US than in other countries. So while the US system can be more expensive, that extra money does provides benefits.
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  11. @AleaumeAnders  Actually, what you are alluding to is a shakedown, in which case the protection money is paid to protect they payer from you. This is very different from the fact that the US has been paying (and Germany - comparatively speaking has not) to protect Germany from the USSR/Russia. That's not a shakedown or protection racket, that is genuine protection.
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  12.  @davesadrikcole6217  🤣
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  13. To a degree, it seems that based on recordings that we have of the Kaiser speaking publicly, that he did the same thing. Just not to the same level as Hitler.
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  14. My family and I have never visited Disney World, and never missed it. I figure that rather than show them the Sleeping Beauty Castle,, it would be better to just see Neuschwanstein Castle (admittedly a fanciful piece of architectural fantasy itself!) Nobody ever complained about not going to Disney World, but my daughters have been back to Germany a few times. To be honest, I doubt that Disney world and Epcot is a whole lot cheaper then just going to Europe in person.
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