Yep, the IHT article seems more than a little unduly critical of the system. The subtle stereotyping of working class people as being untrustworthy, because they'll spend corporate funds on hookers <so sayeth the IHT>.  I guess that I'm fascinated by the neocorporatism that you see in Germany, and I can't help but think that the US was headed in this direction until the 1960's, but the reermergence of the neo-liberal right attacked this. It's convenient to dimiss this as an American problem, but I think that you made a good point calling this the Anglo-Saxon system.  So much of America's new neoliberal ideology is not American, but actually is transplanted from the UK.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg