As a German I strongly disagree with all of your points above. You should not compare apples with pears.
How likely that in the USA a person can retire at 40? How many percentage of the people can afford that?
Somebody has to support the elderly people. The other aspect is the capitalism and consumerism point of view. But all this hopefully will be good for the planet and other species.
As a German I strongly disagree with all of your points above. You should not compare apples with pears. How likely that in the USA a person can retire at 40? How many percentage of the people can afford that?