All over the place, I hear people saying Germany is so much better off than most other European countries. Is that really so? As far as federal debts are concerned, we are certainly no better than other countries. Are we, perhaps, living in the past? Objectively spoken, I really believe we are better off than most of our European partners. Why is that so? Here are some possible reasons. I find them all absolutely ”morally acceptable“:
- A good educational system, both at school and university, but also in
professional training.● - An educational system that allows you to jump on the wagon at any time.
● - Healthy family and social structures.
● - A society without extreme poverty and extreme wealth with a broad middle-class.
● - Strong medium-sized enterprises and
● - A high added value percentage gained by medium-sized enterprises.
● - Modern production facilities that can stand up to international standards.
● - A good public infra-structure provided by railway, energy, postal and telecommunication services.
● - A strong banking system and a currency that is controlled with responsibility.
● - An engineering culture that is traditionally strong.
● - Strong people that were shaped during the 1950ies and 1960ies.
● - A minimum of corruption.
● - A high degree of industrial added value.
● - A well-balanced public fiscal policy.
● - A temperate climate.
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● Still true.
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It must be our goal to make these and similar success parameters strong again. Among others, politicians should feel it is their job. There could, however, be other reasons for our privileged situation, reasons that I cannot say I feel comfortable with:
- Exploitation of the Third World (raw materials).
- Making profits out of the global income structures (even in the near-shore regions, like Romania, a labourer only gets a few 100 Euros per month – in offshore regions, the cost of labour can be practically ignored in the production process).
- Destruction of the source: environment.
- The Euro, which made it very easy for us to sell our products.
Sooner or later, however, these factors will no longer work.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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