Paying more in taxes than you receive in benefits, that is.
In essence, that’s what a fiscal union entails, transferring wealth from richer parts of the union to less wealthy environs. It has gone on for decades in the US with only occasional muted protests.
Having lived in the Northeast US most of my life, I’m used to paying lumpy taxes and receiving relatively little in return. You get used to it after a while (like a dull toothache) , and Germans will too.
No one signs up for that sort of program willingly but once it’s in place, you sort of ignore it, sort of like a dog barking on the next block over.
That’s where this process will end, eventually: In full European fiscal union. But probably not before a meltdown is at hand. Nothing concentrates the mind like a crisis and Germans will have to be coaxed into believing it is better to give a little now than a lot more later if the euro disintegrates.
Remember, the euro is a political post-World War construct, not an economic construct.
