7 ms·

If a country like Germany is losing more and more of its clout, by losing out on internet, AI and now their car industry - does that make it a good place to liv

by TekMol 3y ago

If a country like Germany is losing more and more of its clout, by losing out on internet, AI and now their car industry - does that make it a good place to live for someone who's business is international? Will prices for rent etc go down?

logicchains 3y ago
If you're looking at it from a purely financial perspective, Germany is a very costly place to live/run a business because of the high tax rate.
toomuchtodo 3y ago
Would likely do better in Portugal or Spain wrt cost of living and proximity to Europe. Wealth tax to keep in mind for Spain. EDIT: I tilt towards rural/low density areas. Understand the cosmopolitan desire though.
- TekMol 3y ago
  Lisbon is pretty, but I think it might feel a bit small after a while. Theres not that much going on. Not yet sure about Barcelona.
  - alecco 3y ago
    Barcelona (and Catalonia in general) is getting more expensive and crime is rising. There are scary junkies on the streets downtown. A lot of expats are leaving. But it is still fun if you like to party. I guess it's good if you are in your 20s and have good income.
- alecco 3y ago
  Spain is rising taxes while cost of living is rising, too. Rent controls made the prices skyrocket. But if you have low income or live off savings (i.e. low income tax), small Spanish towns are a great choice. Pretty places, friendly open people, good weather. YMMV
zyang 3y ago
Supply chains are global. Germany still has an edge on machine tools and precision engineering.
ysangkok 3y ago
Rent has already gone down
- TekMol 3y ago
  Source? This chart (click on max) seems to say the opposite: https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/rent-inflation https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/rent-inflation And from what I hear, the real rent inflation (on the free non-subsidized market) has been even higher over the recent years. Like 7% per year.
redrove 3y ago
If you own a business Germany is decidedly not a good place to live due to the tax burden and the bureaucracy. CFC & management and control rules will make any company owned by you essentially a German company and you’ll have to be rectally examined by Finanszamt quite often.
- LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago
  That's why you employ a good "Steuerberater". They fist the Finanzamt rectally. When in Germany, do as the (successful) Germans do.
bmikaili 3y ago
Germany is not losing out on anything. It is simply structured so that there are no large public companies. A private german grocery store is taking over the US. There‘s a bunch of specialized companies producing stuff like Zeiss doing lenses for ASML. This is more or less just spurred by doomer rhetoric.
- The_Colonel 3y ago
  That's absurd, there are many large corporations in Germany, including VW, BMW, SAP, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Bosch. A lot of the Mittelstand is also directly dependent on those large corps as their subcontractors.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
The_Colonel 3y ago
This might be a hot take, but I think Germany is suffering from a sort of Dutch disease with its car industry. Germany has a lot of human capital, experienced and well educated workforce, but a lot of it got sucked into the car industry, because it was so profitable until now. I hope that with the car industry sunsetting, hopefully we'll see new innovative companies spring up.

by TekMol 3y ago

logicchains 3y ago

If you're looking at it from a purely financial perspective, Germany is a very costly place to live/run a business because of the high tax rate.

toomuchtodo 3y ago

Would likely do better in Portugal or Spain wrt cost of living and proximity to Europe. Wealth tax to keep in mind for Spain. EDIT: I tilt towards rural/low density areas. Understand the cosmopolitan desire though.

TekMol 3y ago
Lisbon is pretty, but I think it might feel a bit small after a while. Theres not that much going on. Not yet sure about Barcelona.
- alecco 3y ago
  Barcelona (and Catalonia in general) is getting more expensive and crime is rising. There are scary junkies on the streets downtown. A lot of expats are leaving. But it is still fun if you like to party. I guess it's good if you are in your 20s and have good income.
alecco 3y ago
Spain is rising taxes while cost of living is rising, too. Rent controls made the prices skyrocket. But if you have low income or live off savings (i.e. low income tax), small Spanish towns are a great choice. Pretty places, friendly open people, good weather. YMMV

zyang 3y ago

Supply chains are global. Germany still has an edge on machine tools and precision engineering.

ysangkok 3y ago

Rent has already gone down

TekMol 3y ago
Source? This chart (click on max) seems to say the opposite: https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/rent-inflation https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/rent-inflation And from what I hear, the real rent inflation (on the free non-subsidized market) has been even higher over the recent years. Like 7% per year.

redrove 3y ago

If you own a business Germany is decidedly not a good place to live due to the tax burden and the bureaucracy. CFC & management and control rules will make any company owned by you essentially a German company and you’ll have to be rectally examined by Finanszamt quite often.

LargoLasskhyfv 3y ago
That's why you employ a good "Steuerberater". They fist the Finanzamt rectally. When in Germany, do as the (successful) Germans do.

bmikaili 3y ago

Germany is not losing out on anything. It is simply structured so that there are no large public companies. A private german grocery store is taking over the US. There‘s a bunch of specialized companies producing stuff like Zeiss doing lenses for ASML. This is more or less just spurred by doomer rhetoric.

The_Colonel 3y ago
That's absurd, there are many large corporations in Germany, including VW, BMW, SAP, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Bosch. A lot of the Mittelstand is also directly dependent on those large corps as their subcontractors.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

The_Colonel 3y ago

This might be a hot take, but I think Germany is suffering from a sort of Dutch disease with its car industry. Germany has a lot of human capital, experienced and well educated workforce, but a lot of it got sucked into the car industry, because it was so profitable until now. I hope that with the car industry sunsetting, hopefully we'll see new innovative companies spring up.