No, not infancy. Infants can learn. These people do not wnat to.

Probably has more to do with how the Germans have screwed up their economy.

Kohl has a lot to answer for.

OT Please indulge me, and go to Junkyard Blog right now.

http://junkyardblog.transfinitum.net/

Bryan there has posted a story that LOOKS LIKE he can prove that the documents that 60 Minutes used last night to attack Bush's service, documents written in 1973, were in fact created in Microsoft Word..... OOOPS!

Check it out, and spread the word.

It's the final point, about the shrunken 'th' in 187th, that's the killer.

" The welfare state is - or has become - a giant organisation to shelter people from the natural consequences of their own disastrous choices, thus infantilising them and turning them into semi-dependants, to the great joy of their power-mad rulers."

Sounds like OJ's "Ownership Society". Society will own the means of their infantilization.

So they want the wall back. The state the German economy is in today, they couldn't afford it.

Robert:

Yes, it's an infantilization that's more efficient.

Ali,

The big mistake Kohl made was one-for-one exchanges for DDR Deutschmarks. It should have been done at the black market rate of 4-5 to 1. Germany then had to deal with the resulting inflation, so they followed a tight money policy just at the time when they needed expansion. Another mistake was that rather than encouraging start-ups by DDR people, he and his friends in the Treuhandschaft engaged in crony capitalism at its best.

I'd be interested in how many of the 20% are Wessies(West Germans) tired of subsidizing the lazy, stupid, violent Ossis. (East Germans) It also exacerbates things that the Ossis are the Prussians and they are viscerally hated once you get south of the Rhine.

I don't see why the East Germans can't sue the West German government for not forcing them to wander 40 years in the desert.

Sheer negligence. I mean it's not as though the game plan hasn't already been written.

Oldest story in the world. The Israelits leave Egypt under the leadership of Moses, who has a direct pipeline to God Almighty, guided by the Divine Presence, and they are sullen and rebellious. God decides he has to wait 40 years to escort them to Eretz Israel, so that an entire generation (the Boomers no doubt) can die off.

Germany does not have the same quality of leadership.

If only 20% of people believe a stupid thing, you're doing better than average.

Robert,

You do know the story about the guy who attends the Rosh Hashanah services at his shul and gets up in the middle of one of the prayers and yells out,'MOSES WAS A SCHLEMIEL!' The Congregation lets out a collective gasp but the rabbi moves on. Later the same guy gets up and yells 'MOSES WAS A SCHLEMIEL!' The Rabbi stops, glares at him, and says,' If I let you tell us why you think Moses was a schlemiel, will you shut up and let the rest of us get on with our worship?'

If he was so smart, he would have turned right into the oil fields, instead of left into the desert!

1 in 4 former West Germans admit resenting the costs of unification, and the killing pressure it's put on Germany's welfare and pension plans.
Entirely understandable, and I'm surprised that it's not a higher number.

1 in 8 former East Germans miss being the cream of the Soviet Satellite crop, and resent being hated and unemployable.
Also understandable.

As mike earl says, this is actually a good result.

I agree with Mike and Michael, but isn't it funny how the East Germans are so often painted as sullen welfare bums whining for handouts while much of the rest of Eastern Europe is determined to make a success of themselves? Maybe they would have been better off staying separate. We have a tendency to see Germans as the epitome of ethnic cohesion and solidarity, but they were only together for seventy years before Kohl.