Oh, did I hurt the German soul because I dared to mention that not everyone outside Germany lives in caves and collects berries in the forest?
You could go to a food bank and ask the people standing in line there how great they think Germany is. Or you could ask someone who is currently fishing for deposit bottles in the trash. Or ask your delivery driver when he rings your doorbell at 7:30 pm.
Only that in Norway, Denmark, Italy, and Spain (and in the rest of Europe) there are also food banks, people fishing deposit bottles out of trash cans, and delivery drivers ringing at 7:30 pm. I would even assert that you can live in Europe pretty much everywhere with more or less the same standard as here. Well, in Southern Europe you might sweat more than on the Hardangervidda, but so be it.
Something about the topic: battens have become cheaper. In general, there seems to be a relaxation in wood prices. On Saturday I had a flyer from a gardening and landscaping company in my mailbox. Paving, drywall, civil engineering... available appointments and free on-site consultation within a 100 km radius. The order books seem to be slowly clearing. I even double-checked, it had a current date on it. Not that it had been lying dormant in the mailbox since 2009.