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It boggles my mind how such an efficiency powerhouse can be that bad. I live in Switzerland and although I am not involved in trains, what Swiss do aint magic,

It boggles my mind how such an efficiency powerhouse can be that bad. I live in Switzerland and although I am not involved in trains, what Swiss do aint magic, just simple following the rules, and rules they do. Maybe even less efficient than Germans at the end. I really dont see any difference with Germany on the ground, yet when I look at Germany's politicians and their actions, at least the public part leaves a lot to be desired. Rather then the question becomes how come this country is actually economically so successful? Certainly not due to perfect environment for private businessess.

blibble 3y ago
> It boggles my mind how such an efficiency powerhouse can be that bad. it's almost as if it isn't true that it's an efficiency powerhouse
- candiodari 3y ago
  The German "secret" was first "interim" jobs (effectively day laborers, with government support for not paying social services) and then cheap energy. You don't get to say it, though. Everything came from same old, same old. The secret was easy to exploit people plus cheap energy.
- whoisstan 3y ago
  The article doesn't explain "nation built on efficiency", its a theme that continues to persist despite any significant examples.
  - globular-toast 3y ago
    I've been saying it for years. Germany's real strength is in marketing. Look at German cars. The myth about them being reliable still persists despite ample evidence to contrary.
    - winter_blue 3y ago
      Hm, that myth isn't that alive anymore. What I've heard is that German brands (except for Porsche) were terrible in terms of reliability. Italian cars are far worse though (probably the worst?). And that most European and American brands, in general, have a bad reputation among reliable car enthusiasts; with Japanese and S.K. brands being the kings of reliability.
      - bratwurst3000 3y ago
        That’s basically the point. German industry is bad, but not as bad a their neighbors. Expect Switzerland.
sschueller 3y ago
Germany has privatized a lot of infrastructure and what happens is as expected. The only way to make money is to cut corners, unlike a state which gets that "value" back in its economy growing due to go infrastructure, private industry can't make profit that way. The profit in infrastructure is economic growth and optimizations of people's mobility. This can only be done by a state. A state can still mess it up but it is the only entity that can do it. Good luck getting a "Taktfahrplan" working if you have to rely on private rail companies optimizing for every last dollar and having the locomotives catch fire blocking lines for hours. When the Fung Wah Bus breaks down for the 10th time on the way to NY it doesn't block all traffic but with rail you don't have the luxury to drive around it. The extensive damage in the Swiss Gotthard Base Tunnel was caused by a bad wheel from a foreign rail company that cut costs to a point of running rail cars with wheels that have way too many km on them.
- injeolmi_love 3y ago
  Japan has had a privatized rail system with none of these issues.
  - mcpackieh 3y ago
    Conventional wisdom says that people throw trash on the ground at a rate inversely proportional to the number of public trash cans. Japan has very few public trash cans (a response to the sarin gas attacks in the 90s) yet their streets remain clean. Does the example of Japan prove the conventional wisdom wrong?
    - pauldenton 3y ago
      It shows culture is more important than conventional wisdom
stratom 3y ago
Germany is simply investing to little. Last year Switzerland invested more than 3 times the amount per person (413€) in rail infrastructure compared to Germany(124€). And the years before Germans spent even less. They increased the budget already by 40% from 2021 to 2022.
Archelaos 3y ago
> ... such an efficiency powerhouse ... I think this is just a cliché. There are a lot of examples in the public, the semi-public and the private sector were Germany is or became very inefficient or missed opportunities (long-distance trains, mobile phone prices and coverage, Berlin public administration, Berlin airport, Stuttgart train station, but also Deutsche Bank, Siemens, Bayer, BASF, not to speak of Quelle and Holzmann in the past). However, one should not forget the special circumstances due to German reunification in the last 30+ years. In terms of GDP and population proportion it would be equivalent if the USA opened its border to Mexico today and gives all Mexicans US citizenship immediately. Than Mexico joins the USA 11 month later. After 10 years the USA gives up the US-Dollar for a Pan-American currency. For the 3 decades after the Mexico-USA unification the old USA transfers aprox. 2,000,000,000,000 to old Mexico. -- Perhaps this thought experiment makes it clear that it would have been more than a miracle if the high degree of efficiency that was associated with the old West-Germany could have been seamlessly continued into a reunified Germany. But allow the Germans another 34 years ... Regarding long distance travelling (people as well as freight), Germany is also in a quite unique situation. It is in the center of major European long distance routes from every direction. In comparision even the traffic network topography of Austria and Switzerland is a lot simpler. In Austria it is North-South over the Brenner to Italy and NW-SE from Central Europe to South-East Europe. Switzerland is primarily NE-SW (Basel-Geneva) and a single major North-South train route (Zürich/Luzern-Lugano). Just compare this map of the Swiss railway system (ignore the red lines, which are more or less only used for local transport): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personenverkehr_in_der_Schweiz#/media/Datei:Railwaysystem_Switzerland_2017.svg https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personenverkehr_in_der_Schweiz... with that of Germany: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Germany#/media/File:Bahnstrecken_Deutschland_Karte.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Germany#/med...
- s1artibartfast 3y ago
  >However, one should not forget the special circumstances due to German reunification in the last 30+ years. This is extremely misleading. Eastern Germany had a better educational system than the west and higher female labor participation. A better example might be like if the USA opened it's boarder to Cuba, and was flooded by doctors and engineers.
mensetmanusman 3y ago
They have institutional inertia. But now they have internal demographics worse than Japan, and the immigrant workforce can’t be trained fast enough. Ie their skilled labor force is shrinking and these are the knock on effects of having too small of families.
bratwurst3000 3y ago
Cheap labor and poor contracts compared to for example France

blibble 3y ago

> It boggles my mind how such an efficiency powerhouse can be that bad. it's almost as if it isn't true that it's an efficiency powerhouse

candiodari 3y ago
The German "secret" was first "interim" jobs (effectively day laborers, with government support for not paying social services) and then cheap energy. You don't get to say it, though. Everything came from same old, same old. The secret was easy to exploit people plus cheap energy.
whoisstan 3y ago
The article doesn't explain "nation built on efficiency", its a theme that continues to persist despite any significant examples.
- globular-toast 3y ago
  I've been saying it for years. Germany's real strength is in marketing. Look at German cars. The myth about them being reliable still persists despite ample evidence to contrary.
  - winter_blue 3y ago
    Hm, that myth isn't that alive anymore. What I've heard is that German brands (except for Porsche) were terrible in terms of reliability. Italian cars are far worse though (probably the worst?). And that most European and American brands, in general, have a bad reputation among reliable car enthusiasts; with Japanese and S.K. brands being the kings of reliability.
    - bratwurst3000 3y ago
      That’s basically the point. German industry is bad, but not as bad a their neighbors. Expect Switzerland.

sschueller 3y ago

Germany has privatized a lot of infrastructure and what happens is as expected. The only way to make money is to cut corners, unlike a state which gets that "value" back in its economy growing due to go infrastructure, private industry can't make profit that way. The profit in infrastructure is economic growth and optimizations of people's mobility. This can only be done by a state. A state can still mess it up but it is the only entity that can do it. Good luck getting a "Taktfahrplan" working if you have to rely on private rail companies optimizing for every last dollar and having the locomotives catch fire blocking lines for hours. When the Fung Wah Bus breaks down for the 10th time on the way to NY it doesn't block all traffic but with rail you don't have the luxury to drive around it. The extensive damage in the Swiss Gotthard Base Tunnel was caused by a bad wheel from a foreign rail company that cut costs to a point of running rail cars with wheels that have way too many km on them.

injeolmi_love 3y ago
Japan has had a privatized rail system with none of these issues.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  Conventional wisdom says that people throw trash on the ground at a rate inversely proportional to the number of public trash cans. Japan has very few public trash cans (a response to the sarin gas attacks in the 90s) yet their streets remain clean. Does the example of Japan prove the conventional wisdom wrong?
  - pauldenton 3y ago
    It shows culture is more important than conventional wisdom

stratom 3y ago

Germany is simply investing to little. Last year Switzerland invested more than 3 times the amount per person (413€) in rail infrastructure compared to Germany(124€). And the years before Germans spent even less. They increased the budget already by 40% from 2021 to 2022.

Archelaos 3y ago

> ... such an efficiency powerhouse ... I think this is just a cliché. There are a lot of examples in the public, the semi-public and the private sector were Germany is or became very inefficient or missed opportunities (long-distance trains, mobile phone prices and coverage, Berlin public administration, Berlin airport, Stuttgart train station, but also Deutsche Bank, Siemens, Bayer, BASF, not to speak of Quelle and Holzmann in the past). However, one should not forget the special circumstances due to German reunification in the last 30+ years. In terms of GDP and population proportion it would be equivalent if the USA opened its border to Mexico today and gives all Mexicans US citizenship immediately. Than Mexico joins the USA 11 month later. After 10 years the USA gives up the US-Dollar for a Pan-American currency. For the 3 decades after the Mexico-USA unification the old USA transfers aprox. 2,000,000,000,000 to old Mexico. -- Perhaps this thought experiment makes it clear that it would have been more than a miracle if the high degree of efficiency that was associated with the old West-Germany could have been seamlessly continued into a reunified Germany. But allow the Germans another 34 years ... Regarding long distance travelling (people as well as freight), Germany is also in a quite unique situation. It is in the center of major European long distance routes from every direction. In comparision even the traffic network topography of Austria and Switzerland is a lot simpler. In Austria it is North-South over the Brenner to Italy and NW-SE from Central Europe to South-East Europe. Switzerland is primarily NE-SW (Basel-Geneva) and a single major North-South train route (Zürich/Luzern-Lugano). Just compare this map of the Swiss railway system (ignore the red lines, which are more or less only used for local transport): https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personenverkehr_in_der_Schweiz#/media/Datei:Railwaysystem_Switzerland_2017.svg https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personenverkehr_in_der_Schweiz... with that of Germany: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Germany#/media/File:Bahnstrecken_Deutschland_Karte.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_Germany#/med...

s1artibartfast 3y ago
>However, one should not forget the special circumstances due to German reunification in the last 30+ years. This is extremely misleading. Eastern Germany had a better educational system than the west and higher female labor participation. A better example might be like if the USA opened it's boarder to Cuba, and was flooded by doctors and engineers.

mensetmanusman 3y ago

They have institutional inertia. But now they have internal demographics worse than Japan, and the immigrant workforce can’t be trained fast enough. Ie their skilled labor force is shrinking and these are the knock on effects of having too small of families.

bratwurst3000 3y ago

Cheap labor and poor contracts compared to for example France