Yeah I've got it. Here is another question for you since you seem to know a lot.
I spent 3 years in Germany (Max Planck Institut) as a scientist, was paid relatively well but since I do not qualify for German "pension" I decided to try to get back my contributions to the German Social Security System.
From what I know if they agree to refunding I'll get 50% of the original contribution.
This needless to say stinks to high heaven, because had I stayed in the US I would be getting life long retirement benefits on those three years. So effectively by working in Germany I lost 3 years of contributions to my future retirement benefits. Which is not nice.
At least Germany should be decent enough to refund all my contributions not only half of them and indexed for the German CPI (consumer price index which in my case would be around 20%).
Otherwise it makes zero sense for any US scientist to take a position in Germany if shorter than 5 years.
I don't think German politicians realize how grossly unjust and counterproductive this situation is so the question is who in your Bundestag/Bundesrat should I write with a suggestion that they consider changing these grossly unfair rules one of these days?