1. Over the past year or two...if you were a resident of Berlin (the city)....you probably noticed increased trash on the street, and around the parks.
This AM...the CDU-led city gov't came up and said: Berlin will start to reward tourists in the future....if they pick-up trash. You'd get vouchers.
They are also hiring trrash investigators....to walk the streets and find dumped-crap....putting into effect...higher fines.
I paused over this. If I had 7 days off, and settled for a Berlin trip...I'm NOT about to waste one day of it...picking up trash. My wife (being German) will go ballistic if I even suggest a day on collecting trash.
2 Just a lot of chatter over the past week or two....Germans remembering 1973.....when the gas crisis hit Germany, and autobahns on weekends were deserted.
The odds of this in April or May...near zero.
Odds in July or August? I'd say we are approaching a 50-percent point for a 1973-type crisis level.
3. So talk of change has started to occur with German health insurance.
If you didn't know....there's around 90-plus health plans in existence.
The CDU has started a talk....to dissolve the bulk of these....with the goal being in the end....ten.
Grumbling? Oh yeah....fair amount of negative talk has started up.
A change requiring the SPD to agree? Yes....and they might not be that agreeable.
Were they that different? Some were regional....some had limited situations for rehab (physical or drug or alcohol)....some required weight loss for knee or hip operations.
The chief problem....cost is escalating, and the state/federal apparatus....needs some tool to curtail rising costs.
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