Merkel's party wins German state vote by large margin

See, this comparison makes no sense. Health care and parental leave are just seen as logical and necessary. There's no left-right discussion coming into it. Almost everyone is convinced that national healthcare is better for everyone, the economy included.

But that doesn't mean that there are huge debates about how this is supposed to work.

In the last two decades, the German welfare state was all but dismantled. Taxes were drastically reduced; increases in health care costs are now affecting only the worker's part of the insurance fee; worker's rights were hollowed out.

Just two examples – there is no more welfare. Instead, people who can't find a job get an amount of money considered "Existenzminimum". Which translates to, literally, "as little as possible to live". And if they don't apply for enough jobs, or the civil servant has a bad day, even that amount can be reduced.

Not really a "socialist paradise".

Second example: Capital gains tax. Used to be income as usual (up to 52% tax); now it's a 25% flat tax.

That's slashed more than in half.

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