I'm not getting sucked into this debate, since I made my experiences with discussing US politics before.
It's never civil and never ends in a good way
It's caused by the different education and upbringing in those various countries.
However, I want to make a quick statement to those following posts.
The EU zone succeeded in many ways and should not be reduced to the recent financial crisis,
when a main aspect was the US housing market and financial crisis.
Anyways, if you know a bit about the reasons why Greece, Spain and Italy are in the situation they are in now,
you'll see, it has little to do with the EU.
It has lots to do with the 2nd WW and 40 years of local politics before joining the EU.
Joining the EU didn't make those countries poor. I'm sure you didn't mean to say that, however declaring the EU
to have failed because of it might be a bit to early.
You're thinking wrong my friend.
Germany's economical growth will be around 1.6% in 2013 according to the DIW and a few other economic research institutes.
The GDP in the second quarter grew by 0.5% and 0.3% in the third this year.
It's a question of how many more depth Germany is willing to on to stabilize the EU zone.
Btw: The current leading parties in Germany are planning to have a balanced national budget without any new debt by 2014.