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I think the most important factor has been missed: planned luck. All the countries (in Europe) who are having success today are the ones who had a crisis (each

I think the most important factor has been missed: planned luck. All the countries (in Europe) who are having success today are the ones who had a crisis (each for a different reason) in the '90s and made structural reforms. During the crisis in the 2000s and 2010s, these countries (Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, etc.) were leaner, more flexible than their "competitors". Fun fact, most of these countries are protestant. It would be interesting to have an explanation for this correlation.

JanSt 9y ago
You are right on the structural reform part, you should not be downvoted! There were massive changes in Germany (Hartz IV Reformen)
- marenkay 9y ago
  Though I wonder how these changes have actually had effects on these sectors, as this basically just produced a low payment workforce that these days benefits low paying unicorns like Uber, etc. All that Germany basically did was to change social law so that a higher amount of people would end up within the lower range of the work force and make it harder to get out. E.g. effectively these days losing your job for longer term means you have to liquidate all your assets as a German until you have nothing left before social service would help you. Coming back to the article, as a German I actually do not remember any larger structural reforms that would have had beneficial effects on mid to high skilled workers. Looking at my own 25 years of working I would say... I notice an increase in costs for maintaining the high skill level and income completely being almost irrelevant because of devaluation of currency and almost no increases in the market in the past two decades.
thesumofall 9y ago
Max Weber has you covered: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the... However, the German economic powerhouses are the Southern states - all of which are predominantly Catholic
- mbid 9y ago
  In Baden-Württemberg (the South Western state), 37% are catholic and 33% are part of the official evangelical church, with likely a few in smaller protestant groups. Likewise for franconia, which is mostly within the state of Bavaria.
  - thesumofall 9y ago
    I'm not the one in this thread claiming causation but if there is correlation it is in Germany almost certainly between Catholicism and economic output rather than Protestantism: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Römisch-katholische_Kirche_in_Deutschland#/media/Datei%3AKatholisch_Zensus_2011.png https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Römisch-katholische_Kirche_i...
    - mbid 9y ago
      I doubt the effect of denomination would be very big, so not taking into account much stronger factors (e.g. West vs East), this map doesn't say anything.
  - someSven 9y ago
    Primarily protestant (lutheran) states prefered Sozialdemocrats over Christiandemocrats, while the last ones are less socialist.

JanSt 9y ago

You are right on the structural reform part, you should not be downvoted! There were massive changes in Germany (Hartz IV Reformen)

marenkay 9y ago
Though I wonder how these changes have actually had effects on these sectors, as this basically just produced a low payment workforce that these days benefits low paying unicorns like Uber, etc. All that Germany basically did was to change social law so that a higher amount of people would end up within the lower range of the work force and make it harder to get out. E.g. effectively these days losing your job for longer term means you have to liquidate all your assets as a German until you have nothing left before social service would help you. Coming back to the article, as a German I actually do not remember any larger structural reforms that would have had beneficial effects on mid to high skilled workers. Looking at my own 25 years of working I would say... I notice an increase in costs for maintaining the high skill level and income completely being almost irrelevant because of devaluation of currency and almost no increases in the market in the past two decades.

thesumofall 9y ago

Max Weber has you covered: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the... However, the German economic powerhouses are the Southern states - all of which are predominantly Catholic

mbid 9y ago
In Baden-Württemberg (the South Western state), 37% are catholic and 33% are part of the official evangelical church, with likely a few in smaller protestant groups. Likewise for franconia, which is mostly within the state of Bavaria.
- thesumofall 9y ago
  I'm not the one in this thread claiming causation but if there is correlation it is in Germany almost certainly between Catholicism and economic output rather than Protestantism: https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Römisch-katholische_Kirche_in_Deutschland#/media/Datei%3AKatholisch_Zensus_2011.png https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Römisch-katholische_Kirche_i...
  - mbid 9y ago
    I doubt the effect of denomination would be very big, so not taking into account much stronger factors (e.g. West vs East), this map doesn't say anything.
- someSven 9y ago
  Primarily protestant (lutheran) states prefered Sozialdemocrats over Christiandemocrats, while the last ones are less socialist.