Everyone is used to thinking that pensioners in Germany are like cheese in butter, but having personally visited this country, I realized that in many ways German pensioners can only envy our old people!
I'll make a reservation right away that I'm by no means saying that everything is fine with us, but everything is bad with them, no. On average, the standard of living in Germany is indeed higher, this is felt in the first week after a visit to this country.
It’s the same with the older generation, they often travel, spend time quite actively, often indulge themselves, you can’t say from them that they live hard, on the contrary, I would say that old age in Germany is on a par with childhood, the time is as carefree as possible.
But even in spite of all this, there is something that German pensioners can only envy you and me, I'll start in order.
Probably the first thing I noticed was housing!
Most of our old people own an apartment, at least one apartment, but there is , I think 95% of pensioners in the Russian Federation have their own housing for sure, of course this is mainly the merit of the USSR, and not the Russian Federation, but this is not about that now.
The situation is reversed in Germany, do not believe the myths that everyone there lives in rented apartments, this is not true, but indeed, their own housing is not found there as often as in our country, especially among pensioners, I think in percentage terms 55-60% have their own housing old people.
The second point is related to the first and is a real delight!
In this situation with personal housing, I am already silent about country houses, gardens and dachas, many of ours have them, in Germany this is already considered a sign of prosperity.
I think the territory of countries plays a role, for example, in Russia the land itself is much cheaper than in Germany, where every meter is worth its weight in gold.
The third point I would probably call unity.
Unity with family, yes, yes, older Germans communicate more with their peers, there are many hobby groups and other things so that in old age people are not lonely , speaking roughly – in old age the Germans have many friends and acquaintances, but relations with the family are far from the same as ours.
Children usually live apart and very often they even spend holidays separately, not to mention regular visits, I already said earlier that grandchildren with they don’t leave old people either, sort of like “we don’t want to bother.” Maybe the mentality plays a role, but our situation is different, it seems to me, the unity with the family is much better than theirs, I hope this trend will continue in the future.