THIS is what's killing the US economy:

[JDPriestly]

75. They have a very high VAT or sales tax. That helps pay for lots of things that we pay for

by taking taxes out of paychecks of the middle class. They also pay high taxes but in Germany they get single payer insurance, including dental, free college, family leave, Kindergeld, free half-day pre-school. At least those were the things they received from the government when I lived there.

A VAT tax is regressive from one point of view. But if you use the income to pay for costs and services for the taxpayers it is great.

The VAT makes the prices of foreign imports and locally produced goods a little more comparable because the tax is imposed on goods made from cheap labor meaning that the purchases of goods whether produced by cheap labor or expensive German labor contribute to the overall economic well-being of the country.

I do not know how Germany will pay for the cost of accommodating so many refugees. That remains to be seen.