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The article lost me right from the outset: > Two decades ago, Germany revived its moribund economy and became a manufacturing powerhouse of an era of globaliza
by rob74 3y ago
The article lost me right from the outset:
> Two decades ago, Germany revived its moribund economy and became a manufacturing powerhouse of an era of globalization.
If they're referring to Gerhard Schröder's "Hartz reforms" in which the social state was slashed while (oh, the irony) the Social Democrats were governing, I'm sure the WSJ applauded those, and maybe they increased Germany's international competitiveness a bit, but to say that Germany's economy was "moribund" (i.e. on its deathbed) is a bit of an exaggeration.
My take on the current situation: companies don't like it if anyone other than the conservatives is in power, so they are careful with investments. Plus the global situation is still unstable, interest rates have risen, and German companies are notoriously cautious - one more reason to hold back investments. Add to that the lack of qualified personnel - despite its "recession", Germany currently has record low unemployment.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago>Add to that the lack of qualified personnel - despite its "recession", Germany currently has record low unemployment "Lack of qualified personnel" is just double-speak corporate propaganda for over-abundance of poor paying jobs that nobody wants. And record low unemployment means nothing. You can always drop unemployment by raising the cost of living (current situation) and cutting welfare programs, meaning people will be forced to take any shit job they can find just to stay afloat and boom, you have record low unemployment. IMHO, a healthy economy should always have some unemployment because there's always a glut of shit jobs that ideally should stay vacant because they have poor conditions and pay, but the west's dirty secret is grey area migration which helps keep those shit jobs going.
- rob74 3y agoEr, no, I live in Germany and can confirm that there are actual problems finding personnel for, let's not call them "shit jobs", but jobs with a combination of low pay/high stress/bad working times like nursing home/hospital staff, waiters, bus/train drivers etc.
- FirmwareBurner 3y ago>let's not call them "shit jobs", but jobs with a combination of low pay/high stress/bad working times You just described the definition of shit jobs.
- hdjjhhvvhga 3y agoI understand you don't like the name but from the workers' perspective what you described is a book definition of a shit job.
- umrcumrcu 3y agoGermany has "record low unemployment" because only it only has a 51% labor participation rate.