Which is why I mentioned "but many here don't understand you cannot just change a country's culture by forcing them to strictly follow EU rules.".
The VW case is seen by many as an exception and usually every corruption case tends to be dealt exemplary, whereas in my home country (PT) corruption, specially the small one (owning favors) is still seen as profitable, because no big fish really gets prosecuted and it is the only way some things are actually done.
We know for such that such cases will drag in court and be archived after a few years of public discussion on the media.
Good luck trying to live in the southern or eastern Europe trying to do without small favors. It is possible and many people strive for it, but it isn't easy.
And for Germany and corruption, while there may not be as much corruption inside Germany, German companies are in the top when it involves other countries (Submarines in PT, don't remember what in Greece, etc). Heck, they were even tax deductible until recently: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/1995-08-06/germany-wh...
- Not asking for a receipt when going to a private doctor to save on VAT
- Going to an unofficial dealer instead of getting the car serviced on the official brand stores
- Getting an hospital appointment to a know doctor via networking instead of waiting months for a random doctor at the district hospital
- Not declaring 100% of the income to IRS
- Renting rooms to university students without contracts
- Double accounting on restaurants
- Spending up construction license approvals on the countryside
- Black job market for farm and construction workers
- Work positions that are already given, when displayed on the Government newspaper
- Jobs by being the "sun/daughter/cousin of" instead of proper hiring process
Yes, not everyone makes use of those tricks.
Not sure the aggression and rule breaking are what has helped in the US. Considering the US debt and wasted bailout money I'm not so sure the US really is better off.
You mean like Germany's biggest car maker solved the disel exhaust correctly? I don't your generalization stands up.
What I can agree with is that the Germans are sticklers for sticklers sense. And I could argue that breaking more rules and being more aggressive during the financial melt down has left us much better of in the US. Vice versus in the EU being slow and not compromising enough has only paid the shit dividend they've been reaping since the melt down. Much of that fault lies with the Germans being sticklers for sticklers sake.
Finally, it seams pretty short sighted when DB (Deuche Bank) is it self a ticking time bomb, one with additional exposure on Italy.
Nobody is denying that Italy needs structural reform; that's obvious. Germany's instance to be a stickler for sticklers sake is not helping anybody (themselves included).