Dornfelder and the sagging safety net

First the good stuff. I tried Dornfelder red wine over the weekend and it was great. What I tried came from the Rhine Hessen area. Well balanced, rich, dry and fruity. A great wine. Red wine production is increasing in Germany because of growing demand. As someone I met said, red wine is the trend.

I also experienced what could be the beginning of the sagging safety net. Germany has long been heralded as a country that takes care of its people. There is a strong moralism that runs throughout German culture. People are generally proud to have a strong welfare society and that there has not been relatively great disparities in income (CEOs are paid much less, for instance, than in America).

Yet, things are fraying at the edges. In Trier we parked in a grocery store parking lot and witnessed two mentally ill people hanging about. One guy stood stock still and smoked cigarettes, although he would sometimes shift his position. Another guy approached us, asking for 2 Euros (which is quite a lot of money, talk about inflation!).

You see it in people's teeth. The poor can't pay for dental care and so avoid it. You see it in the libraries where the homeless and marginal congregate. The homeless here are not so impoverished. They are not so instantly obvious for the most part. However, they are there and over time are noticeable.