Stephan Richter on NPR: The Case for Moving to Germany

David Brancaccio:

Poor old Stephan Richter. He is Editor-in-Chief of the online magazine The Globalist, and after decades of living in always perfect Washington, D.C., he has moved back to his native Germany. And I wonder how much he is suffering there in Berlin. Hello Stephan.

Stephan Richter:

Hi David.

David Brancaccio:

You poor fellow. Central Europe, high taxes, five dollars per gallon gasoline, they charge you for bags at the grocery store. How are you surviving your deprivation there?

Stephan Richter:

I feel positively liberated. Food is positively cheap. I’m a foodie, and I have barely managed to break the 100-euro barrier — even if I had a full load.

And I remember in D.C. doing that with two rather lightly packed bags of whole food stuff — and I wasn’t buying any caviar. So, it’s positively a good trait to be here and shop for food and eat nicely.

David Brancaccio:

But what about other things? Do you find the price of life in general cheaper? When I go to Europe, I often pay nine bucks for a beer!

Stephan Richter:

What is the big cost in our lives? It is health insurance. I paid $2,000 in the United States, and I pay $1,000 here.

We all need cell phones, and for two people I pay 65 euros. And there is no nerve wrecking surcharges if you travel abroad and all of a sudden they come up with funny data charges. And calls from here to the United States or anywhere in Europe are covered as local calls.

David Brancaccio:

What about getting around?

Stephan Richter:

We live in Berlin, where, like in many big cities, it is no longer the case that you want to have a car. You rely on public transportation.

And if you go really long distances and cannot take the train, you end up taking airplanes. And even if I decide to go tomorrow to Spain or Italy or wherever, most flights now with EasyJet and so on are 65-75 euros one way even if I book it one day in advance.

And it seems like Europe isn’t so far behind. In fact, it is the mass-market consumer place that the United States has always advertised itself to be. And in reality, Americans pay through the nose by a factor of two or three times as much as we pay for many things in Europe.

David Brancaccio:

Stephan Richter, Editor-in-Chief of The Globalist, now in Berlin after years in Washington D.C. Stephan, thank you.

Stephan Richter:

You’re welcome.

Editor’s note: This interview was conducted by David Brancaccio, the host of the Marketplace Morning Report, with The Globalist’s Stephan Richter. It was broadcast on National Public Radio all across the United States on February 15, 2018. To view this feature on the Marketplace website and listen to the 3:28 minute audio of the interview, click here.