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Germany is in an overall tricky spot right now – and likely at the beginning of a long term, downwards trend. It’s the only major EU country whose economy shran

Germany is in an overall tricky spot right now – and likely at the beginning of a long term, downwards trend. It’s the only major EU country whose economy shrank last quarter, it’s mired in endless bureaucracy and red tape and its governing coalition is adding to the problem by discontinuing existing (nuclear) energy supplies, introducing cumbersome legislation and having an overall agenda that purely focuses on redistribution with no concern for value generation. Germany had its Heyday when the technologies it specialised in – namely cars, industrial equipment, and components where at the peak of the technological demand curve. But this peak has long ago moved to software and Germany has nothing to offer in this regard (yes, I am aware of SAP.) Having said that – and despite what this article says – I’m confident that Germany’s car manufacturers will be able to leverage their (in many regards world leading) abilities to succeed in the electric car sector. But Germany’s economy as a whole needs a fundamental change of direction if it is to succeed in the next decades.

drooopy 3y ago
SAP is one of the worst pieces of software I've had the misfortune of using in multiple companies that I've worked for in the past 10 years. I'm not sure it should be used as a positive example.
- wolframhempel 3y ago
  Fair - but they've created a piece of software that has become the backbone of many of the world's largest company's processes. And, as far as vendor lock-in goes, they are unbeatable. Adopting SAP alone is a multi million project with 20+ SAP consultants and once you've introduced it, there is nearly no way to rip it out. The software itself may be bad - but their ability to capture value is incredible.
  - fock 3y ago
    I guess "capturing value" is equivalent to a "rentier oligarchy". Aka the thing you have in the US. Looking at the timescales of climate chaos I'd say European social democracies will not be the worst place to be for the next 30years (and no amount of software will help you unless you are part of the oligarchy...). And if you think we'll all freeze and starve: if we do as the US currently tells us (this is indeed a problem) we can still burn a lot of lignite (which is likely not much worse than leaky fracking fields....).
    - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
      >I guess "capturing value" is equivalent to a "rentier oligarchy". Aka the thing you have in the US. It really isn't equivalent, this opinion just reads like copium. If I jump ship to a better paying job to capture more value, am I now the "rentier oligarchy"? No, I just move to where the money is as it benefits me and also benefits the state who's taxing me to fund social welfare. Similarly it's the job of any country to do the same and orient its economy to where it can capture more value (hopefully in an ethical and environmentally friendly way), as staying behind and falling to do so means less wealth, less tax revenues, and less welfare for its citizens. >we can still burn a lot of lignite It will also heavily reduce your lifespan, which is good for the state I guess, as that means less pensions will have to be paid out.
      - fock 3y ago
        > It really isn't equivalent, this opinion just reads like copium. So what is "capturing value" other than rent? And yes, I would hope that water wars were copium, but they might be a bitter reality soon... > If I jump ship to a better paying job to capture more value, am I now the "rentier oligarchy"? Yes that's fine, I guess you are anyways not very interested in community (which seems to be the thing with many people around...) - btw: what exactly will happen in that place if you have a car accident and can't work for 1-2 years? > No, I just move to where the money is as it benefits me and also benefits the state who's taxing me to fund social welfare. Good. But don't complain once you wake up in a dystopian, oligarchic nightmare. > as staying behind and falling to do so means less wealth, less tax revenues, and less welfare for its citizens. The US is clearly leading in the money metric and yet most metrics much more associated with human welfare (such as lifespan) are trending down... In that metric even Cuba is now better than the US ... There might be more to that than you assume... > It will also heavily reduce your lifespan, I guess either it's ChatGPT here or you are very deep in copium-territory...
        FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        >So what is "capturing value" other than rent? Offering better products and services than your competition. >Yes that's fine, I guess you are anyways not very interested in community Where does it say I can't care as much about the community despite me getting a better paying job? In fact, me getting a better paying job helps my community because I'll spend the extra money there at shops, bars, cafes and barbers. You're clutching at straws at this point embarrassing yourself further. >Good. But don't complain once you wake up in a dystopian, oligarchic nightmare. Damn, I didn't know Austria and Poland are distopic nightmares. >The US is clearly leading in the money metric and yet most metrics much more associated with human welfare (such as lifespan) are trending down No, Switzerland and Luxemburg are leading the money metric and yet are far from living nightmares. You keep trying to die on this whataboutism hill by brining in the US in the discussion at every point even though I never mentioned it once. >I guess either it's ChatGPT here or you are very deep in copium-territory... Guess breathing in all the lignite Feinstaub got to you good, huh?
- Chiron1991 3y ago
  Their software may be bad, but they make huge amounts of money with it. That's all that matters from an economical standpoint.
kitkat_new 3y ago
> I’m confident that Germany’s car manufacturers will be able to leverage their (in many regards world leading) abilities to succeed in the electric car sector sadly politicians give in to their lobbying so it seems they are betting on fossil fuel cars until it's to late, because it makes more profit
gizmo 3y ago
Manufacturing cars by assembling parts from 1000+ suppliers is inherently inefficient. This is fine as long as every car company uses the same model. BYD doesn’t; they make 70% of the components used in their cars themselves. This gives them a fundamental cost advantage and European car shoppers are extremely price sensitive.
- vel0city 3y ago
  Personally I don't like this shift to more parts being produced exclusively by the car manufacturer. It means the only real place to buy the part is the OEM who has an interest in selling me a whole new car. Meanwhile Denso and Bosch and whoever wouldn't mind just selling me a part through the many retail car parts stores.
  - jeffrallen 3y ago
    Good luck getting the right cryptographic signatures for your part to be allowed by the CAN firewall to write on the CAN bus.
MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
> It’s the only major EU country whose economy shrank last quarter, it’s mired in endless bureaucracy and red tape and its governing coalition is adding to the problem by discontinuing existing (nuclear) energy supplies, introducing cumbersome legislation and having an overall agenda that purely focuses on redistribution with no concern for value generation. This is pretty spot on. People voted socialism, people got socialism, shrouded in green utopianism. There is no positive vision of the future, only guilt and shame about the things we consume and hare-brained schemes about where energy is supposed to come from. Redistribution without concern for value generation sums it up pretty well.
- imtringued 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
    If you look beyond the product labels and study the ingredient list instead, you'll find them to be either fraudulent or meaningless.

drooopy 3y ago

SAP is one of the worst pieces of software I've had the misfortune of using in multiple companies that I've worked for in the past 10 years. I'm not sure it should be used as a positive example.

wolframhempel 3y ago
Fair - but they've created a piece of software that has become the backbone of many of the world's largest company's processes. And, as far as vendor lock-in goes, they are unbeatable. Adopting SAP alone is a multi million project with 20+ SAP consultants and once you've introduced it, there is nearly no way to rip it out. The software itself may be bad - but their ability to capture value is incredible.
- fock 3y ago
  I guess "capturing value" is equivalent to a "rentier oligarchy". Aka the thing you have in the US. Looking at the timescales of climate chaos I'd say European social democracies will not be the worst place to be for the next 30years (and no amount of software will help you unless you are part of the oligarchy...). And if you think we'll all freeze and starve: if we do as the US currently tells us (this is indeed a problem) we can still burn a lot of lignite (which is likely not much worse than leaky fracking fields....).
  - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
    >I guess "capturing value" is equivalent to a "rentier oligarchy". Aka the thing you have in the US. It really isn't equivalent, this opinion just reads like copium. If I jump ship to a better paying job to capture more value, am I now the "rentier oligarchy"? No, I just move to where the money is as it benefits me and also benefits the state who's taxing me to fund social welfare. Similarly it's the job of any country to do the same and orient its economy to where it can capture more value (hopefully in an ethical and environmentally friendly way), as staying behind and falling to do so means less wealth, less tax revenues, and less welfare for its citizens. >we can still burn a lot of lignite It will also heavily reduce your lifespan, which is good for the state I guess, as that means less pensions will have to be paid out.
    - fock 3y ago
      > It really isn't equivalent, this opinion just reads like copium. So what is "capturing value" other than rent? And yes, I would hope that water wars were copium, but they might be a bitter reality soon... > If I jump ship to a better paying job to capture more value, am I now the "rentier oligarchy"? Yes that's fine, I guess you are anyways not very interested in community (which seems to be the thing with many people around...) - btw: what exactly will happen in that place if you have a car accident and can't work for 1-2 years? > No, I just move to where the money is as it benefits me and also benefits the state who's taxing me to fund social welfare. Good. But don't complain once you wake up in a dystopian, oligarchic nightmare. > as staying behind and falling to do so means less wealth, less tax revenues, and less welfare for its citizens. The US is clearly leading in the money metric and yet most metrics much more associated with human welfare (such as lifespan) are trending down... In that metric even Cuba is now better than the US ... There might be more to that than you assume... > It will also heavily reduce your lifespan, I guess either it's ChatGPT here or you are very deep in copium-territory...
      - FirmwareBurner 3y ago
        >So what is "capturing value" other than rent? Offering better products and services than your competition. >Yes that's fine, I guess you are anyways not very interested in community Where does it say I can't care as much about the community despite me getting a better paying job? In fact, me getting a better paying job helps my community because I'll spend the extra money there at shops, bars, cafes and barbers. You're clutching at straws at this point embarrassing yourself further. >Good. But don't complain once you wake up in a dystopian, oligarchic nightmare. Damn, I didn't know Austria and Poland are distopic nightmares. >The US is clearly leading in the money metric and yet most metrics much more associated with human welfare (such as lifespan) are trending down No, Switzerland and Luxemburg are leading the money metric and yet are far from living nightmares. You keep trying to die on this whataboutism hill by brining in the US in the discussion at every point even though I never mentioned it once. >I guess either it's ChatGPT here or you are very deep in copium-territory... Guess breathing in all the lignite Feinstaub got to you good, huh?
Chiron1991 3y ago
Their software may be bad, but they make huge amounts of money with it. That's all that matters from an economical standpoint.

kitkat_new 3y ago

> I’m confident that Germany’s car manufacturers will be able to leverage their (in many regards world leading) abilities to succeed in the electric car sector sadly politicians give in to their lobbying so it seems they are betting on fossil fuel cars until it's to late, because it makes more profit

gizmo 3y ago

Manufacturing cars by assembling parts from 1000+ suppliers is inherently inefficient. This is fine as long as every car company uses the same model. BYD doesn’t; they make 70% of the components used in their cars themselves. This gives them a fundamental cost advantage and European car shoppers are extremely price sensitive.

vel0city 3y ago
Personally I don't like this shift to more parts being produced exclusively by the car manufacturer. It means the only real place to buy the part is the OEM who has an interest in selling me a whole new car. Meanwhile Denso and Bosch and whoever wouldn't mind just selling me a part through the many retail car parts stores.
- jeffrallen 3y ago
  Good luck getting the right cryptographic signatures for your part to be allowed by the CAN firewall to write on the CAN bus.

MrBuddyCasino 3y ago

> It’s the only major EU country whose economy shrank last quarter, it’s mired in endless bureaucracy and red tape and its governing coalition is adding to the problem by discontinuing existing (nuclear) energy supplies, introducing cumbersome legislation and having an overall agenda that purely focuses on redistribution with no concern for value generation. This is pretty spot on. People voted socialism, people got socialism, shrouded in green utopianism. There is no positive vision of the future, only guilt and shame about the things we consume and hare-brained schemes about where energy is supposed to come from. Redistribution without concern for value generation sums it up pretty well.

imtringued 3y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- MrBuddyCasino 3y ago
  If you look beyond the product labels and study the ingredient list instead, you'll find them to be either fraudulent or meaningless.