Americans negotiate hospital bills, and there is a substantial advice literature and an industry of patient advocates who do it professionally. A bill for medical care already received is treated as a starting figure.
economics
The principle of equivalence
Das Äquivalenzprinzip. The principle of equivalence — that what each side gives should correspond to what each side receives. It is not an aspiration in German law. It is a working concept that courts apply, and a disturbed equivalence is a ground for intervention.
Second-time founders
Silicon Valley investors are widely understood to prefer a founder whose first company failed to one who has never started a company. The failure is priced as an asset. Whatever else it produced, it produced someone who has already made the mistakes.
The layoff
American reductions in force are announced publicly, executed quickly and often in a single day, with severance offered rather than required. The word is neutral in American English and carries no implication of fault on either side.
Usury as a crime
Wucher. Usury is a criminal offence in Germany, not only a civil one. Taking grossly disproportionate advantage of someone’s weakness is prosecuted. The state treats an imbalanced bargain as a matter for the criminal courts.
The extended warranty
A substantial American retail business is built on selling additional coverage at the point of sale, on everything from appliances to phones. The industry exists because buyers price the risk of failure into the purchase.
Depth of manufacture
Fertigungstiefe — a German term for how much of a product a firm makes itself, discussed as a strategic property. Control of the process is understood as control of the product.
Stock options
American companies grant equity to employees well below executive level, vesting over years. The compensation is a claim on future value, and the employee’s interest is deliberately tied to the share price.
The Mittelstand employer
The German mid-sized company sector, much of it family-owned across generations and often the principal employer in its town. Standorttreue — loyalty to the location — is a stated value in these firms, and moving production is discussed in local newspapers as a breach of something.
Pay for performance
American compensation is built in layers: base salary, annual bonus tied to individual and company results, equity, commission. A substantial share of pay for many roles is contingent and recalculated every year.