Schwerin, Campsite Office

One evening we had a conversation with several young people who ran the campsite near Schwerin, (former East) Germany, perhaps the most detailed, informative discussion we had during our visit to this part of Germany.

We were always so surprised to hear the question we were asked several times, “Did people in America know there were two Germanys?” They were shocked to hear we knew so much about their country, and even more shocked to hear how happy we (and the rest of the US) were when the Berlin Wall came down. In school they were not told much about America, just that most people in America were unemployed and hungry, and that we most likely hated the people in Eastern Europe.

They found it almost impossible to believe our stories about the relatively low cost of living, and the high level of service we expect in the US. Luckily, as we spoke a young man from Munich arrived, and confirmed what we had said. His company had sent several groups of people to the US for three to four months at a time, and when they returned they regaled their friends with stories about “low” prices and “great” service in the US. It made us proud to hear, but sad to think other countries have yet to reach our standard of living.

One young lady, who said she had to scrimp and save to feed her family, kept close records of her expenditures. Food for her family of four, cost $480 a month, a lot of money on her and her husband’s very small income. Converted from the D-Mark, they said that a family income of $15,000 would be a living wage in former East Germany, $24,000 an excellent income, and anyone who earned as much as $60,000 would be considered very rich indeed. We had asked the same question, more than once, in West Germany, and the answers were about $10,000 to $15,000 higher in each category.

European workers get four to six weeks of paid vacation, over a dozen paid holidays each year, and have job security unknown in the US. It only takes a little bit of “Economics 101” to determine that too many benefits, and too much government enforced job security, also contributes to unemployment. If a company owner has no control over his employees and can not “lay off” unneeded workers when business drops, he will hire just as few as he can.