Explantion time. In world War 2 germany was divided up into 4 sections, French, British, American, and Soviet. The french, british, and america combined there area (THIS IS WHERE I LIVE) the soviets didn't, this is where berlin is.
Soviets set up military bases in germany, so did america, and england (england has its fair share of bases in the northern parts of Germany). Anyways Ramtsein was like the hub for everything. Its the largetest group of Amreican citizens outside of America it self. Currently 55,000 americans are stationed here. 10,000 more are coming in from bases all over europe.
In the military you get what they call a COLA (cost of living allownace) I think my dads total cola with benefits adds up to about 2,000 euros a month. You lose 1,250 euros a motn if you live ON BASE. So must americans live OFF BASE. K-town is used to refer to the major city about 15 clicks away from the base because well, even for me, a fluent speaking german its difficult to say
My moms german, therefore it would make nos ense to live off base, becuase if we would we would be on "american" or "nato" soil and we wouldn't get benefits from the German Gov either mainly children's money for me and my sister. So basically living off base for us is so much economically better, also I don't feel nor does my entire faimly feel like moving to Germany, only to live around a bunch of ingorant americans (Basing houses keeps those type of poeple)
I live on the "German Economy" as its refered too because its far cheaper, and a lot nicer.