Not to sound like a broken record, but they're also prescription-required in Germany, as are the accessories. My otherwise very by-the-books husband ended up buying grey-market masks in order to be able to try several styles before finding one that worked well for him.

In Germany, I cannot buy ibuprofen, paracetamol (acetamenophen), or ASS (Aspirin - TM Bayer) at a grocery or "Drogerie" (place to buy cosmetics and other health & beauty items). I have to go to a pharmacy and ask for it at the counter - truly "OTC", and they're expensive compared to their US retail equivalents. That said, most common prescription drugs are significantly cheaper in Germany than in the US, even without insurance.

Antibiotics are definitely prescription-only, as are birth control and morning after ("Plan B") pills. I was once able to talk an airport pharmacy into selling me an albuterol inhaler without a script in hand, but only when I promised that I'd had it before and explained how to use it, and that I was about to get on a flight.

At the very least, live like a prudent low-middle-income earner in your country, not like a Bay Area SWE.

Get used to using public transit, if it’s at all an option for you. Going down to being a one-car household instead of two saves us at least 5k EUR per year, even counting the additional cost of two unlimited local transit passes.

Avoid habit-forming conveniences like restaurant delivery, and instead learn how to grocery shop with a list and to cook things you like to eat. If you’re really pressed for time, order your groceries online and pick them up, or get them delivered (that’s an easier thing to back away from if money gets tight than restaurant delivery).

Develop non-consumerist hobbies, where you can get a lot of enjoyment out of little marginal expenditure. I’m partial to fiber arts (free/cheap sheep fleeces I clean with dish soap, then spin and crochet/knit), but there are plenty of relaxing ways to spend time that don’t involve spending much money or being convinced to spend money (like most media consumption - everyone is susceptible to advertising, to some extent)

Undocumented immigrants often have legally-resident and/or citizen family members who are eligible for Medicaid.

But yes, it's disgusting that ICE has access to that data via Palantir, or that this data is being used for anything other than administering Medicaid.

Let’s say you’re a person of questionable immigration status who has lived in the US for a couple of decades, achieved some modest success - your own home, mostly paid for, a car or two, maybe even a small business.

Sure, just walk away for not even a month’s pay, back to a country you’ve not lived in for decades.

Oh, and there’s a good chance some roided-up high school dropout is going to snatch you and stuff you in a van when you go to the immigration office to begin this nice, civilized process so that he can make quota.

Yeah, I’d be uninterested in drawing the attention of the immigration enforcement machinery right now, too.

If the government wanted people to take the carrot, they shouldn’t be so quick with the stick, even at immigration courts where people were doing their best to follow the laws.

In the winter in northern Europe or the colder parts of North America, as part of a radiator system? Kind of works!

Any other time and place? The power to run it, plus the power to cool it.

Seeing fewer rooftop solar installations when I visit my home state (Texas) than I see in the one I live in (Bavaria) is a trip. Yes, I know that electricity is far cheaper there than here, but as much electricity as air conditioning eats, and as big as those roofs are (panels are cheap; it's the system that's expensive), it should balance out.

Anecdotally, a ton of solar has gone up in the last four years here in Germany, both rooftop and, increasingly, in what were likely canola fields for biodiesel along highways - at first driven by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the need to reduce natural gas consumption, but now by how absolutely cheap those panels are. Too bad they're not being made here...

My favorite installation so far: a large field in SW Germany, with the panels high enough for cattle to wander and grass to grow under them. The cattle were almost all under those panels, munching away - it was a hot day.

Grid level renewables are more economical than rooftop solar by a significant stretch, and Texas has a lot of that, especially wind. The lifetime cost of rooftop solar just doesn't work out very well when you also have cheap electricity.

Something is deeply wrong with the home solar market in the US. It comes out about 3x more expensive than Australia despite similar labour costs.

The one that I'm at a complete loss for is Uruguay - it is one of the wealthiest countries per capita in South America as well as the least corrupt and most egalitarian... not exactly a huge source of desperate immigrants. Did their government scold ours too harshly for the recent Venezuela shenanigans or something?

Yeah, Uruguay is also surprising.

Yes, life in Bavaria, working in manufacturing, is nothing but miserable oppression. Horrible 35 hour work week. Wretched 6 weeks of vacation. Ruinously expensive 500 EUR/month daycare. The prospect of having to pay a couple hundred Euros per semester when my child reaches university.

The good wine is now 8 EUR/bottle.

Suffering and deprivation.

Do not come here, I beg of you. Save yourself.

I had to use extraordinary means to get this message out.

That’s exactly what an oppressive government would have their citizens say, fellow Bavarian!

/s

Wow, that would take care of our usual home office base load (Germany, not using electricity for heating)

It's a siren call for us techies, but reality is less pretty than our fantasies of "cheap base load".

I got an offer for a "essentially free" residential turbine including the pylon (8 to 10 meters, the legal limit for a "Kleinwindanlage") in SW Germany - just had to dismantle it and put it on my lawn. And of course pour a huge foundation [2x2m?] and have an accredited electrician do the necessary alterations. Nope. It didn't even produce enough electricity to offset the maintenance costs - no idea how I should offset the costs for moving it, even with the free capex.

And I did the math about 3 years ago: Prices for both PV and batteries dropped a lot since then. For late fall/early spring I would be better off by adding a PV carport (2 cars). I could also finally automate charging my batteries while electricity is cheap during Dec/Jan, might even be worth bumping my existing battery from 28 kWh to 42 kWh.

To be fair: The math might work out in the Northern Germany; but I would not bet on it.