[dcolkitt]

> In a welfare state I don't have that priority

I just don't believe that's true. Many, many more Germans immigrate to Switzerland, the UK or even America than vice versa. That's primarily because professional salaries in the latter are higher. That strongly suggests that at least some non-negligible proportion of German professionals care about compensation.

[alkonaut]

Obviously there are tons of people who want to do this. But the difference I think is that fewer people feel the need or expectation to aggregate wealth over their career.

Another angle I didn’t think of is the work-hard-retire-early mindset which of course means that a) you work hard and expect high comp for it b) if you do long hours and have little holiday, you have a higher interest in retiring early, which requires lots of capital.

My SWE salary is with 6w holidays, haven’t done many workweeks over 40h yet in a 20 year career. I don’t just expect to work to 70, I want to work to 70. My work life balance means I have more than enough time for gardening and travel without retiring. Retiring at 70 requires a lot less capital than doing so at 55.

[dcolkitt]

> But the difference I think is that fewer people feel the need or expectation to aggregate wealth over their career.

German savings rates are 50% higher than America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_gross_nat...

[alkonaut]

Germans are probably more successful at saving! I do think though that if you asked “is it important to have a well paying job” or “important to retire rich” I think more would agree in the US (although few would succeed). I don’t have any numbers for this hypothetical interview question though.

[imtringued]

Weak euro -> trade surplus -> Germany earns more than it spends -> savings -> lends money to importing nations

and the cycle repeats