11–20 of 149 posts
I was surprised the article didn't mention the euro, specifically how Germany gets to denominate its goods in a cheap currency that doesn't fully reflect its strong fiscal policies.
I am surprised by this assertion. Allegedly family-managed firms can make long term decisions, but those observations are always subject to survivorship bias. At best I would think this issue marginal. (There's also a bias in the statement, as inheritance tax in the US is quite low and kicks in at a pretty high level).
I would think if anything the ability to inherit reduces the likihood of outside ideas.
(And anyway, in a republic, inheritance is abhorrent. We don't need another aristocracy.)
Because German engineering is world-renowned. This much has been known for a good long while. You can take a German bearing of 'low quality' vs. a Chinese bearing of 'high quality' and easily tell that the German bearing is far superior. It only makes sense such engineering capability would result in a lot of manufacturing work in the middle-class range.
I'd like to think it's because WW2 changed us, for the better. We just want to build great things now and help everyone and not only ourselves. We respect others, independent of race or nationality, and it think we're much less superficial than some other countries are. But that holds true for most European countries so IDK, maybe I'm simplifying it too much right now. It just feels that way to me.
You could make the argument that the Mittelstand has profited from Germany's controlling stake and dominance in the EU. One of the big arguments for non German businesses seeking to leave the EU have been perceptions of unfair EU bureaucratic advantage to German businesses at the expense of other member states. Having said that they have a very good national business model and an excellent culture around vocational t…
In other words, trade barriers strengthened the middle class.
> The high taxes on assets in France and the inheritance tax in the U.S. prevent the accumulation of capital necessary for the formation of a strong mid-sized sector. I am surprised by this assertion. Allegedly family-managed firms can make long term decisions, but those observations are always subject to survivorship bias. At best I would think this issue marginal. (There's also a bias in the statement, as inheritan…
Because German engineering is world-renowned. This much has been known for a good long while. You can take a German bearing of 'low quality' vs. a Chinese bearing of 'high quality' and easily tell that the German bearing is far superior. It only makes sense such engineering capability would result in a lot of manufacturing work in the middle-class range.
> The high taxes on assets in France and the inheritance tax in the U.S. prevent the accumulation of capital necessary for the formation of a strong mid-sized sector. I am surprised by this assertion. Allegedly family-managed firms can make long term decisions, but those observations are always subject to survivorship bias. At best I would think this issue marginal. (There's also a bias in the statement, as inheritan…