Head to the checkout at an Ikea in Stockholm to pay for your new
leather corner sofa and with the swipe of a Visa card it is yours. Do
not try that in Berlin — that will be 1,699 euros (NT$64,000) up front
please.
It is that financial culture — a deep-seated aversion to
debt and an emphasis on responsibility — that makes Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s hardline approach to solving the European financial crisis so
popular in Germany.
The attitude shows up in all walks of life, from the daily trip to the grocery store to putting a roof over your head.
The
economy is so reliant on cash for transactions small and big, a way to
ensure you do not spend more than you have, that Germany pushed hard for
the 500 euro note to replace its popular 1,000 mark bill when it joined
the common currency.
Around the world Merkel has been derided as
intransigent in her approach to the financial crisis, demanding budget
cuts and fiscal austerity from allegedly profligate EU members. But her
hardline stand plays well among the people who elected her.
A new
poll for Stern magazine shows 64 percent of Germans think the chancellor
should stick to her guns, while only 32 percent think she should
reconsider her insistence on austerity.
(AP)
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2012/08/31/2003541568
(AP)
沒有留言:
張貼留言