{"id":302,"date":"2012-02-01T20:16:49","date_gmt":"2012-02-02T04:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jett.in\/?p=302"},"modified":"2012-02-01T20:16:49","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T04:16:49","slug":"an-open-letter-to-german-taxpayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2012\/02\/an-open-letter-to-german-taxpayers\/","title":{"rendered":"An Open Letter to German Taxpayers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(forgive me, for this post is only tangentially travel-related)<\/p>\n<p>on the way to the gun range tonight (my second time after\u00a0<a title=\"I Shot a\u00a0Gun\" href=\"http:\/\/jett.in\/2012\/01\/22\/i-shot-a-gun\/\" target=\"_blank\">going a couple weekends ago<\/a>) i heard a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theworld.org\/2012\/02\/spain-unemployed-germany\/\" target=\"_blank\">story<\/a> on PRI&#8217;s\u00a0<em>The World<\/em> about unemployed Spaniards going to Germany in an effort to find work. with all this talk of Germany&#8217;s role in the European debt crisis, and remembering the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/europe\/calls-grow-to-lift-burden-of-germanys-solidarity-tax-459805.html\" target=\"_blank\">Solidarity Tax<\/a>\u00a0<em>(solidarit\u00e4tszuschlag)<\/em>\u00a0where Germans have an extra tax meant (ostensibly) for improving the infrastructure in former East German states, i just wanted to give a <em>herzlichen dank<\/em> to the German taxpayer. no, really &#8212; a sincere thank you from the bottom of my heart.<\/p>\n<p>your perhaps-begrudging-but-nonetheless-steadfast handing over of your money to your government (not saying this is a good or bad thing, just factually-speaking) means not just economic bailouts for countries you vacation in and better roads and train stations for your ex-communist\u00a0brethren, but perhaps most importantly and selfishly, allowing me to stay in your country for two years earning a graduate degree tuition-free that i brain-drained right out of you.<\/p>\n<p>i honestly feel somewhat guilty about this. but you know, i&#8217;m just going to take what you gave me and thank you for it &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jonk\/tags\/t%C3%BCbingen\" target=\"_blank\">two of the best years of my life<\/a>. i suppose i did pay enough <a title=\"1,899%\u00a0Tax\" href=\"http:\/\/jett.in\/2012\/01\/09\/1899-tax\/\" target=\"_blank\">airport taxes and surcharges<\/a> while traveling during those two years, though, to make up for some of it?<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jonk\/50482702\/in\/photostream\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/30\/50482702_ac8d52361a_z.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The usual postcard picture of T\u00fcbingen<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jonk\/36885560\/in\/photostream\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/32\/36885560_de8a24d595_z.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"469\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">My initial visa to study in Germany<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(forgive me, for this post is only tangentially travel-related) on the way to the gun range tonight (my second time after\u00a0going a couple weekends ago)&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12],"tags":[331,714,752],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.13 - 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