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Joined 5 months ago
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Cake day: July 15th, 2024

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  • A few thoughts on this:

    Germany's economic success was primarily due to the following factors:

    • a high level of education and investment in research
    • high quality and a high degree of innovation
    • good working conditions and thus a high level of employee motivation
    • cheap energy, primarily from Russia (Soviet Union)
    • high demand for German goods abroad (machinery, vehicles, pharmaceuticals, etc.)

    In my view, the following political and economic changes have had a negative impact on Germany's situation:

    • Savings in education and therefore no funding of innovation
    • Conservative economic policy ("What worked in the past must work now!"). The crowning glory was the 16 years of standstill under Angela Merkel. Not just standstill, but even sabotage, e.g. against renewable energies.
    • Outsourcing of know-how and production, especially to China.
    • One-sided focus on the USA and deterioration of relations with other powers under pressure from the USA.
    • Arrogance towards China in terms of progress and quality, which has led to a comfortable stagnation.
    • Armament instead of cooperation (I don't think much needs to be said about this in light of current events)
    • over-bureaucratization

    and, of course, all the neo-liberal effects that are also known from the UK:

    • Privatization of infrastructure
    • Adjustments to the law in favor of corporations / the rich
    • Deregulation of the labor market
    • bureaucratization
    • uncontrolled immigration to create high competitive pressure, especially in the low-wage sector, in order to keep wages low

    And the vicious circle is: skilled people emigrate and skilled people no longer immigrate - due to the deteriorating conditions - and the low-wage sector in manufacturing is not internationally competitive.

    As a result, Germany has no unique selling point and its economic performance declines accordingly.