Germany didn't build any infrastructure? How about Nord Stream 2? Someone blew it up a key German infrastructure along with the German economy. Kind of important don't you think for this analysis?
7:00 To be honest, this part seems like a bit of a blunder on your part, as investing into nuclear power now that it has almost been completely faded out would be far more expensive than any investment into renewable energy. Maybe you're aware of this, but I would have loved to hear you address it.
In November of last year it was the UK, then it was Italy, a couple of months ago it was France, and now Germany? At this point, which European economies AREN'T the sick man of Europe?
Well, journalists in 1985 told us that Japan will rule the world forever and that the US is doomed to fail. Ten years later, everyone was convinced that the US will rule the world forever while Japan is doomed to fail. In 2020, journalists told us that China will rule the world forever while the US is doomed. Today, journalists have again changed their mind. So maybe listening to journalists is not that good an idea?
MAGA freaks have been predicting China's collapse since basically 2016 (when Moscow gave them new orders). It's 2023 and instead we're seeing their boss grovel before Xi Jinping hoping to get some economic concessions for Russia out of him. 😆
Even though China has slowed down it's economy is still outgrowing the US and Europe. Western Journalists are just sour grapes about China's rise and acting like the slow down means China is about to collapse. They are acting like the US economic growth was one big giant arrow upwards. It was not. It was full of recessions and times of economic slow downs every 4 to 7 years. China's growth is the one who was a big arrow up. Now they just had a little slow down the West is acting like it's ll gloom and doom. Their approach to this is pathetic. Plus the Japanese economy in the 1980s was completely sabotaged by the United States. The US forced them to sign the plaza accords, get rid of windows dressing banking and dramatically raise the value of the Yen which created a massive bubble. This eventually led to a massive deflation and economic stagnation. Japan could have easily fixed this problem by devaluing the Yen again, but the US wont let it do that. Thr US government keeps a tight grip on Japan's LPD party. They are their stooges. They are not there to serve the interests of thr Japanese people. They are there to serve the interests of the United States. Same with the Green party in Germany. This economic collapse was all engineered and orchestrated by the United States. Japan couldn't do anything about it because it is a tributary vassal state of the United States.
US singlehandedly killed Japan economy in early 90s. Like it always tries to mess with many countries politics and internal affairs, all over the world.
I'm one of those "highly skilled immigrants" that moved to Germany, I've also started my own small business. The bureaucracy is indeed a pain and extremely outdated. It took several months to start my own business. Everything is done by paper and through the mail. I've also been going through the process of getting citizenship and it's taken many years. The test on civic knowledge is done with paper and pencil, despite the practice test being digitized and online. Heck, even some official government apps for your phone will send you your PIN though the mail... I love it here, but the bureaucracy is a joke.
I'm in my process to do the same thing, currently working with a third party visa vendor. Any upsides so far as a newly arrived highly skilled immigrant?
Look up stories about US companies and assets being stolen via government forms from under owners without receiving any notice and you may begin to see some of these things as features.
That’s crazy how difficult it is! In the US you can have your business registered and get assigned the correct documents in a few hours or even minutes if you know what you’re doing online. Unless you are doing something like food preparation where other agencies are interested, I believe starting a business should have as few barriers to entry as possible.
@@tomblaise the EU has rules that require that, but Germany doesn’t comply it took me 3 months to get permitted to do some consulting work and the tax system around it was mind blowingly stupid. Now I just work a normal job and don’t bother with the side hustle, it legit isn’t worth the 1000€+ per year for a tax consultant
Germany needs to digitialise badly, its crazy how far behind they are compared to UK, Denmark, Estonia, Sweden, etc. Clearly holding back their economic potential
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@@ToriZealot didnt you read my comment? have a look at my comment and tell me where i said that everything is/will be fine. how could you possibly think that when i wrote that the infrastructure is failing? dont make stuff up bro. my comment is 0% praise for berlin. i am just saying, that the term "sick man of europe" is a bit too harsh. especially since we know that term from the crumbling ottoman empire in the (roughly) 19. centrury which had much worse problems than modern germany.
@@cuauhtemocricardoorlandosa2188 There is not one positive statistical outlook for Germany. However, this will not help rest of EU either. Any coverage of current Germany without making energy costs the central point is disingenuous.
@@ToriZealot haha bro you make it sound as if the energy costs were some weimar republic level catastrophe. its bad but not hell. and trust me, energy costs do not need to be the central point of a coverage of germany. that needs to be the failing infrastructure and the bureaucracy. i go to germany every few weeks. i experience the incredible amount of bureaucracy and the crappy infrastructure myself. i dont need to hear about the perspective of someone who isnt there regularly.
@@cuauhtemocricardoorlandosa2188 Just delete mass-manufacturing for cars, glass, ceramics and don't forget the chemical industry (by far biggest in EU). Where do you expect taxes will come from? From services? And the dumbos cancelled all nuclear energy against the will of the majority. What do you think will happen after 10-15% wealth loss? More democracy? Germans where never rich ... only VW & Co are rich.
As a German with a few „skilled immigrant“ friends I must say the bureaucracy is a pain. In theory renewing a visa should quite easy, but getting an appointment at the foreigners office is an absolute pain. Housing is also a massive issue that’s holding back growth. Unless you work in a high paying job it’s not economically feasible to move to cities with better economic outlooks. And if you do, much of your income will be eaten up by rent and taxes. The recent rise in interest rate put additional pressure on the rent market since a lot of people who would have previously bought are now priced out of owning a home. OTOH if you can get sufficient liquidity, it’s now worth buying a home.
Housing is just such a barrier for so many, and clearly in so many nations too. Either countries need to get behind nationalised, major house building schemes or there needs to be some limit on multiple home ownership to free up houses
@@jonnyc429banning multiple owned homes would do basically nothing on that front. In Germany and frankly in most countries where this argument is made the vacancy rate is extremely, often historically low. The main issue in Germany is that its housing stock has not increased in proportion with its population and internal migration patterns. The only way to remediate that issue is to build homes, which is made extremely difficult in Germany
Our bureaucracy works. But with so many stations it had to pass through that something simple can be delayed because of too much work comming in at the same time, a worker beeing on vacation or on sick leave or again just having to much on his desk. That means that there are massive delays because the next step cant start before he finished his step. It is sadly just like the Deutsche Bahn where some delays here and there can bring the entire organisation to a crashing halt.
@mjde I wonder if in a lot of major economies, who could have perfectly easily handled national home building projects for decades that would have provided plenty of housing stock, the temptation was to not do that, save money and let house prices just rise exponentially. Issue now is if governments do embark on huge homebuilding projects, they'll face stiff resistance from people concerned their home prices will drop.
The UK seems to be the Sick Man of Europe, we are barely growing and our standards of living are plummeting. Plus our inflation is staying high, things ain't great across the channel.
@@largeladsteve25indeed the UK is sick. I mean very sick. You left EU which is your most important market. That reason alone we could say only sick in the head can do that lol
@@largeladsteve25 wages have been stagnant for over a decade, inflation is falling but I think what is really staying is the sense of a rude awakening. UK cost of living has usually been less than the rest of Europe and still technically is if you count out wages, but the fact people are getting paid £30k a year for a job that should pay £60k considering inflation is proof that brexit or inflation aren't the problems, the consistent under-compensation for work is. All I can say as advice from an american born person living in Britain right now is unionise.
@@jaydowg1914 Brexit and inflation are definitely some of the most major factors contributing to the UK’s current status as the worst performing European economy.
Not a sick man but shot their own foot off by not securing energy production. France invested heavily in nuclear and has a stable energy supply, Germany has been closing their power plants for years (now burning coal and having higher inflation)
The closing down of the nuclear plants was scheduled years in advance. Germany already had multiple moratoriums, i.e., they allowed older nuclear plants planned to be shut down after their lifetime has reached to continue to run. Eventually, the material lifetime is the upper cap, and that has been reached already. Furthermore, Nuclear energy production never was of such significance. From 2000 on, the share in energy prduction has reduced from 30% to 22% in 2010, to 11% in 2020. In 2022, nuclear power plants contributed 6% to the overall energy grid. Electricity generation with coal is currently down to 27% (51% in 2000, 32% in 2022). At the same time, the share of energy production from renewable energies increased from 7% ito currently to 45%. France which has a large nuclear energy sector that accounts for just over 70% of its electricity generation is struggling with serious faults at ageing reactors as well as temporary shutdowns of the systems during summertime due to low water levels.
"France invested heavily in nuclear and has a stable energy supply" This is false. The rise in energy prises in Summer of 2022 the partially the fault of the nuclear power plants in France who needed to import a lot of energy and if i'm not mistaken they didn't really solved the problem long term. At that time Germany fired up old coal powerplants to stabilize the european energy net. Nuclear is not cheap and also there are no more Uran mines in the Eu the last closed 2021 in rumania.
@@MarcusAntoniusblathey solved some of the problem. There were actually 3 problems, not 1: 1) Frances Nukes are getting older, so they need more downtime for maintenance and such. That one can't really be solved anytime soon. 2)They ha e serious problems in the summer getting enought water for them. That is also kind of unsolvable. 3) they found an unexpected major flaw in parts of their standardised design, so they had to do emergency maintenance to fix that on a major chunck of their nukes. That has been mostly fixed, so shouldn't happen again.
This is all hindsight Back in the days energy is cheap so why bother You maximise the upside on side so you incur massive down side risk on the other hand
@@florencebaendes2853They have many other structural issues too. A generous (and not fully funded) social safety net, aging population, low birth rates, geopolitical issues, etc.
Europe is fundamentally a continent of has beens. Hardly any country has good birth rates and low skilled migrants from Africa and the middle east aren't helping either. Europe should stop trying to play global power and focus on internal security.
It's really important to remember that Germany was completely dependent on Russia for Natural Gas, Coal and Energy in total. When the sanctions following Russia's attack on Ukraine were set ready it was expected that the german GDP would shrink about 6% or more because of price shocks and expensive energy costs. That massive shrinking of the economy was luckily prehibited and regarding, that Germany was so dependent it is doing quiet well in my opinion. Also you have to consider the fact, that many businesses are also closing because they have been kept artificially alive during covid by gonvernmental financial support. They were supposed to die off way earlier and some even had problems facing them even before the covid pandemic really hit. Now that the artificial life support is fading they are naturally dying off. What Germany really needs to do is becoming more attractive again for middle to large businesses by lowering bureaucracy, even taxes in some places and pushing digitalisation, investment in research and so on.
Coal is the only natural energy resource Germany has in abundance, we definitely are not dependent on Russia for that! Sadly, after nuclear power, we are also going to leave coal behind. This will be fun …
@@sleepy_chronotype its idotic to use this coal we have. we subsidize still (!) coal with 70 billion euro per year to make the price artificially competive. its 3 times more expensive to use coal in germany instead of buying it. since decades this should have ended. germany has enough of the "only" existing ressource, its called energy. and nuclear power by the way is even dumber than using coal, 5 times more expensive than renewables. industries stream for renewables there is even a term for that in oconomy its called reneweables pull, per ppa privat perchase agreements they can buy energy 3 times cheaper than the industry energie price, no wonder that the oenocmy loves renewables and not coal or nuclear energie. only people without a brain or abused by propaganda would want nuclear energie or would want to waste billions of our money for coal subsidies
I have been living in Germany for the last 11 years. I am exceptionally pessimistic about the future of this country. Germans were known for pragmatism, well there is little of it left as big political decisions in the last years were mostly taken on ideological grounds with little if any consideration of market economy principles. The population is ageing, taxes are currently some of the highest in Europe while government services have been continuously falling in quality.
Couldn't agree more. Just a massive snowball of self-made political problems that has been allowed to quietly grow in size while the economy was propped up with cheap Russian energy and money pouring in from China. The very predictable unraveling of this geopolitically frail configuration is now starting to lay bare the problems. And all the major political parties are still busy blowing around rhetorical hot air about their little ideological pet fights, while none of them see the actual scope of the problems in Germany's rotting cities and infrastructure, overburdened public and education services, lightyear-lag in IT and harebrained energy policy. As an expat, Germans would do well to listen to their neighbors sometimes, but they're still too arrogant to do that. Wohlstandsverwahrlosung, or something.
please don't forget increasing financial support for the jobless (even the ones by choice), while at the same time increase taxes on people working their asses off
@@sephiroth2689 you look in the wrong direction. The 50€ extra for jobless is nothing compared to the gains of the shareholders.but it's a bit confusing for Bild readers I guess
Here are the reasons I see for Germany’s economic downturn. 1. Dependence upon cheap Russian oil and gas, which is no longer available. 2. Dependence upon the Chinese consumer market, which has shrunk drastically in the past few years. 3. Shutting down their nuclear power plants, which pushes their energy costs even higher.
I rather pay higher taxes for clean energy, than having nuclear time bombs in my neighbourhood. Also: Germany exited nuclear power plants BEFORE Greta Thunberg was even born.
I have a friend that fled Ukraine as her house was blown up. She’s got a masters degree and she’s working in a German warehouse because she speaks three languages but none of them are German. Perhaps highly skilled immigrants will head to German as its close perhaps not.
What subject is the Masters degree in? I know a lot of internationals in STEM fields, none of which had too much trouble finding english speaking jobs. There is of course still a lot of room for improvement, but just look to the West and you know we're doing alright ;-)
If she speaks english, she'll find a job rather soon. If she doesn't, someone this educated can totally learn enough german (or english) rather quickly and get good employment. The vacancies are certainly there, unless her Masters is in art history or something equally useless.
That is very typical for Germany, they will often employ foreigners for minimum wage in positions they are over qualified for. They may pretend to be "open minded", but in practise they are extremely racist and often view foreigners as subhuman. The reason why big German corporations like to hire foreigners is because they can get away with underpaying them.
there are tons of English speaking jobs in Germany. However, if your degree is from a diploma mill next door and not recognized, or simply in a subject without any demand, then you are right that you might end up working in other jobs than you initially intended to get.
Yeah for sure that is a problem, also in Austria. Even in fairly international work places, where people can and do communicate in english for some reason companies still ask to know German (even if you don't actually need it to work). Sure if you deal with German-speaking people all day yeah it can be an issue, but the cases I am talking about are not the case. Ofc eventually people should learn the language of the place where they are living, but if they cannot find a job or if the job they can find is not up to their qualifications, then they will just move to the country that allows them to speak english, have a good wage and job according to their qualifications and learn the native language gradually.
Anyone who has taken recently a train or a flight in Germany knows that their reputation for punctuality is in the gutter. I believe now that their reputation for productivity is also a sham
I can only speak for the automotive industry which is basically ocerregulating itself to death, killing productivity and innovation. Largely as a typical overreaction to the dieselgate. The type of regulation and extra bureaucracy it's very hard to get rid of once it's in place.
Germany performing worse than the UK somehow. Amazing it takes an epic amount of incompetence and mismanagement to somehow beat us for this, Germany should be proud. But I'm sure the UK will somehow be able to take back the crown
Meanwhile in Poland Every polish person: I sense a disturbance in the force… Looks east seeing Russia being Russia Looks west seeing germanys economy is dying again Poland: oh gods NOT AGAIN!
@@tektof5649 Luckily there still us US military in Germany. That criminal idiot Trump wanted to move them all back to the US and shut down all the bases.
I am German and observe the problems with sustancial concerns, and yes, also I am worried about Germany is losing their technological leading position e. g. in the car industry and its lag of digitisation. Hower, Germany CAN change and has proven it serveral times. We (still) have great engineers and well educated workforce and the strong motivation to succeed in anything we are doing. Other countrys e. g. France and Italy struggle more in modernizing the public sector nore it had had technological leadership in core-industrys. I beleive in Germany and I am confident that Germany is able to adapt to world's changing economy despite from overexceeding buerocracy, aging population accompanied by shortage of productive labour such as a rotten infrastructure. Germany has remarkable problem-solving capabilities which it has proven - especialy in the early 2000's years. Don't underestimate the Germans ;-)
The German people and society are very strong. You are never going to be irrelevant to the global stage. Just like many countries at the moment, we're all going through a rough time but, Germany has weathered through many crises, and it will emerge once again. Remember what you as a people have accomplished as a country post WW2. If anyone can overcoming the problems of 2023, the Germans can.
How are you going to solve the issue of expensive energy resources? After the start of the war in Ukraine, Germany abandoned Russian gas and oil. But the problem is that, apart from Russia, no one in Germany can offer such prices. Germany needs support in the form of discounts on resources, but the Americans and the Chinese are not ready to do it like Russia. This is the most tangible problem for Germany, as it cannot be solved by internal changes.
The low unemployment figures in Germany are not a good sign. In the next 10 years, 18 million people will retire and 11 million will enter the labor market. The low unemployment is always reported as if it were finally good news, but it is only the symptom of a gigantic contraction. There is already a shortage of teachers, police officers, construction workers, doctors and nurses everywhere
There is no labor shortage. Being a teacher is my dream job, but I'd literally get fired during vacation time to cut cost, so no thank you. There's a shortage of acceptable working conditions.
@@hanspeterqwe6620 Dass man euch in den Ferien mies entlässt und am Ende wieder einstellt ist ein gottlose Unverschämtheit. Den Lehrermangel gibt es trotzdem und solcher Unfug erhöht in nur noch.
@@Enkaptaton das ist so als ob die Regierung Muffins bäckt und dann feststellt - es gibt Muffins. Natürlich gibt es Muffins, die Regierung hat sie ja gebacken. Aber ist halt ein selbstgemachtes Problem.
Germany: Still uses the same education system as in the german empire and structurally neglects schools financially, especially everything except for Gymnasien Also Germany: Jeez I wonder why we have problems with education
@@gavasiarobinssson5108Germany has (compared to the OECD-average) one of the highest links in educational succes of children and economic status of their parents, so no, the german school system still does what the empire intended: segregate socially.
I went to University in NRW (apparently the worst-ranked Bundesland for education). To say the system is a nightmare would be an understatement. I have friends who are still in their undergrad after EIGHT years.
I'm from Germany and a really bad habit people have in this country is that they pretend to care about things and always try to have an opinion to every topic eventhough they really don't care. Therefore they always criticize everything. It's called "herummeckern" in German. On top of that most people have too much of an ego to accept that they made a mistake. I accept it, say sorry and move on while many Germans argue and argue sometimes for hours. In the end it's always the government's, the EU's or the US' fault. It's never their own fault or simply bad fortune. It might be just how most countries are nowadays... 😢
Germany should do a few things: 1. Every house glasfiber internet minimum 1 gigabit up and down. 2. Close the brown coal plants. 3. Open de old nuclear power plants they just closed and build a lot new ones. 4. More solar and wind. 5. Invest in battery technology. 6. Digitalize local and state government, here in the Netherlands we can do almost anything online. 7. Modernize banks, last time i had to receive a payment from a German guy, his bank did not support instant payment. WHAT??? So he had to pay cash. 8. Do not say gas is green. We the Netherlands just closed the gas field in Groningen and we are heading to heatpumps. Newbuild houses are not even allowed to heat with gas. Gas is not green. (But Germany says it is.) 9. Germany should more focus on scientific arguments rather than emotions and feelings. Many decisions Germany is making in the energy sector are based on emotions not science. I live near the German border although i love visiting Germans and love Germans.. dealing with German companies is a hassle because they difference and technology gap is growing. And faxes should become illegal. Key word for German is: Modernize + scientific thinking. Should be 2 key parts.
I'm German and there are so many issues in this country that will never be fixed. It was inevitable that it would cause an economic crisis and Germany will never be able to recover from it, because we had the same government for 16 years that refused to innovate. Other countries had a lot of time to catch up and now have innovations in place which will only continue to grow, while Germany is desperately now trying to innovate, but it's too late.
Im amazed you have fast enough internet to visit youtube. :) haha. Even east european countries have better internet infrastructure than the Germans. Not a compliment.
Germany is definitely not "The" sick man of Europe. It's sicker or not as healthy than it used to be but I would much rather be Germany than many other European countries, economically speaking.
"low unemployment" is not real. It is masked by the Arbeitsagentur measures amounting to breaking windows to keep glassmakers busy. The amount of people actually working is very low, and those of us who do, get extremely taxed and receive worse and worse returns from the state every year. Germany only attracts immigrants that will profit from social handouts, skilled labour has much better options
Yeah these "highly skilled" immigrants from Africa for example. That's what people don't get about Asylum, the people fleeing are generally not highly skilled in jobs that fit into our system in Germany. If you want to attract skilled people you need to be attractive so maybe giving up on that stupid black zero and just investing into infrastructures, the medical system, the education system and so many more fields that desperately need help. But no, we just get applause -.-
In my mind, the biggest obstacle to attract foreign workers is the language. People tend to choose countries whose language they are already familiar with. Very few people learn German as a foreign language.
the most stupid thing about this system is that, I have to wait for a visa appointment from the embassy, pass B2 German certificate, Annerkant my HS diploma,.. to be able to get my Ausbildung visa, yet someone hoping the border or getting on a boat crossing Mediterranean can go to live in Germany and get free accommodation and food for life.
1. Refugees are not taken in for filling labor markets but for humanitarian reasons. So your whole argument is a straw man. 2. You are, of course, right about the existing skillset of most refugees from Africa. However, skills can be learned (in fact, all skills have been learned) and as a German, I can assure you, we don't only need academics. We have labor shortage across the board, also in manual labor, nursing etc.
@@maurice7618 First of all, most of these people crossing the borders do not qualify asylum in whatsoever case, and we're all aware of that. According to the statistics, a huge part of the asylum seekers are from Afghanistan, and most of which are clearly young men, whose lives aren't in danger. Even, if very few of them were in danger, they could remain in Iran, just like other 8 million of their countrymen, so here we are people going to Germany for its benefits and using the system. Secondly, in case Germany needs low skilled laborers, it would be still very foolish to let anyone hoping the border do these jobs, and getting residency. When people immigrate they are there to stay, they'll have kids and start families there, and in case they wouldn't integrate in to German society and culture, which is very hard to do, there'll be nothing left of Germany. SO, the best solution for that is to attract immigrant, with the same values, beliefs, religion, culture,.. not, some total aliens without any education. Look, what happened a few months ago in France, that's Germany's future.
@@Ash-wz8bo You think, people aren't in danger in Afghanistan? Are you delusional? To the point about immigrants with a similar (in this case european/western) culture: Yeah that would be nice and easier of course. Problem is: Where would you get those? Countries similar to Germany all face similar demographic issues and have not much surplus population. They rather compete with us for potential immigrants for exactly that reason.
No It most certainly wasn't. It was 100 percent malicious and you just have to follow the money to see that this is the case. It's not a coincidence that Gazprom was paying several German researchers and politicians large sums of money to push the anti nuclear and pro gas agenda.
Germany might be the sick man of Europe time to time, but more often its the core of Europe that raises the trade and development of the EU, especially central european countries or Benelux. Nothing against large economies like Italy or France, but Germany seems more reliable long term and Europe needs some larger markets for multiple reasons.
Our finances are also the reason for the rise of Poland. Now, that PiS (the Polish ruling party) is at the top of Polish politics, they blame us for anything that is bad in their country, even going as far as creating ads on Twitter only to make Germany seem bad and evil. I feel like this kind of behaviour has led to some kind of hate against Germany again. As a pan-European who takes trust and hope from the concept of a united Europe it honestly hurts to see these offensive contents published against us by other Europeans. I don't care about a little bit of jokes and laughter about Germany, especially since we do that to France and Poland as well, but it's just going too far. I've basically lost a huge portion of my hope in a united Europe because of that. We mostly love Poles, but many of them won't love us back, but instead spit on us and make us out to be the big evil on the continent
Having literally just left there with the original intent to start 2 businesses there... I don't think they are the sick man of Europe yet... but seem to be on that path. I thought it would be relatively easy as an American citizen to get a visa and work there, and it is quite the opposite. They LOVE bureaucracy and paperwork and almost nothing is digitized. They have information on their official immigration websites which is just plain inaccurate or false. Nothing can be done quickly. That is a huge part of the reason I decided to leave. Not only that, the cost of basically everything is high and seems to be increasing. When overall cost of living does nothing but increase... hard to justify living there. Separately, I tried to sell a number of items which were close to or brand new on Facebook Marketplace, Quoka and Ebay. Basically incapable of selling anything. 90% of offers were scammers. 10% not scammers offering well below the listed price, which was already pretty low, and almost all foreigners. That suggests people just aren't spending money or don't have much to spend.
As a german citizen your first sentence is absolutly right. Today the bureaucracy and the lack of digitalization are incrisingly seen as a massive problem. If the governments can fix it in the medium term (its quite the task) the german economy can come back on track, but if they fail in this task the future for our economy indeed looks kind of grim.
I guess that an average Joe probably has less cash, but as soon as you get sick, have kids or get old, that's when it's beneficial to live in Europe compared to USA for example. Here is a channel with lots of videos about life in Germany: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nIm1eK-iXO8.htmlsi=-yWXHhJ9b-9Y0T0t The Nordic countries usually have way better small business rules than most other countries in the world, including the rest of Europe.
Yeah the notion of "efficient Germany" is often completely the opposite, try and catch a German train, they are probably among the worst in europe regarding efficiency not only that but austerity rule is a lot easier when you are part of essentially a free trade, movement zone, German and Dutch students that want to become doctors but failed to make the grades or get selected just go to Belgium, German students at least have to learn some French or Dutch and to go to a flemish medical school you have to pass the entry exam as well but then they are essentially subsidized by the BELGIAN state, and Belgium is not allowed to prefere national students based on EU court of law judgement, just saying an austerity government is much easier to maintain when you can offload some major costs in neighbouring countries
Greens and Socialdemocrats destroy our economy - and they are good at it. FDP and CDU have to give in: It's no matter if the cat is blue or brown as long it catches mice.
as a german company owner, many things had changed in the past year. Germany is the most atractiv start up location in europe, things got digitalised and the government ist helping out a lot with money. But yes, the infastructure ( mostly in the east ) is outdated but on the other hand infastructur in the north got a huge upgrade for the new LNG terminals ( they were faster constructed than every other LNG terminal in the world ) And what you said about the FDP is total bullshit, they changed the education in just 2 years from outdated to Digital boards and ipads in every class. The FDP is the only Party that modernizes and they invested Billions in train tracks, Roads and public buildings.
GDP per capita in Spain is actually slightly higher than in Italy and Spains economy is more globalized than Italy due to a lot of trade and exchange with latin america. So actually a good comparison
But since we're talking about the "sick man of Europe" I would have liked a comparison to the notoriously not-so-great and also big on manufacturing economy of Italy
@unknownuser1502 GDP per capita in Italy is 36,812 USD. GDP per capita in Spain is 31,223 USD. Italy is the 26th country in the world per GDP per capita. Spain is the 36th. Italy is Europe's 3rd largest economy and 2nd largest manufacturing industry. Italy is also a much larger international exporter than Spain. Check you data before writing lies.
Italy has a greater economy then Spain. 2nd biggest manufacturers in Europe, 8th largest economy in the world, 3rd largest economy in europe, apart of the G7 countries, Spain isn't. Bigger GDP then Spain. Italy also has a lower unemployment rate then Spain, Spain actually has the highest unemployment rate in the EU, so what's strange?
It’s not fair to call Germany The sick man of Europe. That title belongs to us in Britain. We were doing too well in the EU so we left to keep the title.
Yep, when I saw the title of this video I thought there must have been a mistake. We've worked for the title of sick man of Europe damn it, don't take it from us
I'm just a teacher, not an economist. But my rough instinct tells me Germany is going to be OK. They're a valuable nexus and keystone EU member in their own home market with valuable allies. Not to mention Germany seems a lot more open about admitting their problems (due to culture), so that invites people who need a cheap win to go after them. Now if a bad war does happen, that's a totally different matter. But it'll still be some form of developed manufacturing center.
@@guschtel-y9w The crime is rising due to generalized European problems. But ultimately, that's all just tax payer money and workers down the pipe line if you factor out nationalism or whatever. More importantly, most of those countries benefiting from Germany's measures are tied to the EU. So, if there is a major downswing for Germany, it can simply be redirected towards Germany to maintain the EU system. There would be some in-fighting, sure. But ultimately new measures and aid would be made to benefit Germany for two reasons: The EU can't function without a stable Germany and European countries need a stable EU. (To say nothing of existential threat from Russia, China, and other hegemonies if necessary.) In either event, the economy will stabilize around something else likes the advanced arms industry because let's be real. I dread to say it out loud but I do worry. I hope I'm wrong. Also, I'm not saying it isn't rough for the individual. Goodness no. A lot of us are having it rough right now. Hell, I feel guilty and spoiled for even having the tidbits of western luxury that I possess while others and the kids I teach struggle even worse than me. My partner and I are both just hunkering down atm. But the macro-entity known as Germany will be fine. Plus even if Germany does go, there'll be a lot worse sick men of Europe. Edit: Actually, your comment reminded me of a British joke I heard in the 70s. It was about how Britain intentionally stirred things up in continental Europe to undermine them. Heh.
@@guschtel-y9w wo wohnst du denn??? achja, Luxemburg ist auch in Schwierigkeiten! ich nehme mal an, das du noch nie in den USA warst und wenn, dann in einer Gated Community!
@@NY_Mountain_Man i dont noticed that the crime level is raising in Germany... but some people see people from other countries as criminals... just like the Brits do right now! my guess is, he is not leaving his parents basement out of fear to meet foreign people! and its most times that right wingers always consider themselves to be the best, greatest and know everything person, while knowing nothing and that a lot! maybe he reads only the BILD and wearing a foil hat!
@@guschtel-y9w Und damit seid ihr richtige Sozialschmarotzer, die dem Land schaden! Ihr profitiert von unserem Sozial System, genießt alle Vorteile davon und ab dem Moment wo ihr etwas zurück geben sollt, haut ihr ab. Der Staat macht durch Leuten wie dir Minus!
Unfortunately, as long as FDP Christian Linder is minister of finance, there won't be any "investing in Germany". You can hear him insisting on the "Schuldenbremse" (debt break) nearly every single day. And they actually CUT money for trains. There is more money for building new highways though, even if those don't solve any problems.
I agree with Dr. Schmieding but am actually glad about all gloomy articles. German governments have always been very quick to react to public outcry while being extremely slow on issues outside of the public interest. Energy is a sector where Germany was very slow and very often misguided. The new challenges, mainly due to Russia, might induce some beneficial changes of pace (and direction). The growing tensions with China, however, will hardly spawn anything positive. They will much rather lead to protectionism, shortages and yet higher inflation. The decades of low inflation in Europe might be over, especially if protectionism becomes the new norm.
@@HedgehogZone The matter of which nation is responsible has little to no importance in this conversation. The pipeline was bombed by someone, which is just another reason to focus on more sustainable energy.
Historically the german economy has always been very stale (past 50 years atleast) Germany never sees huge growth or stagnation.... which is it's biggest strength.... Germany in my lifetime has always been the safest country to invest in, not only has it the most innovative industries in the world.... but while we see so many inovations in the US especially lead to bankcrupsy you don't really see that in germany, the barriers put in place to start a business lead to much stabler businesses.... Berlin has become a huge hub for tech start ups, that gets vast sums of investments from the german government
I like that your quality of research and explaining is way better than EE. You ask relevant/logical questions, while with EE sometimes im guessing why certain questions are asked. Well done. Great video
Russia started in 2021 - a year earlier before the start of Russia's attac of Ukraine - to reduce the condiction of gas. Here a timeline of events prior to the invasion: In January 2021, Gazprom reduced gas deliveries at the Velke-Kapuzany border crossing from 890 to 276 GWh per day and, unlike in previous months, hardly ever sells gas via its own electronic trading platform ESP. After the end of the heating period, Gazprom hardly filled the German gas storage facilities and let them run empty until the summer. In Austria, the level of gas storage in August 2021 is almost 40%. In the fall of 2021, Gazprom will not only cut supplies via Ukraine, but also in the important Yamal pipeline, which runs through Poland to Germany. In October 201, the gas storage tanks are only 20% full. Gazprom is once again cutting back on its gas supplies via Poland. At the Mallnow border crossing, the delivery volume drops from more than 800 to 132 gigawatt hours per day. Gazprom cuts gas supplies to Germany via Waidhaus on the Czech border for several weeks; at times down to zero. In December 2021, Gazprom halted all deliveries to Germany via Poland, in the middle of winter. Gas prices hit a new all-time high. Compared to the beginning of the year, natural gas costs nine times as much. On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. It clearly was Russia not Western allies who pressured Germany and the other European countries to stopp bying Russian gas. It was Russia's attempt to weakening Western Euopean countries. One more thing: Russia is not only at war with Ukraine, but also with the rest of the world. In autumn 2020, the European futures market for grain noted a rapid increase in grain prices. The reason: China has started to practically empty the international grain market. At the beginning of 2022 - just in time for the start of the invasion -, China bunkered around 159 million tons of grain. That's about half of the total supply available in the world. China has not thereby secured its own supply of grain, but can buy influence, for example when developing countries apply to China for help because they cannot pay for their imports on the world market.It is therefore safe to assume that Russia informed China of its intentions in advance. The partial loss of Ukraine as a major grain exporter has caused food prices and inflation to rise worldwide, which is particularly felt by people in poorer countries who already have to spend a large part of their income on food. In addition, there is the attempt by Russia to block exports not only from Ukraine, but also from Kachastan via the Black Sea.
@@susannehartl3067 don't forget about 2016. When Ukraine conducted unlawful coup, Russia occupied Crimea and got sanctioned by EU, that's when it all started, not 2021. I don't see how Russia/China relationship with African countries affect their relationship with Germany. However, please don't forget that World Bank credits African countries very low, thus depriving them from foreign funds. This pushes them closer to China and Russia. Also, don't forget to mention that just 3% of Ukrainian grain exports were headed to developing countries as opposed to
The critics are still right though. The infrastructure in Germany is in a horrible condition and it seems to not change. German here btw. This society is way too focused on the automotive industry, so we build too many roads and not focus on rail. Which is the important factor for the future. Manufacturing is also a very outdated industry and it's not too hard to get replaced there. You don't want to stay on this salary level forever. We have to move towards a more technologically advanced economy. Even though there has been some progress in terms of automation in the industry. And there have been very large companies in the sector. Sadly enough, the German government didn't see the importance of this sector and enable foreign companies to buy these assets. So, it's not in German hands any more. We can observe similar development with the solar industry. It was one of the most advanced in the world, just to get destroyed by politics. At the end of the day, it really comes down to extremely poor politics. And it doesn't matter if it's Union/SPD or Green/SPD/FDP. They are all pretty bad when it comes to economic policies.
1) Russia did not turn on Germany, it was the other way around. Would you still be working for free if your employer deposited "payments" to an account you have no access to and the money could still be stolen any time? Still it continued to sell to interested parties. 2) It was rather USA/Ukraine that engineered the decoupling of Germany from Russia (a bond that provided very cheap energy for its industry) both *politically* AND *operationally* (by the terrorist attack on the NordStream pipelines) 3) Russia continues to sell very low for its customers. EU decided to sanction natural gas and gradually stop imports, while still buying the much more expensive LNG, by USA, Russia etc. 4) Germany strategically failed to invest on Battery-Powered Vehicles & chose to scam the industry and its customers with "low-emission" diesels. 5) Its growth was supported by failed economic, financial, monetary and political policies, of Austerity & Corruption-Kickbacks by German companies to secure contracts (e.g. SIEMENS scandal)
As a german myself, I think the biggest problem is our political discourse. The Public discussion is full of hatred and spite. Through a combination of 1: 16 Years of Angela Merkels Chancellorship, in which investments in infrastructure and Innovation into renewable Energy was avoided. The Younger Parts of the Population were left behind and they felt disenchanted by politics. 2. The current government is disfunctional beyond belief, tearing itself apart over everything. Especially the Greens and FDP are always fighting and they just can't get anything done. These 2 Factors then lead to 3. Right wing and ultraconservative Parties gaining ground and rascist, antisemitic and fascist viewpoints becoming popular, especially in the economically weak eastern part of Germany.
"Germany dependence on Russia gas is now the reason for sky high energy prices" REALLY nothing to do with US charging Germany 3x the price of gas.... btw,Russia STILL WANTS TO SELL cheap gas to Germany.
How is the UK doing this? The Economist literally has a recent article stating UK is the sick man of europe. Perhaps sick man of europe is a bit too loose and a wild claim in any sense that it is applied but it sounds like you can’t take any criticism
What is this neverending push towards more and more immigration? It's insane. Neverending population growth, and energy consumption. Rising inflation and food prices but this guy never stops pushing immigration as a solution.
Russian immigration to germany is honestly negligible. People are fleeing ot nearby states mostly. And not because of the "brutal regime", but to wait out the storm to put it simply. Comon Joeri, you know better than to make political remarks. Dont become like other econ channels please, I love your videos because of their objectivity. Its enough to say migrants from east europe.
We have been carrying in one sense, hurting in another. See the whole "you can't devalue the Euro to save your ass, if germany continually boosts it up with strong exports" problem.
@@concernedcitizen6572 you're wrong, as my ex-boss once declared to us shortly before sending out an excel sheet to the whole office riddled with errors, 'I don't make mistakes'...🤣
We used to say: If Germany has a cold, The Netherlands is sick. But not anymore, Germany has a cold and we have a minor cold (mild recession). Because of Brexit we needed to search for new markets and found them in Asia. We basically took over a lot of the UK exports to these countries. The export from The Netherlands to Germany is now only about 20% coming from 35%. We diversified while the total amount of export to Germany kept basically the same in money, it dropped in percentage. We found a lot of new markets. Brexit truly is great. While our GDP grew with 32% between 2017 and 2023, the UK grew 16% in the same timeframe. I think we did nice.
Ireland had a similar issue with the UK market since Brexit but now 9% of Irish exports go to Britain (another 2% Irish goes to the Occupied North East, Ireland does count the North as the same as Britain). However, Irish imports are a different kettle of fish, Ireland's market is still vendor-managed via the UK, even for European products eg car & car parts etc. Plus Irish energy market is highly depended on the UK for oil & gas etc.
UK was once the EU's accountant. Unfortunately with so much money flowing to and fro in the UK, it's basically a big target when there is a banking crisis. That's why Brexit was needed. No ease of trade was worth risking 150% debt to GDP ratio.
If you look at the economies of the EU, it is Hungary that is plummeting thanks to the conservative right policies of Orban, and Meloni is trying very hard to copy that, and it appears that she is successful in destroying the Italian economy. Germany is doing an amazing job, despite almost two decades of standstill on several aspects such as digitalization and energy, it shows to be capable of transition. The only fear here is, that the conservative right will win the next elections and copy the same idiotic policies that have successfully destroyed the Hungarian economy and are destroying the Italian economy as we speak.
The thing is that Germany's access to cheap Russian energy is not new, it was neither Merkel's nor Schröder's doing. This all dates back to the 1960s during the time of the USSR (the famous "pipes for gaz" deall), and it was controversial at the time, causing tensions with the USA. Now that Germany no longer has this privileged access to this inexpensive energy, which is not the case for China or India or Mexico, it is losing competitiveness. All other energy sources are much more expensive. Renewable energies require equipment built from rare earths from China or Russia, we are talking about an extremely polluting mining activity. Nuclear fuel is under Russian monopoly, German industry has benefited from inexpensive energy for more than 50 years, semiconductors are an energy-intensive sector, the automotive and chemical sectors are equally so. This is also true for Poland which, while gesticulating and brandishing anti-Russian slogans, continues to buy Russian oil (until when?). Norway does not have enough to supply all of Europe with gas and oil. It's a headache for the Germans..
I just double checked: Russia has left than half of the world's enrichment capacity. So yes, it's a problem, but they don't control it. You should also keep in mind that you can easily stockpile both enriched uranium and finished fuel in order to run a plant for several years. That's not so easy if you run it on coal or gas..
The bigger problem is, Germany is an aging country with a very generous welfare state. They were racking up govt debt like crazy even before COVID, now rolling the money printer is the only way western Europe pays it's pensions. That's why asia and africa are banding together in BRICS, they need a trading medium not dependent on the western system, so they don't get dragged down with it.
Great points. German industry seems to have flourished on cheap Russian gas. But something really confuses me, if you lose access to the energy source surely the last thing you want to do is shut down your nuclear plants. Maybe keep them open a few years longer.
@HK.Builds they had already begun shutting down their nuclear power plants before the invasion of Ukraine. They decided to postpone the shutdown of the last plants for a couple of months due to the lack of gas. But later they shut down the last plants nevertheless. They have restarted some mothballed coal plants instead, and they are burning coal (especially the worst kind: lignite) like crazy. The greens will tell you that nuclear was such a small part of the electricity sector that it didn't make a difference anyway, and that gas is mostly used for industrial and heating purposes. Fact is though that gas turbines are used to balance the grid, and that Germany is burning much more coal since the shutdown of nuclear, which can be seen clearly in the statistics.
The last years Germany was shaken awake fron the Merkel Era mentality "Ir's good as it is, just keep doing and and to not worry about changing anything". Both in private mentality but also in a political way it's clear there are many problems and we need to change. Though the situation is bad I'm optimistic it will get better in the next years.
I think they are not sick, they are toast at this point, but don't know it yet. 600bilion capital flight in the last 10 years, that's even before cofcof, gas prices and etc
For me it was one form, don’t remember if I had to fill out a paper form. Your comment is besides the point for many reasons. First your university isn’t every university. Second universities are public sector institutions and not companies. It’s generally known that public administration is inefficient in every country save for some exceptions like Estonia. Basically your experience with this university isn’t indicative of anything. And if it’s so bad then go somewhere else. No one is forcing you to receive free higher education paid for by German taxpayers.
6:50 It may be true, that exporting technology to China was abad thing for Germany, but the car example is a bad one. China does not compete on fuel driven cars with Germany, but with electrical cars. A technology that has been forgotten by the German car industry for too long.
If government starts investing more on infrastructure, the budget deficit will rise but competitiveness is also decreasing because high energy prices. Therefore government would have to take loans from business or other states. It is also unclear how much time it will require to upgrade infrastructure. Politicians want quick results therefore it seems hard to implement
5:20 that is most likely not caused by the lack of spending and simply the lack of modernisation. Germany could probably save money by digitising and (since they can't legally fire them) killing their public workers.
You mention killing public workers. The Germans would have a head start there with their deep background knowledge and expertise in killing on an industrial scale.
This is what you get with mass immigration, stupid energy production decisions, lack of innovation and taxing everything into oblivion. Germany did this to themselves.
No, Germany is not the sick man of Europe. The combination of German habits that result in prosperity (all of which makes a fairly reliable people) and a relatively free market, it’s economy is going to continue to exceed the economies of all non-Germanic counties (including Britain, which is in serious decay). The only non-Germanic country in Europe that has some sort of meaning advantage over Germany is France, and that advantage is energy policy (France wasn’t foolish enough to dump its nuclear policy, unlike Germany). Europe itself is the upcoming sick man of the world. Its extensive regulation and low birthrate is making this a reality. The best analogy is that Europe is a beautiful woman who is at the end of middle age, and is on the cusp of senior citizen status. Once she hits that age, her beauty fades rapidly, and she starts looking gross. That’s the near-future trajectory of Europe.
9:17 It doesn't actually look like manufacturing is in recession in the United States. It appears to be climbing with the most recent data. It also seems that the manufacturing activity had been relatively flat for awhile...
IMO Germany historically relied, like Japan, on it's intellectual capital and industrial engineering base. The German worker was highly trained, produced great products, and exported to the world. This is how West Germany got rich after being devastated by war, and how 1870 German Empire got rich through technological evolution and industrialisation. The problem now is German demographic decline, and German government thinking that by bringing millions of immigrants from third world, they can all become model engineers and scientists, and replace the declining German birth rate and workers. When in reality its a massive miscalculation, and the new arrivals just bring the third world with them. You can't transform Somalians or Moroccans into Germans, speaking the language perfectly, and thinking culturally like Germans, in a single generation. As the book by a famous politician said: "Germany abolishes itself", by trying to use solutions which actually make the situation worse. What they should have done is like Orban or even Putin...Encourage GERMAN birth rate with countless things like tax exemptions and subsidies. They didnt do that because due to Nazi past, they feel that's a fascist thing to do.
Encouraging higher birth rates is very difficult in modern economies (ie. expensive places to live). Governments have tried to raise birth rates in Japan, China, Korea, Singapore... without success. A few tax rebates are a pathetic drop in the bucket.
@@johnlacey3857 Germany is massively different than East Asian countries though. Germany is a pleasant place to live, it's not overpopulated, and the economy offers many jobs. East Asian countries on the other hand have a difficult job market, very stressful work conditions, and overpopulation and housing problems. Germany just needed a few tweaks to increase birth rates but chose an immigration policy instead. East Asians struggle to maintain a work/life balance and logically have no time or stress levels for children. This just isn't the case in Germany which is very children friendly.
@@Bahamut998 Maybe so, but I doubt that “tweaking” is all it would take to get people procreating again. Having a child is a 20+ year commitment, and with many women now wanting full time careers it’s hard to convince them otherwise. Not to mention that it usually means the young family needs to survive for many years on only one income, which in most German cities would be very difficult, as in most other industrialized countries.
Oh, Maroc!! Siemens Energy 2.2 billion euro ($2.42 billion) write-off....MEET solar industry in Germany now reports that a jaw-dropping 15% of German solar capacity is rapidly disintegrating. Marco....you blew it. Do a redo, please. I love your channel
@@rncmv These headlines: The death of Das Auto: Can German cars survive the end of the engine? Germany’s shift to electric cars puts 400,000 jobs at risk in next decade According to a report by Berliner Zeitung, Germany has the highest electricity prices in Europe for households consuming 1,200 kilowatt hours of power per year. The German auto industry is facing a significant challenge as it transitions to electric vehicles. According to a report by Politico, the move to electric is depriving the country's most important industry of its competitive advantage. The article suggests that Germany's prowess in producing the combustion engine set German-made cars apart from the competition; in recent decades, the engine has also been one of the only major vehicle components still produced inside the country. It is worth noting that while some German automakers are expanding their Chinese EV operations and investing in local R&D, they are also facing stiff competition from Chinese carmakers now heading for Europe. If you can't understand the gravity that you and Marco miss in Re: Germany based not on my opinion but the columnist above me and their words.....I can't help you further
Germany alone and EU as a whole were benefiting from low cost Russian gas and Chinese labor. Now they just shot themselves for sanctioning Russian and being hostile to China. All because of listening to their master Uncle Sam 😂😂😂😂
Nuclear only accounted for 3% of Germans Electricity Production. In the First year After shutting down this planst this was allready replaced two Times (!) by cheaper Renewables
By far, your one is one of the most informative channels on youtube in the topic of international economics. Nowadays you don't really feel you are getting genuine trustworthy videos without a taste of secretely injected ideologic nuances from any public media. I wish you would be going to keep producing awesome videos.
Interesting thing I've heard (from a trustworthy source, but still, take this with a grain of salt, I do too), don't know if it's true, but it fits in with Merkel's poor understanding of the economy: When the sub-prime mortgage crisis hit in 2008, the first person she supposedly phoned for advice wasn't an economist, but Reinholdt Würth, the owner Würth Group, the largest producer of fastening material like nuts and bolts. Apparently, her thinking was: "He is a successful businessman, so he must know how to deal with the economy". She saw Germany as a company, which she was quite open about, not as a country, and instituted policies accordingly. This naturally doesn't work and resulted in the problems it faces now (among other reasons). There is a reason economics and business economics are separate fields. When you break your leg, you don't go to the ENT-physician, you go to the Orthopedist. Same thing in economics.
As a German, I can confirm that Merkel had a poor understanding in regards of economy. For example, the social democratic/green federal governmentD decided to shut down nuclear plants during the 1998 - 2005 legislative and encourage solar power, the so called '100,000-Dächer-Programm' (solar panels on rooftops).The conservative coalition led by Merkel later reversed that decision, ending the subsidy program for installing solar panels on roofs and with it the developing industry. However, Chancellor Merkel, who was very aware of public opinion, reversed the turnaround after Fukushima. One can argue that Germany has lost more than 20 years’ time in order to transition the German energy grid towards renewables. During the financial and banking crisis she also sought the advice of Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann, whose advice later turned out to be quite fatal, since she allowed herself to be harnessed for his purposes. But you had to give her one thing; she was an excellent crisis manager.
@@hanifarroisimukhlis5989 funny thing, you know who is sitting on the board of NordStream and until Mai 2022 was sitting on the board of Rosneft? Gerhard Schröder, Merkels predecessor.
As a German, I 100% support the Idea of Germany being the sick man of Europe. Almost all of the arguments against this thesis are held together with a hairthin rope of wishful thinking, that is constantly chewed on by the current government. Let’s start with the biggest problem: Demographic Change and the aging population. In 2025 more the 55% of the employable population will be Pensioniers. Most of the pensions are paid by our state run retirement fund, paid by the next generation. But without a next generation, there will simply be no retirement fund. The 55% number will increase to around 80% in 2035 and stay that high until at least 2050 thanks to Boomers and Gen X passing away. What’s the worst part about the 55 and 80% number? Germany’s biggest employer is the state itself. With up to 5,2Mio public servants right now. That’s more then 10% of the employable population. Those people do not contribute to the welfare system nor do they pay taxes. So it’s just 35% or soon 10% of the population having to pay for almost the entire financial household of the state. That’s just impossible and will either lead to the imminent collapse of the welfare system or even higher Taxes for the population, making immigration for skilled workers even less interesting. „But what about immigration“ Germany is an absolute Tax Hell, and out government is simply making it worse and worse and worse, by dropping safeguards and limits, that Safe the dwindling middle class from falling down the social ladder. The highest Tax Bracket of 42%starts at only 61800€/per year. In Addition to that you have to pay for the absurdly expensive and shit mandatory healthcare, the „Solidaritätszuschlag“, state pensions, and work capability insurance. All in all you can keep around 33k of those 61,8k€ Then you have the completely destroyed housing market with Germans having the lowest rate of homeownership in Europe (if not even the entire world). So on top of taxes, you will have to pay anything between 600-1200€ for rent, then you have to pay the ridiculously high energy prices, the expensive fuel and much more. So even though the state considers you „the richest 10%“ you essentially have around 1200€ left for food and to do whatever you want to. Yes true upper or middle class. Germany also has the largest „Niedriglohnsektor“ (Low income Class) in Europe, and the richest 10% pay for over 60% of all income taxes and 35% of ALL state funding. What kind of skilled person sees those numbers and thinks „Ye! I want this“ when he can go home with 65% of his money in Switzerland, or other parts of the world? We have almost no integration on that tax bracket. What we do have though, are Millions and Millions of absolutely uneducated illegal migrants that come as so called „refugees“ into Europe and only increase the burden on the Social system. At the same time, there is literally zero effort made, to even try and integrate them into the job market, while their exorbitant amount of free time and Stone Age believe system Leads to problematic behaviour in public. The most concerning thing ist, that to simply replace the boomers in the top 10% tax bracket, you would need 330Mio immigrants working at minimum wage. That’s just impossible! And that’s even without their Children and Wife’s. Immigration is not the solution for our demographic problems. Especially the current way of handling immigration. Another problem is, that the theoretically itself solving issue of the housing market (the death of the babyboomers), is being artificially held up by the EU and the current government planing laws to force a certain level of Energy efficiency on every building. Levels that are simply impossible on older, cheaper buildings. Dismantling and rebuilding smaller and more expensive houses is the only option for most people here. It is expected that most homeowners will have to pay up to 100k€ to keep up with the demands. The lucky few who got to inherit a house from their parents but don’t have a high class job, will not be able to afford this. Unless the government dramatically increases the states efficiency, drasticly lowers the taxburden for citizens, especially in the middle class (or simply Updates the brackets to modern and more realistic values, which hadn’t been done since the 70s), makes building new houses cheaper and easier, our socially system collapse is imminent and simply unavoidable. Of course almost all countries of the modern world have those problems, but that doesn’t change the fact that Germany is steering towards a cliff and the time to safe us is slowly running out…
@@laujack24 Fair enough, your argument is complementary to mine. It could be argued that cheap energy boostered high productivity. But again my main point is that competiviness was based NOT in low salaries.
They opposed helping the starving during the Irish famine so they have actually improved. It's not the quality of their journalism, it's there psychopathic philosophy
The Economist, ugly-arse neoliberal Bible of shite, is about as reliable for journalistic integrity as the Sun or any other Rupert Murdoch media is for not spreading hatred. Which is such a low bar it's descended into the depths of Hell.
I think one of the factors is also how they're treating immigrants whose exploitation had been a key ingredient in that "cheap labour" their economy was built on. Nobody wants to pay taxes but be denied healthcare and have fascists shouting threats in their face, while also being underpaid for their labour
I live in the UK but as someone from an immigrant background, my reality has hit hard in my 20s. I am not valued as much as I should be. I work extremely hard and get little inclusion and support from the government and institutions at large. I am seen as a burden, yet I have no choice to follow through with whatever I have anyway. Whatever rags to riches dream I had is pretty just not there anymore. Everything I was taught in school, about life, about my ethnic history about discrimination was a just giant lie. I feel degraded and alienated everyday. It makes me cry. But what can we do, not much unfortunately. Not much.
0:00: 📉 Germany was once labeled the sick man of Europe in 1998 due to a technical recession and slow growth, but has since become Europe's superstar economy. 3:14: 🇩🇪 Germany's economic success and competitiveness is threatened by low infrastructure investment, bureaucratic inefficiency, aging population, and high energy costs. 6:33: ! Germany's poor economic performance is a reflection of a global manufacturing recession. 9:49: 🇩🇪 Germany's economy is facing challenges due to the shift from manufacturing to services, but it has advantages like low unemployment and low debt levels. 12:54: 🇩🇪 Germany's economy is facing challenges but is not the sick man of Europe. Recap by Tammy AI
Immigration won't work forever, and hardly works now. It's also bad mostly for poor and working class people who have to compete for higher costs of housing and increasingly fewer jobs.
5:35 "While it takes 40 days on average to receive an operating license in Italy, it takes a whopping 120 days in Germany. " I have registered two business in the last year in the UK, and both times my company was registered and allowed to operate on the *same day* as I applied. I know you love to rag on the UK, but this would have made an even stronger comparison than the Italy one!
Whether considered the "sick man of Europe" or not, Germany's ability to prosper over the past two decades has been underpinned by two core principles that no longer hold true: access to inexpensive gas from Russia and a dominant presence in the lucrative Chinese car market. One could argue that the supply of cheap gas from Russia might be restored once Putin eventually departs from power, leading to potential improvements in relations with the West. However, the Chinese car market, once a significant source of prosperity, has now vanished indefinitely. EVs have taken over, with 35% of the Chinese car market currently composed of EVs, projected to exceed 75% by the end of 2026. German automotive brands are struggling to compete in China's EV market, as Chinese companies have established a comprehensive and vertically integrated supply chain, mirroring the position that German automakers once held in the combustion engine car industry. For instance, BYD has now risen to become the number one car manufacturer in China and is on track to claim the title of the world's leading carmaker. Volkswagen (VW) will likely never again achieve the 3.3 million car sales in China that they once did. The significant concern lies in the looming question of what will transpire when China begins to dominate the export of cars to global markets. This trend is already evident, especially in the global south. How can Germany, or any other nation, realistically compete in such a scenario? A quarter of Germany's GDP relies on car manufacturing and its associated industries, making it imperative to address these challenges and uncertainties in the automotive sector.
"We don't have to fix our problems, because we'll bring in immigrants to do it for us! And they'll all learn German too, because that's so easy!" How many thousands of times over how many decades have governments made that argument? How often has it actually worked?
America was built on immigration. So does Canada. And the United Kingdom. And Malaysia. And Singapore. And so on. Maybe you're not as knowledgeable as you think you are.
@@adrianliung8374 great thing about English countries is that many countries learn English as a second language so immigrants who speak English are not hard to find. German? Not so easy now.
The Bundestag just lowered the budget for digitalisation from over 300 million EUR to just under 4 million EUR. Unless I'm missing something, I don't have much hope for this country ==.
Yes, what you are missing is that the 300m € is not “the” digitization budget. It was one set of money for grants that was left over from previous years which has been reclaimed. Federally, there are multiple different digitization budgets, but most of the digitization burden is a tually the responsibility of individual states, not the federal government, and they all also have their own separate budgets for this. The budget the federal government slashed was money that would be given to states to help them work faster. It shouldn’t have been slashed, but it’s also not such a gigantic deal as the media made it look like.
The comment on the population growth due to migration as a mitigating factor is disingenuous because most of the migration that Germany experienced was NOT from highly skilled workers, but from unqualified middle eastern and african men, of which roughly 80% still live on subsidies after 5 years of arrival. This is not a boost to the economy, is a major drag, in addition to the massive escalation of crime, burden on public services like healthcare and education and strain on resources overall.
Over half of all syrian refugees has found work DESPITE the german bureaucracy hindering them. And if you didnt notice, sadly, unskilled labour with low wages was one of our economic strenghts after 2004.
@@karthago1469 Stop being disingenuous. Statistics in Germany are always "beautified" in some way. The "work" most syrian refugees found are so-called "minijobs" which hover at around 520€ per month; this is usually received on top of social benefits (albeit at roughly 184€, the rest goes to the state by default as the technically "unemployed" don't get to keep the full amount) that unemployed refugees get anyway. But, since the refugees are "working", they're no longer considered unemployed, and thus removed from the statistics. The vast majority are still leeching off the system they (illegally) migrated into, while earning a small, but pretty penny on top of that.
@@karthago1469 Not true, for several reasons, for example, the large numbers that move into "disability", but, for the sake of argument, lets say it is, Germany has been plagued with labor shortages for years, 50% unemployed vs 5,7% (total, which means that if we exclude that group, the figure would be much lower) isn't a gain for the nation. It means that many tax payers have to work to support those 50% unemployed. It is a massive burden on the citizens, it was one of the biggest (and many) terrible mistakes of the worst German leader of this millennia - Mrs. Angela Merkel
We lost 2 World wars, had a reunification and were one of the only countries in the 2008 crisis, who didnt struggle that much. So i think we can also mange this hard times.
The unions agreed to get paid less and Germany still has a 42% tax rate. Sounds like mismanagement. Plus, the cost of energy going super high means the profit margins will shrink and put business out of business. Charging more for cars to sell to cover cost to a world in recession sounds bad. good luck.
@@karthago1469 That's just income tax though. Adding in both employer and employee side social security and indeed close to 40% of each worker's income is taxed. This leaves little disposable income the average German can use for consumption which is also further taxed heavily by VAT (buying food, paying rent, buying new clothes, a laptop upgrade, etc). This is according to the OECD.
Great video but classifying Germany's energy supply as "fairly green" at the time is a major stretch. The over 80% reliance on coal, oil and natural gas imports is not something I would call "fairly green".
