Why Yes, I'll Just Use My Credit Card!

I showed up in the lounge today to head off to class with one of the English teachers, but they had left for class already. So Mr. R took me with him to his Economics/Politics class (Wirtschaftspolitik?) to see how their regular classes are. Everything was fine right up until they started talking about America. Apparently the exchange has gotten significantly worse. It’s gone from $1.42 to 1Euro to $1.7 to 1 Euro. Just awful.

But what really got things going was when he asked why the dollar was falling. Suddenly I was the one American in a classroom full of students talking about the American consumerist philosophy, the unwillingness or inability to save, big cars, massive debt, big houses etc etc. After some 20 minutes of this he thought it was time to hear my opinion on the matter.

And when you think about, just how defensible is our position? We do get into debt up to our ears…and beyond. We do get loans to buy a house, buy cars, go to college. But now the question is whether or not we have a choice. It’s not that we do it because we just love credit cards and have zero foresight. It’s because we have to. Everyone knows how difficult it is to get a nice job without a college education. So, we go to college and build up our very first massive debt. I explained to them that Americans are not in love with their credit cards and utterly lacking foresight, but rather that debt is unfortunately built into our life right now. I explained how necessary college is and gave them mine as an example: $40k a year for four years. That’s already $160,000 right there. Bam. And since we don’t have the nice transportation system they have (street cars, busses, and trains for cheap and they run just about everywhere) that people need to buy cars. That’s $30,000 to $60,000 right there. And then a few years after college you find yourself in need of a house. That’s another several hundred thousand. So it’s not a personal philosophy; it’s life.

Mr. R chatted with me a bit during the break, explaining that Germans and French (and Europeans in general, really) tend to be very critical of American policies. Obviously I shouldn’t take offense. But I was curious just what they do to avoid debt. He said quite simply there is no debt. I asked him to explain. What about housing? He said: no loans for houses. How do you pay for them? His timeless answer was:

“We save.”

Save? I ask how anyone could possibly save up that much money, especially after you’re just a few years out of college, for example. He explains that everyone saves up all the money they need before purchasing a house and then they buy it. No loans, nothing. The government will offer up some 100 Euros for housing (which..is nothing). He also mentioned housing calls Sparhäuser or something that might be discounted or something? I really have no idea. This did not help clarify how people manage to save up all that money for a house. I understand that they don’t have massive debt from college because college here is free (though there’s been much uproar lately about over half of the Länder requiring students to now pay 500 Euros per semester in tuition. It makes me want to laugh). As for cars, they said something about our unnecessarily huge cars. I don’t know. The cars here are so tiny, I think I can see how you wouldn’t go into debt buying something like that. They just can’t charge too much for those, can they? I mean they look like Tonka cars.

Anyway, that was interesting. I didn’t convince anybody I’m sure. They went on to lecture about Der Magische 4-Eck (the Magic 4 Corners). It’s an economic principle they have. I forget all four, but it had to do with stabilizing prices and whatnot. The instructor proposed there should really be a Magische 7-Eck, though, because there were 3 other important factors affecting the economy. Now, two of these were the sorts of economic factors you would expect. However, the third was Umweltschutz (environmental protection). Really? This factors into your economy? They are very environmentally conscious here. Whenever you buy something in a glass bottle, they charge an extra 10 cents that will only be returned when you bring back the bottle. They separate their trash into rather specific compartments. Not to mention the odd road sign I saw while we were out shopping yesterday that read:

“Wasserschutzpolizei -->”

Water Protection Police? I have much to learn about Germany.