The fleecing of Volkswagen after the company was caught cheating on its diesel emissions has turned into a bonanza for lawyers and governments. Volkswagen doesn’t have to sell any assets (yet) or fire large parts of its sacrosanct workforce – the German automaker has amassed enough money to pay off the litany of litigants. The real pain, it turns out, is felt by regular people in many communities in Germany, because the stream of tax money pumped by Volkswagen into city coffers has suddenly run dry. It’s not lights out at Volkswagen, but in towns in Germany, it is.
