Cologne: looking for the most honest city in the world

Cologne –

In surveys of the credibility of certain professional groups, dealers and salespeople rank fairly low on the scale. If the term “dealer, salesman” were to be specified a little more, the politicians, insurance agents, professional athletes and journalists, who are also ranked far below, would probably give last place to a guild with a very bad image: the used car dealers.

Changing that is the task of a company called Twinner, which, by its own account, wants to be a “game changer for the automotive industry”. In addition, studies, campaigns, new technical offers for more transparency – and rankings that nobody really needs, but which can still be extremely interesting. Twinner has developed a “City Honesty Index”.

75 major cities around the world were compared and this has now become a ranking of the most honest. The most important thing in advance: Cologne is in the first third with 24th place. For a city in which people like to describe the character of the natives in terms of Tünnes and Schäl, this is not bad, as the sneaky and cunning of the cross-eyed rascal lies just as much in his nature as the peasant cunning of the peace-loving and frugal Tünnes.

17,000 purses designed

How do you measure honesty? The helpers from used car dealers around the world have actually developed a very interesting catalog of criteria: Among other things, accessible data on the topics of corruption, budget transparency, free elections, undeclared work, the rule of law and freedom of the press were compared. There were also surveys on the perception of theft and the honesty of fellow citizens.

The “wallet experiment” was used around the world: 17,000 wallets were displayed to see how many of them were returned. In the category “honesty of the citizens” Cologne had to be content with 28th place. Apparently more wallets were returned in Hamburg or Munich. Surprising: Düsseldorf achieved the worst value among the major German cities for the “honesty of the citizens”.

Of course, the image of the long-suffering car dealers was also asked about. The result: to meet dealers with the very best reputation, you have to go to Tokyo. If that’s too far for you, you could also look for a vehicle in Amsterdam (2nd place) or Bremen (5th). For the Cologne colleagues, the result in this category is pretty devastating: 41st place, this time far behind Düsseldorf, but also behind Berlin or Chicago.

Less illegal work in Switzerland, the USA and Austria

All German cities get good marks in a global comparison of transparency in administration and society. They do worse when it comes to transparency in the economy. In Switzerland, the USA, Japan, Australia and even Austria, the shadow economy and the associated tax fraud are less pronounced than in Germany, according to the study.

Zurich is the most honest city in the world

If you combine all the assessed indicators for the degree of honesty, Zurich easily lands in first place in the global rankings, followed by Tokyo, Adelaide in Australia and Phoenix in the USA. The most honest German city can look forward to fifth place: Hamburg ranks ahead of Amsterdam, Munich, Copenhagen, Edinburgh and Brisbane. A total of nine German cities were evaluated in the study. Cologne was only fifth behind Hamburg, Munich, Leipzig and Stuttgart. Behind them are Bremen, Berlin, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt.

You can find more information about the study here.

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