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German here. Whow, what an uninformed and misleading article. The FDP remains irrelevant and its "politicians" are mostly show-offs nowadays (a trend that star

German here. Whow, what an uninformed and misleading article. The FDP remains irrelevant and its "politicians" are mostly show-offs nowadays (a trend that started with the ineffable Guido Westerwelle) and some were outright criminal or supportive of white-collar crimes (see the Flick affair for details). The times of the old FDP, with old-style liberals - not "liberal" economists like today - such as Gerhart Baum (who still posts constitutional challenges at the age of 85!) is long gone. There are also a number of factual errors. For example, the minimum vacation time guaranteed by law is only four weeks, though the average is quite a bit higher. The situation regarding the selection of students is also far more complex than described (speaking as a CE professor coming from a working-class family, I know what I'm talking about). If you are visiting Germany, try the Ruhr area - e.g., Duisburg-Marxloh, Dortmund-Nordstadt - or any of the small deserted villages in the eastern states and maybe Berlin Kottbusser Tor for some glimpses of a different German reality - poverty, crime, drugs and xenophobia. Munich has the highest cost of living of all German cities, though far cheaper than SFO and Silicon Valley, and is hardly representative. And don't get me started on these neo-nazi assholes who are in the Bundestag now. Horrible. A well-known saying in some academic circles is "It's a great time to emigrate from Germany - but where to?". That might sum up the current situation here quite well...

woodandsteel 9y ago
>deserted villages in the eastern states Isn't that the consequence of half a century under communism?
- majewsky 9y ago
  No, it's the consequence of merging two vastly different economies too fast. When the wall came down, most progressives in East Germany (i.e. those called "dissidents" by the Socialists) argued for a confederation of both German states with the longterm target of reunification. The West German government forced a quick reunification in order for their own companies to buy up the useful assets of East German economy via the Treuhandanstalt [1]. It's basically the same problem that you have inside the European Union today: Vastly different economies have been forced into a common currency without a political framework that pushes for a harmonic integration of the constituent economies, resulting in the industry sector of relatively underdeveloped economies like Greece to be utterly crushed by the German industry, degrading them to a source of cheap labor for German (or rather: multinational) corporations. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treuhandanstalt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treuhandanstalt

woodandsteel 9y ago

>deserted villages in the eastern states Isn't that the consequence of half a century under communism?

majewsky 9y ago
No, it's the consequence of merging two vastly different economies too fast. When the wall came down, most progressives in East Germany (i.e. those called "dissidents" by the Socialists) argued for a confederation of both German states with the longterm target of reunification. The West German government forced a quick reunification in order for their own companies to buy up the useful assets of East German economy via the Treuhandanstalt [1]. It's basically the same problem that you have inside the European Union today: Vastly different economies have been forced into a common currency without a political framework that pushes for a harmonic integration of the constituent economies, resulting in the industry sector of relatively underdeveloped economies like Greece to be utterly crushed by the German industry, degrading them to a source of cheap labor for German (or rather: multinational) corporations. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treuhandanstalt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treuhandanstalt