Location: Berlin, Germany, European Union

German industry is collapsing — profits are plunging, layoffs are mounting, and production is steadily moving abroad. Despite this, the government is planning to spend hundreds of millions to rebuild Gaza (there are only unclear statements about this). The so-called Sondervermögen (special funds) are nothing but temporary patches on a leaky budget that will need another bailout within months. Meanwhile, generous handouts continue flowing to the same older voter base that keeps demanding them. Most of the money goes into consumption and debt service, not into infrastructure or measures that would actually make the country more competitive. Media discourse is fixated on cutting social programs and raising taxes — squeezing an already overburdened middle class, apparently unaware that it’s the only group still keeping the system afloat. My recent experience with the healthcare system made me again realize how broken it truly is: it took three attempts to get my 90-year-old father admitted to a hospital for a spinal compression fracture. I always tell people — try not to get sick here. Living on the city’s outskirts, every trip into the center feels worse than the last. As the weather turns colder, the substance-abuse tourists move back into public transport. Crack has arrived in recent years, accelerating the visible decay and descent into madness.

Meanwhile, the Eurocrats keep pushing their mass surveillance “chat control” agenda — taken off the table for now, but clearly not abandoned. Ta-ta!