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One big problem are entire industries that lack vision and creativity. They’re all banking on AI and China to replace jobs and consumers and are baffled that German consumers won’t buy products anymore.
Meanwhile the German government is busy steering against trends like renewables as much as possible. They‘re promoting fossil fuels during this crisis with a self destructive passion that needs to be investigated independently.
And because the 99% are too poor to afford anything anymore, we‘re losing social benefits now to help the 1% get even richer in a struggling economy.
Taking debt to make meaningful investments? Bo way José! Other countries tried that and now look at them! Their economy is growing! Can‘t have that!!
Ugh, it‘s exhausting and the damage Merz‘ government is causing will be felt for decades.
Yes because obviously American tariffs and increasing oil prices have nothing to do with it. Increased competition from China is also irrelevant. And no we didn’t just get through COVID, and the war in Ukraine and lack of Russian gas is of course also irrelevant.
You apparently claim vision and creativity is everything, when what determines success is at least as much price and quality.
There is not a simple fix to this problem as you claim, and it is not caused by idiocy on any level of the system. This situation is mostly an outside influence, which you choose to completely ignore and fail to address.
By god it’s a good thing you are not the on to decide what to do in this situation.
Only your ignorance is as big as your arrogance. Because you seem to suggest that we just say to the industries that they should be more creative, which is absolute nonsense. Not because they shouldn’t, but because it’s not a thing you can just suddenly decide to be.
Creativity requires R&D budgets, and that needs to be balanced towards how much a company can earn. I seriously doubt you’d be able to find a better balance for most companies, but would more likely drive them to their ground twice as fast.The truth is that the German (and European) economy has been in an almost perfect storm almost constantly since 2019. The fact that we are doing as well as we are in Europe, is a near miracle, and a sign of great competence of the system in general.
The fact that we are doing as well as we are in Europe, is a near miracle, and a sign of great competence of the system in general.
That has to to with German investment in R&D. The auto sector is dying fast from bad business models, but the very high tech industry is stable.
Absolutely.
The current government makes Germany more, not less reliant on the wills of a Trump, Xi Jinping or Putin by gutting the potential of a growing domestic market. It actively hurts German workers and therefore consumers all the while advocating for more energy imports from the middle east and the USA. The German economy already is as reliant on exports as China is. This is a huge problem right now and they‘re making it even worse.
All European countries will always be reliant on exports and trade. There is no economy with enough natural resources to be even remotely independent. The only country that might be able to pull that off is China. And they too are dependent on oil imports.
I absolutely agree that it is sad that Scholz turned out to be a nothing burger, enabling Merz to become chancellor. But as I see it Scholz was slow and indecisive in matters that are crucial to the safety of Europe. Even when he did the right things, he did them too slowly.
In contrast our own Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen acted quickly decisively and correctly against the crisis we have met with Covid, Russia and USA, way more than most European leaders. Although Finland and Estonia have been good on the Ukraine/USA front.
But the economic situation we are in now has nothing to do with lack of creativity. it has way more to do with courage and understanding of economic reality. And in this I agree that right wing policies of frugality are more harmful than good.
But it’s a natural human response to be more careful when times are hard, and that often prolongs the problems, because instead of tackling the problems, we try to evade them, which is not a solution.
No recovery intended either…
The idiots will continue to vote corrupt morons into office who ride the economy into the ground to instead make their sponsors in obsolete and failing industries richer for a few additional years before everything hits a wall.
But lets not put all the blame on voters either. Industries in Germany are largely run by incompetent dinosaurs too. They believe in a free market so they should be able to at least make good decisions on their own. Instead they keep pumping money into China while essentially begging their own government for money. China made it crystal clear they‘re done importing German goods. Instead they flood our markets with largely cheap trash. Every Euro invested in China is wasted and any company still banking on Chinese consumers deserves to go bankrupt.
They believe in a free market so they should be able to at least make good decisions on their own
No, they don’t actually. Insane amounts of lobbyism (enabled by always the same corrupt types in government) is their idea of a free market. They pay huge amounts so that legislation supports their obsolete models and keep competitors away.
Which is exactly what fucks them now because their bought puppets cannot protect them from losing all their foreign market shares to innovative products.
That’s also the reason those conservative morons in government are still loudly talking about ‘highly efficient’ combustion engines, totally fictious eFuels and plans to scrap the transition to EVs. Because they only know how to parrot the narratives they are paid to repeat.
But lets not put all the blame on voters either.
Why not ? Governments are elected by voters.
They believe in a free market so they should be able to at least make good decisions on their own. Instead they keep pumping money into China while essentially begging their own government for money.
Then voters could have voted for different people, maybe using the brain instead oof voting for people asking to close the nuclear plants without a plan B if not some vague promises that renewable energy will replace them. (as an example).
In the end people get the government they elected and the consequences of their vote.
