Yet he continues to stay in the US w/all our potholes, etc.

Ask for a transfer.

Seems like a perfectly ordinary story about how trains make everyone miserable.

And I'll bet Colberg hasn't even heard the Budweiser complaints yet

I go there to visit relatives, and it's quite nice, despite the fact that the author is generally correct.

In my view, Germany is not really different from the US, except that is further along the path of Socialization, Secular Humanization. They are experiencing the socially enervating effects of both.

It is possible that we are not so far along that path that we can't turn back, however, as I scan the news items of the day, I notice that we Americans whine loudly about virtually everything too.

I enjoyed the story in the USA Today recently, where the big rage was to lambaste Corzine for suggesting an end to mandatory full serve gas.

NJ is probably as bankrupt and corrupt as IL, suffers from many of the same issues, yet put up with all... except their "full serve".

We've become infantilized, and aren't much better off than the Germans. It's just less noticable because we still have a bit more capacity to enjoy the intervals between complaining

Bruno:

To the contrary, we barely started down the path before reversing ourselves.

David:

Germans hating trains would hardly be an argument against them.

A German complaining about complaining Germans? The mind boggles.

Bruno,

We're not complainers, Americans are faulted by the rest of the world for being too upbeat and for not being serious enough. It's the media who are complaining and they can always find some disgruntled grumps to quote.

This may not be true In Germany where the people and the media are all on the same page so complaining becomes a national trait. However, truth be told, how can people living under stultifying stupefying socialism be anything but grumpy.

(a) The World Cup (b) the excellent beer

Anybody who thinks German beer is all great has never had a BBK or a Schultheiss ("SchultScheiss" to the locals.)

Actually, the Czechs have the best beer.

I never said it's ALL great.

Heresy and all, but I think Mexico makes the best beer: Tecate in a can, Bohemia, Carte Blanca and Negro Modelo....

Of course, after five shots of Herradua the gutter water in Nogales tastes pretty darn good.

Not that I would know.

America has much better beer than all that swill. Pabst, Sam Adams and Bud in particular.

And we drink it cold, the way God intended.

Well as a German and a Crafts brewer I can't read this without saying something. Germans don't have the best beer. There is no country which has the best beer!!! All countries have wonderful beer, including UK, Belgium, Holland, Austria, US etc. The list is endless. And all countries have bad beer i.e. Buds, Millers, Binding this list is endless, too! And beer has to be served in the correct temperature, saying that beer has to be cold just shows that you don't know much about beer.

And I am not complaining about anything! Might be this is because I live in New Zealand.

Cheers

Well, I am German and I have a story to tell. Recently at work I was carrying my mobile phone in the breast pocket of my shirt and one of our managers asked me, dead serious: "Arent´you afraid the radiation will affect your heart?" And believe it ot not, this is typical of how many people talk here. I was not even surprised, which I suppose makes me a pessimist, too.

Are Americans really different? I don´t know, but it´s too late for me too leave the country, anyway. I mean, before the ozone hole kills me.

There is no doubt the (West) Germans have done a commendable job at facing up to their past, but as with certain Christian churches, it seems to have morphed into a self-flagellating, politically-correct fussiness, especially among German men. Its all anecdotal, but I get the feeling the past weighs so heavily on a lot of Germans that they have a hard time distinguishing masculine virtue from Nazism. So they actually get serious about things like peeing while sitting down or hairnets in the military. I guess the only solution would be to draft them all into the army. Hmm, maybe not.

erp:

We're not complainers

Yes, you can see that here. :-)

Pete, we see problems and offer suggestions on how they can be fixed. Mindless complaining, whining and bitching isn't in our national character.

I get the feeling the past weighs so heavily on a lot of Germans that they have a hard time distinguishing masculine virtue from Nazism. So they actually get serious about things like peeing while sitting down...

Fortunately that's nothing a good motivational speech can't cure. Something along these lines, maybe:

Skip: You guys. You sitzpinkle the ball around the infield. You sitzpinkle your way down to first. You sitzpinkle in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you? Larry!
Larry: Sitzpinklers!
Skip: Sitzpinklers.

erp:

You don't listen to customer complaint calls all day long, do you?

Not anymore. In my last job (I retired almost 20 years ago) almost every telephone call or person walking into my office, started off with, I've got a problem. It was comical and if I were smarter, I would taped it for funniest home videos. Oh wait. There were no home videos in those days.

The complaints weren't from customers, they were from faculty and administrators and my job was to alleviate their concerns and solve their problems, so they could get on with their job of indoctrinating the students with leftwing propaganda. Not really. Our division had nothing to do with politics.

My predecessor was a disaster, so it was Problem Solving R-Us. To a large extent I was successful in getting warring factions to understand that my main concern was that students have a hassle free experience while they were with us and they began to trust that I wouldn't play favorites, the infighting trickled down to nothing and our operation worked like a charm.

My comment above was about generalized whining, of course people will always have genuine beefs and those should be dealt with ASAP so everyone can go home happy.