German taxes and social services

It's been 8 days since my last post. Rebecca was sick in the hospital (definitely fodder for another blog post) and there was little time the past week to write.

I was filling up my gas tank this morning, amazed that each time I do so it costs me about $125. And that's for a small car like an Accord or Camry. Based on yesterday's exchange rate, I paid $8.47 per gallon. So I started thinking about why the cost could be so high - the oil producing countries are closer to Germany so not a transportation issue - when I saw a note that said $5.02 of taxes is levied on each gallon. That's 59% of the cost of gas! So an enormous source of revenue for the government.

Then I thought about my paycheck here, as I just got my second one today since my arrival. My paycheck included 34% for taxes (all included - federal, city, local, etc) and 5% for social security. So in all, I actually pay higher taxes here (due to fewer allowances and credits) than I do in the US (though, thankfully, this increase is paid by my firm). And that ignores health care costs (as we have private insurance), but the average German pays about another 6% for health care, which is state run.

So I started wondering where all this tax money went and it became pretty clear - Germany doesn't have the social security and poverty issues we have, their roads and infrastructure are above US standard (approaching fantastic) and the health care system (certainly not as coddling as the US, as will be described in another writing) is efficient and run by the government. Everyone has healthcare.

I would gladly pay the tax rates that Germans pay in the US to help eliminate the above issues (good god, am I becoming a liberal???). The problem is, I have little confidence that the US government would actually be able to implement these German like systems efficiently and without billions of dollars leaking for other undisclosed items that doom the entire reason for the increases in taxes...

As a quick aside and speaking of fuel price, in the US I watch for the lowest price in gasoline per gallon but within a few cents I am indifferent. But here, due to the exchange rate and pricing in liters instead of gallons, a €.01 change in gas price is equivalent to $.06! So passing a place up and seeing it for €.03 higher down the road is $.18 per gallon higher! Just need to alter the mindset a little...