Stereotypes of long vacations and stringent job safeguards aside, Germans appear willing to work harder while defending their social safety net. We polled 621,000 of them on a wide range of social and political issues1 and found a strong desire for a more market-oriented society. Indeed, 83 percent of the respondents said that people who contribute more to society should be paid more than they are today, compared with only 76 percent in the previous survey, in 2004. Moreover, 72 percent of the respondents, including three-quarters of the younger ones, chose "diligence and discipline" as valuable traits. Still, a growing proportion of the respondents would like the country's social safety net to be strengthened: for example, 38 percent said that they want the government to assume responsibility for more of life's risks (such as health care and pension costs), up from 32 percent in 2004. Further, 76 percent said that differences in living standards should be narrowed—a proportion that's 19 percentage points higher than it was in 2004. The emerging picture shows a citizenry that desires a performance-based society balancing a strong work and social ethic. Politicians who hesitate to extend Germany's market reforms should take note: 62 percent...