Eh, I'm an American. I just work for a German company.

They make a lot of stuff for the kitchen. Source: I work for a German kitchen cabinetry company that uses their products.

It's interesting this is linked to collectivism, because the same principle is laid out in the older founding liberal texts such as Human Action. Which states that any action is an expression of value thus by taking an action you are inherently expressing value to others. This revelation can be said to be the underpinnings of all western individualistic philosophies.

You could make the argument no, by saying that they are not alive but made up of collection of living organisms, but by that definition you and I are not alive. Which is the idea I'm partial to. Only singular organism are alive and everything else is structures built on top of that