How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy • Hacker News Board

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#191

Post by olivermarks » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 6:42 PM UTC

magduf wrote: post #181

yzmtf2008 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If one pollutes water with oil, the oil is also polluted with water, and neither are good for anything as both have had their valuable characteristics compromised. > the Native French have been essentially eradicated How are they misrepresenting when they are actual, literal quotes? The posts are viewable by the way, no one is being suppressed here. > Hacker News is usually great for reasoned argument and debate. N…

>Not for the kind of racist xenophobic "ideas" that the world has long moved on from. This is factually incorrect. The election of Trump in the US and the rise of far-right political parties in the EU disproves this notion. If anything, xenophobia is on the rise in western nations. The world has most definitely not "moved on".

Thank you. This point may have been missing in my other comments but I agree, and would argue it is largely because of globalization

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#192

Post by Tomte » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 6:43 PM UTC

geff82 wrote: post #43

durnygbur wrote: post #34

The most un-understandable thing is that none of this export wealth reaches an individual, especially a guest worker, a foreigner. It's quite shocking to discover by a foreigner specialist lured to the country by the multitude of positive economic news. Cost-cutting and exorbitant charges and contributions everywhere. The entire export wealth is captured by the oligarch families and the highest level executive caste.

Someone with a regular job can not afford a house close to a major city any more and for sure can not afford any desirable German car. People dress cheaply, buy used cars and many live in frugal appartments, buy in stores that many American or Canadians would consider third world (never ever go buy stuff in an Aldi when you are used to Canadian standards...).

Aldi has steadily improved its look. It looks quite different today. It's still got a hard-discount reputation, but it's by no means stigmatizing to go shopping there. Many well-off or even rich people shop there.

But thank god it still kept the good barcode scanner. I've just been to another (higher-end) store, Edeka, and the cashier tried to scan the potatoes twice over the band, then again with the handheld scanner, then typed the EAN in, all without success. Then she typed in the price directly, which she got from a crumpled-up note in her pocket. The same again with another article.

Aldi cashiers never have to scan twice, it always works. Because Aldi actually cares about speed and reliability of scanning, their barcodes are large, black on white, not small black-ish on transparent (and whatever color the article has inside the wrapping).

(I still rarely go to Aldi, although I realize I'm sounding like a fan right now)

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#193

Post by moooo99 » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 6:49 PM UTC

kensai wrote: post #167

mambojumbo wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

German products arent as high quality ad they used to be and most if them are pretty stale in terms of innovation. Sure they change the shape of cars and add new leds and interior eye candy but that is not progress. Imo german cars are low quality and lack diversity, and same goes for most machinery made in that country. US, Japanese, South Korean or other EU made products can be of similar or higher quality. Germany…

No pun intended, dude, but I think you speak mambo jumbo... :D "German products arent as high quality ad they used to be and most if them are pretty stale in terms of innovation." Germany just surpassed again South Korea as the most innovative country. News are just three days old. Where do you base your own assessment? Did your BMW break down? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-18/germany-b...

Disclaimer: I'm from Germany and work in the automotive industry

I think he is partially right, at least when you define innovation as being mainly of digital nature. There have been lots of improvements on the mechanical side, cars have become a lot more efficient, and quieter (or louder if you prefer). But when it comes to making the cars smarter or even electric, there hasn't been a whole lot of innovation. Since connect everything is the major trend right now, people often consider innovation as being mainly digital. While digital technologies are a major infuence nowadays, the mechanical side should not be forgotten.

But the German automakers seem to really struggle with software becoming a major influence in peoples car-buying decision. BMW started with its "Conntected Drive" services, but since then, they haven't made a whole lot of progress, just a lot of completely unrealistic concept cars. The same is for Mercedes, they started their MBUX project a few years ago and at first, it really looked promising. Now, when I'm sitting in my friends MBUX Mercedes, its just a infotainment system as stupid as any other one. Volkswagen made big promises with its upcoming VW I.D platform and IMHO, this is the biggest single step a German automaker took since I'm alive.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#194

Post by skrebbel » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 6:52 PM UTC

olivermarks wrote: post #145

Luc wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are misrepresenting the original (now unviewable) post. That is disgraceful Uhm, those are literal quotes from the text. They're not even dog whistles, they're full on air raid sirens. Anyway, I'm done with this thread, have a nice day.

Again, you are misrepresenting. I am a strong believer in free speech. I don't know if it was you that flagged the post but I would much prefer to see a counter argument and rebuttal from you. Instead we get a casual and patronizing comment. Hacker News is usually great for reasoned argument and debate. It's sad to see this sort of glib fly by behaviour

You can enable "showdead" in your hn settings if you want to keep being able to read stuff that gets flagged away.

Note that I'm only sharing this to mildly weaken your argument, I fully agree with Luc.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#195

Post by cosmodisk » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

lispm wrote: post #152

What is often overlooked is this: Germany was export-oriented before the Euro, during the transition and with the Euro. Germany was export-oriented before reunification, during reunification and after reunification. The industry will adopt to those external factors: Germany was 'Exportweltmeister' with the super strong DM (which dominated European currencies) and it is a leading export nation with the Euro. There are…

Was half way through your post when I was about to write my comment about hidden champions,glad you mentioned it. This is something that tends to be overlooked quite often. Very very few countries have a model like this.Take the UK, as an example.An average town or even small city rarely has anything that isn't just for local market. For a lot of companies it's kind of fine,as the market is big enough to earn comfy living for the owners, but that's it. The default in most countries is something like: " ok,I'll sell this in local area and maybe,just maybe,if I become super big,then we'll start exporting". It's shame really. I see this mentality in my own country, Lithuania,where an average purchasing power is relatively low and the market is super small(1/5 of London population) ,yet the default option is to start locally. Luckily the IT sector is different,where most businesses default to foreign markets.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#196

Post by narag » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

allendoerfer wrote: post #125

pvaldes wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If by productive means lying about car emissions to cheat authorities, yeah, Wolkswagen and Audi and whatever are really efficient cars made by really productive german workers. Maybe we could move this conversation to adult zone and non-cartoonist levels beyond "spanish cheap drunk workers living in the beach" and "german saint teetotalers workers"? Thinking that a spanish engineer is less educated than a german eng…

Productivity can be measured for example by GDP per hours worked, and Germany's productivy is very clearly above Spain's. These are facts, which do not demean Spanish engineers, so no need to be defensive here. You are just taking one incident and using it to brush over economic facts.

Economic facts that don't mean what you think they mean.

Lack of productivity has nothing to do with individual performance, but with automation, industrial capital, organization and regulation.

Spain suffers from an antiquated labour regulation, including perverse incentives. As an example, many companies refrain from growing over certain size because it triggers a nightmare of regulation and expenses.

Also there are other barriers... I could write about that for hours, but it's sad and I'm tired.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#197

Post by olivermarks » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 7:02 PM UTC

skrebbel wrote: post #194

olivermarks wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Again, you are misrepresenting. I am a strong believer in free speech. I don't know if it was you that flagged the post but I would much prefer to see a counter argument and rebuttal from you. Instead we get a casual and patronizing comment. Hacker News is usually great for reasoned argument and debate. It's sad to see this sort of glib fly by behaviour

You can enable "showdead" in your hn settings if you want to keep being able to read stuff that gets flagged away. Note that I'm only sharing this to mildly weaken your argument, I fully agree with Luc.

thanks

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#198

Post by cycrutchfield » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 7:05 PM UTC

olivermarks wrote: post #105

vangelis wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So who exactly is responsible for this loss of national character? Is it a particular ethnicity or religion?

I would argue globalization

Don’t hide behind the G word. You’ve already alluded to it in your other posts. Come on out and say it if you truly believe in speaking freely. We want to see the ugliness in full view.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#199

Post by nostromo » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 7:07 PM UTC

lispm wrote: post #152

What is often overlooked is this: Germany was export-oriented before the Euro, during the transition and with the Euro. Germany was export-oriented before reunification, during reunification and after reunification. The industry will adopt to those external factors: Germany was 'Exportweltmeister' with the super strong DM (which dominated European currencies) and it is a leading export nation with the Euro. There are…

I'm reminded of Trader Joe's -- a chain most people think of as a California-based chain of health food stores -- but has actually been owned by a media-shy German family for 40+ years.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#200

Post by glofish » Tue, Jan 21, 2020, 7:14 PM UTC

magduf wrote: post #166

TillE wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, I like I lot of things about Germany, but the supermarkets here are a joke. There's more product variety in a single Whole Foods in America than there is in the entire combined inventory of all German supermarkets. Most processed foods (ready meals, frozen pizzas, etc) are also extremely low quality.

>Look, I like I lot of things about Germany, but the supermarkets here are a joke. There's more product variety in a single Whole Foods in America than there is in the entire combined inventory of all German supermarkets. You've got to be kidding. German supermarkets are just small, because they don't have the cheap real-estate that suburban stores in the USA have, but the food is far higher-quality than in mainstrea…

The Aldi in the Americas (midwest) are not even remotely similar in quality to the Aldi's of Europe.

Walmart supercenters have much higher quality - every larger town has mainstream and cheap grocers substantially better than Aldi in every respect.

To me, Aldi for food is like Goodwill for clothes. I understand that some people hit hard times and have no other options, but my perception is that if you shop there it probably means that you are in serious financial trouble.