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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

#101

Post by mtempm »

tallanvor wrote: post #88
imesh wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is being able to catch, clean, and cook a wild animal really a valuable skill for most people in the western world? If you enjoy it, fine, but for most of us, the skills that earn us money are going to be much more valuable.

Not everything is about money. Hunting is a character-building expetience. I.E. I was taught to do it with certain respects paid to safety, the animal, and nature--so it teaches responsibility, respect, and other valuable qualities. It is also fun, stress-reducing, and especially if you like meat, very satisfying. Plus, you get good quality (free range, wild caught, organic I suppose) food.

Finally, if we experience some type of catastrophoc event: total war, nuclear winter, natural disaster, I will still be eating.

Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs

#102

Post by easilyBored »

Arnt wrote: post #89
a_bonobo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assure you 99.99999% of Germans don't know how to clean and cook a rabbit.

You're saying that there are only 8 Germans alive who can do it. Between 90 and 99% sounds more reasonable.

You're saying that there are only 8 Germans alive who can do it.

and 6 of them have a 99.9% chance of dying within 10 years, given that they are 82+ years old. :)

On a serious note: A lot of immigrants make a lot of money (relatively speaking) right away since they are jack of all trades and are willing /have to learn. Things that a locksmith would charge you $150 and a plumber $200 and an electrician $xxx an immigrant can do all within an afternoon, all for living rent free as superintendent. Probably some rules and codes are bent but who's watching...

Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs

#103

Post by mjburgess »

joelthelion wrote: post #86

> 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. How can you write stuff like that and stay serious?

It's the strange writing style of self-righteous ideologues who have to cram something irrelevant about their ideology in everything they write.

I once read a book on mental heath by a professional academic who threw in something about how some irrelevant conclusion in the mental health field showed government was inherently wrong.

Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs

#105

Post by dozzie »

easilyBored wrote: post #102
Arnt wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're saying that there are only 8 Germans alive who can do it. Between 90 and 99% sounds more reasonable.

You're saying that there are only 8 Germans alive who can do it. and 6 of them have a 99.9% chance of dying within 10 years, given that they are 82+ years old. :) On a serious note: A lot of immigrants make a lot of money (relatively speaking) right away since they are jack of all trades and are willing /have to learn. Things that a locksmith would charge you $150 and a plumber $200 and an electrician $xxx an immigra…

The owner, who is German himself.

Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs

#106

Post by easilyBored »

jowiar wrote: post #51
easilyBored wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that the US has a problem with too little accumulation of intergenerational wealth is patent nonsense. This is different from parent leaving you stock and bonds. Father dies, leaves company that makes engines to son and $50 million in cash because he has invested most in his company. IRS+State: son, you owe us half+ of what your father left you, or $1.1 Billion. If he borrows half of company's worth that's n…

The problem with your proposal is that if you slash the inheritance tax, you don't need a trust to pass the wealth down across generations. The whole point of a trust is to avoid multiple halvings. By lowering the inheritance tax to 10%, the money makes it several generations down before even getting halved once.

Or within two-three generations they might lose it all, or one of them pulls a Bill Gates and leave most to charity.

Personally I think that you earned your money, paid taxes on it and your kids shouldn't be being more than half (at least on paper, before scores of lawyers and accountants devise shelters.)

Your own kids are different, now as you go down the family free... Soon enough or maybe even now, the Kennedys, can marry each other in the church and without any genetic penalty. So Joe's money could be funding both sides of the family...

Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs

#107

Post by Gravityloss »

sumedh wrote: post #28

I 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…

Probably why there aren't much German software companies to write home about. Current software tradition is nothing but broken faucets.

Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs

#108

Post by [deleted] »

sumedh wrote: post #28

I 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…

[deleted]

Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs

#109

Post by easilyBored »

pgeorgi wrote: post #65
therealdrag0 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't really understand that point? Is the claim that if there was no inheritance tax, a family would accumulate enough money to start a mid-sized business? Or is the ownership of a business taxed upon death?

An inheritance can include a company, if privately held. That company has a value, and that's taxed through inheritance tax. The problem is that a company of value $x rarely has liquid assets of $x*$taxrate, so inheriting a company can mean personal ruin. On the _other_ hand, not accounting for companies in inheritance tax means that every family ever will shift all its possessions into a company. Roughly speaking, G…

On the _other_ hand, not accounting for companies in inheritance tax means that every family ever will shift all its possessions into a company.

No taxes if a company has an employee that makes at least x00% of minimum wage for every, say $500K of worth. So your parents leave you a company that has a $20mm value and you have 40 employees that average $35,000 a year, you pay no inheritance taxes. Of course you need you'd to set a reasonable timeable to discourage cheating, otherwise they'd sell /fire 50% as soon as the x year timeline expires.

Re: Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs

#110

Post by bostand »

Gravityloss wrote: post #107
sumedh wrote: post #28

I 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…

Probably why there aren't much German software companies to write home about. Current software tradition is nothing but broken faucets .

But the few ones that still exist are producing highest quality software.

Your car and the airplane you boarded last week probably both run German code.

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