It's strange that they credit a holdover from the Holy Roman Empire days as being one of the reasons, but ignore the privatization of East German industry and the massive infrastructure investment after reunification.
Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs
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Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs
#72Maybe the globalized world at any one time can only sustain one Germany with it's hidden champions. But ofcourse it's easier and well paying to travel around the world and tell everyone they can be like Germany too.
The world can sustain more than one because it already does. Switzerland has a very similar structure and is as successful, if not even more successful. It also shows that Germany doesn't just succeed because of a cheap exchange rate, since most products hidden champions produce aren't that price sensitive.
The world could probably sustain even more companies that focus on long term growth and quality instead of quick products. But that's not how you become famous. You become famous by making a quick app used by millions that you can IPO a few years later. So that's what many people in the world try to achieve. Not building a small company over decades that specializes in something which most people don't even know exists.
Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is so German actually. I've been living in Australia the past year (which has a lot of Germans) and twice I helped someone change a flat tyre. Both times a German also came to assist, and both times it was an American who didnt know how to change a flat (there arent that many of them in Aus).
As an American with some German ancestry, I find this to be very embarrassing. (The Swedes in my family can all change a tire as well, including my sister, but the German side is embarrassed.) Americans have become complacent and lazy, with no sense of "know how" or "make do." Hell, kids don't even know how to clean and cook a rabbit, let alone how to catch one with a snare. If the zombie apocalypse ever happened for…
Saying Americans have become complacent and lazy because they don't know how to catch, clean, and cook a rabbit is like saying that Americans have become complacent and lazy because they don't know how to steer a covered wagon across the plains.
Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs
#74I have an interesting anecdote to share, couple of years back I was working in an Indian branch of an MNC. The water from the tap on a wash basin had low pressure and it was frustrating to wash your hands but I guess we never complained because in India you just accept such minor inconvenience. One day the VP from the American HQ came to the Indian office and yes he was German, during the intro meeting he talked abou…
Or put differently: culture is a major driver. The culturally similar Austria and Switzerland, and to a certain extent the Scandinavian countries, have similar strengths.
Sure there are some contributing factors (eurozone monetary policy, labour laws), but thats really the core. I feel like the education system, world class science institutes (Fraunhofer, Max Planck and Helmholtz) and pragmatic vocational training are really just a result of that.
Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs
#75The article asks why there are so many successful mid-size companies in Germany, and it lists reasons such as continuity of leadership, scientific competencies, system of apprenticeships and others. I don't see how this answers the question in the title. How does the school of mathematics of the University of Goettingen help make German factory workers competitive with Chinese ones? Why aren't these companies moving…
"How does the school of mathematics of the University of Goettingen help make German factory workers competitive with Chinese ones?" The search for precision and applied scientific discovery. [0] Enlightenment drives every aspect of German manufacturing. Factory workers are in an environment that makes things driven by these processes. [0] An immediate example that comes to mind is the electric signal activation of t…
Every A4 owner is crying over his repair bills reading this.
Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs
#76It's strange that they credit a holdover from the Holy Roman Empire days as being one of the reasons, but ignore the privatization of East German industry and the massive infrastructure investment after reunification.
This is not a recent phenomena though so those two factors you mentioned can't be considered as reasons.
Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs
#77The apprenticeships are particularly important. Many brilliant friends of mine who failed university or even high school did an apprenticeship instead. Among them are CEOs, R&D managers and founders.
I've often idly wondered if you could do Software Development as an apprenticeship. Use industry tools in your work day, and theoretical computer science at night schools/block courses.
You can do that in Portugal.
Basically the three last years of high-school are mixed with some apprenticeship, both theoretical and practical, with some kind of training at the end, sadly usually not remunerated.
Students can still apply to the university if they want to, they just need to meet the requested scores and do the exams like everyone else.
At the university level you can take the usual 5 year university degree oriented to "learn to learn", or a more skill oriented one just 3 years long.
With Bologna those 5 year degrees became a classical 3 + 2 master, but still kept their "learn to learn" spirit. At least on the good universities, the majority being public ones.
Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've often idly wondered if you could do Software Development as an apprenticeship. Use industry tools in your work day, and theoretical computer science at night schools/block courses.
You could. The majority of software development isn't science it's craftsmanship and often good business skills make more value than something like calculus or linear algebra. Not for people inventing new stuff or pushing boundaries, but for the horde of developers who are copy pasting, google programming and writing classic ASP every day.
I did the Portuguese apprenticeship program back in the late 80's/early 90's, as I wasn't sure to be able to qualify for the university on my first round and wanted to have already some kind of degree, to pay bills until the next attempt.
Those three years of apprentice were great and I learned a lot, but at the university I got to learn how little did I knew, even if those of us coming from informatics apprenticeships knew more than the majority coming from classical high-school programs.
Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
As an American with some German ancestry, I find this to be very embarrassing. (The Swedes in my family can all change a tire as well, including my sister, but the German side is embarrassed.) Americans have become complacent and lazy, with no sense of "know how" or "make do." Hell, kids don't even know how to clean and cook a rabbit, let alone how to catch one with a snare. If the zombie apocalypse ever happened for…
Saying Americans have become complacent and lazy because they don't know how to catch, clean, and cook a rabbit is like saying that Americans have become complacent and lazy because they don't know how to steer a covered wagon across the plains.
Yeah except being able to catch, clean and cook your food is still a valuable skill. However I would say there are more Americans who can do that than Germans... It's hard as hell to get a hunting license in Germany.
Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wage suppression. Seen most obviously by simple comparison to other Eurozone states: http://fortune.com/2014/10/22/why-germany-is-the-eurozones-b... This is not something Germans -- such as apparently the author of OP -- like to talk about.
The main point of the article appears to be that peripheral EU countries did not benefit as much from the internal open market as Germany due to weak ‘civil service’ and oligarchic structures which predated the EU and caused a misappropriation of EU funds intended to improve competitiveness. It then somehow seems to conclude that this was all Germany’s fault instead of being the fault of the people in those periphera…
exactly. This is something i'll never understand how people fail to consider. It seems they think that the wages can be magically high and the economy can go with it 'if we just were willing to want better things'. The fact is if you ask those workers what do they prefer: a good enough pay for a secure job or a Better pay for a job that might move tomorrow to a cheaper country? What will they choose? It seems people of different countries have answered this differently and we see different results.
No, the magic Better pay and still secure job does no exist outside of naive communist Ideas.