Bernie Sanders Is Losing Primary Battles, But Winning A War

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151. Germany never intended to be "socialistic" in this regard

It wanted to be fair, and at the time its systems were set up, there was little migration. It was set up to handle German society as it stood, and pretty much worked under those circumstances. It was not set up to handle millions of "ethnic Germans" pouring in from Eastern Europe saying "me German, give me money," and suddenly upsetting the balance of government expenditures and revenues that had kept the place on a even keel for decades. These people had never paid into any pensions, often spoke only rudimentary German (therefore useless to employers), and were eligible for handouts under a law dating from a time when only a trickle of people escaping from the socialist east were showing up. The fact that these new arrivals, who never did anything for German society except mooch off of it, now resent "foreigners" like the Syrians, who are fleeing for their lives coming here for more legitimate reasons than they had. The trouble is the numbers. No country can absorb a 1¼% increase in its population within a year when 99% of the new arrivals have no skills, don't speak the language, have a completely different culture, and no place else to go. Tensions there were pre-programmed.

My wife's first time with cancer was in 2001. 2 operations, chemo, radiation and a month at a rehab spa. As a German with a job, she was covered, although her employer resented her "time off." The fact that it was to save her life was minor. Her second time was 2 years ago, and what she had is usually fatal, never discovered until it's too late. It's called "Der Mörder (the murderer)" here. But with her, it was discovered by accident in its initial stages. Her doctor intervened, and shortened the usual wait period for patients with her second class status of health insurance. That intervention got her a quick operation, and the specialist said it was the first time he had EVER treated this kind of cancer and recommended no chemo or radiation. All 84 biopsies came back negative, and he said he was willing to risk no chemo if she was. She said chemo was so awful, she was willing to risk it, too. So far, so good. Her insurance covered her second round of cancer treatment as well, but this time, only because I was paying the €450 monthly premium, as she was under 65 and unemployed. Otherwise, she would have been facing a ruinous half million dollar bill.

So far, she has been cancer-free, so it has been worth every euro to me. Every woman in her family has had cancer twice, and lived to be 90. Both my parents and all their siblings had cancer, and only one of my grandparents lived past the age of 80. So with me, it's "if" but "when."