Germany is really good to its people. Last week, I started the orientation course, which is a two-week section of the Integration Course for German visa holders. I have learned lots about the new nation [For the uninitiated, there was an area in central Europe that was occupied by a variety of dukedoms and many spoke the same Teutonic language. The area officially became a nation in 1871. That fell apart a few times. A democratic nation was formed May 1949; West and East Germany came together as one nation in 1990.].
In exchange for high taxes:
Families with children get money until the child turn 18, if they start work after high school, or 25, if they go to college
Parents of newborns get money from the government for two years
Money to help pay for child care
Money for unemployed people
Money for older people
I am starting to wonder about the wisdom of the American way of life. I would like to have money from the government for being married or having children.
Plus, I was shocked to learn that for most nonviolent offenses, the punishment is monetary, not jail. And you pay. None of these repeated calls from collectors. People (accompanied by police, if necessary) come to your house and take things that equate the cost of the debt. I like that more than the chaos of the criminal justice system in the United States. If American jails and prisons rehabilitated people, I would support them. At least in the German way, criminals aren't simply stored together.
Plus, pregnant women are forced from work six weeks before their due date. They get to sit home and get paid. Then they can stay home for a year and get paid. When they return to work, they can NOT get fired for two years.
I would like some stuff from the government. As a working adult, the only thing I have ever gotten from the government was a student loan forbearance.
I learned a lot in the course but it is mess. We are not assigned homework. We go over the information in class and learn as we read along. I am having trouble translating the words, so I cannot really learn. So then I started reading texts the night before. We have the orientation course test tomorrow. But wait. Get this. We have the test at 11 am, right after we have three hours of lesson. So there is some teaching and there is a test. That is why I read the night before. We did a practice test today and about one eighth of the information in the book was on the test. Oh well, in 24 hours, it will all be over.
Then what do I do?
Remember: There's no such thing as a free lunch. Everything you get, you pay for, one way or another.
ReplyDeleteMaking non-violent criminals pay is a great way to fron the money to stay home a year after having that baby.
The penal system is called as such because that is what it is. It was not established to rehabilitate but to punish.
Punishment and rehabilitation are not the same.
What do they do for the poor or people who cannot remunerate for their crime?
BigSis