A life in Germany
University is close to free and illness is close to paid for. The ladder is steadier, and the top of it is lower.
In One Life, a German life is born in Dortmund, Leipzig, Bremen, Kassel, Rostock or Mannheim. Children walk to school, and the school years end with the Abitur, the exam that opens the way to university. The money is in euros.
What the game gives you
Two things set a German life apart in the game. The first is university, which costs almost nothing: the game charges a German student a small fraction of what an American one pays. Education is therefore a cheaper bet here than in any other country in One Life.
The second is health care. Illness in Germany is close to fully paid for, so a German life, like a British one, is rarely ruined by medical bills.
The trade is a flatter ladder. Pay is steady and well protected, and the top of the ladder is lower than in the United States. The state pension starts at 67 in the game and is one of the more generous of the eight. Many Germans rent all their lives, in one of the best-protected rental markets in the world, so not buying a home is not a failure here.
Money in the game
The game sets each country’s money against the United States, then shows it in local currency, here in euros at a fixed rate of €0.92 to the dollar. In a life here, an ordinary job pays about 72% of what the same job pays in the US, and everyday prices are about 76% of American prices. A university education costs about 6% of the American price, and medical bills about 13% of what an American pays out of pocket for the same illness.
Those ratios are the shape of a life here. Pay is a little lower than in the US and prices lower too; what changes a German life most is what it does not have to pay for: university and illness.
The odds
The UN estimates life expectancy at birth in Germany at about 82 years (80 for men, 84 for women). In the game, a German life is the steadiest of the eight: fewer disasters, fewer fortunes, and a long middle in which the choices that matter most are the ordinary ones.