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

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

#311

Post by DraftDodger67 »

biztos wrote: post #236
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…

Some members of my extended family own a company (actually a small family of companies) in that category, and of course it's in Swabia. They are market leaders in some very high-margin things most people never think about, and interestingly they sell a lot in Asia, where one might expect them to be more vulnerable to competition. German Quality is a huge brand worldwide. I also have a friend in Berlin who's sort of i…

Therein lies the problem - the current fertility rate for German mothers is only 1.42. How long until there are no more Germans left to run these companies?

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

#312

Post by neilwilson »

Germany isn't Germany any more. It is a component of the Eurozone - which is a unified currency area - like the USA, or the UK.

What Germany does is 'vendor finance' other parts of the Eurozone. The Greek government buys German battleships and the savings the Germans are famous for buy the paper the Greek government issues to close the circle. Then they blame Greece for going into debt once the ponzi scheme reaches its limit.

You get the same effect with London to the wider South East of England, arguably England to Scotland and no doubt several areas in the USA where outside of the area, but within the currency zone, is encouraged to borrow to buy the output of the area.

China's mercantile currency lock does much the same thing.

The eternal problem is that exporting is giving away the output of your people in return for a shiny bauble. If you don't then exchange that shiny bauble for the output of some other people, what was the point of doing all that work in the first place?

You may as well have used your productivity to have Friday off instead and gone fishing.

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

#313

Post by ethnologica »

nick_meister wrote: post #302
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, expats are lured here thinking Germany is the Promised Land but realize too late that they can't afford to buy a family worthy home on your average white collar wage and due to how German corporate politics work, most of the non-natives are locked out of the lucrative careers even when speaking the language. Like someone said, Germany is a rich country of poor people.

Interesting. I live in a "third world" country (Argentina, one of the worst-performing economies in the world) and just had an interview with a German company (a large SaaS in Berlin) offering relocation to me and my family. Not sure what to do, I have a shit boring remote email marketing job for a US company. But with my small US salary, I live quite well here (own a big house w/ 1000 sqrt. m. garden in a nice small…

From someone living and working in Germany - when enumerating your quality of life, you are living a good life! This is nothing you could get in Germany.

You would exchange living in a sunny country, where you own a house and your kids are able to go to a private school with cold and rainy weather (besides summer but summer is short), renting a much smaller apartment compared to your house and a shitty public educational system (because you probably couldn't afford a private school here) in which your kids would experience low educational standards.

Appearances are deceptive. Think twice.

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

#314

Post by pgeorgi »

bdauvergne wrote: post #229
pgeorgi wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> high-carbon electricity https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Energ... Renewables up 6% in two years, more than compensating for the shut down nuclear power sources. Fossils are shifting to natural gas which (so I've heard) is supposed to be the least bad of them (and fossils' grand total is also going down). It's not all roses, given our inept politicians, but it's far from horrible.

Compared to France low carbon electricity, the numbers are not good. Germany will never reach french level without nuclear energy.

Right now the numbers disagree with your assertion about future development: energy creation is shifting away from _both_ fossil sources and nuclear.

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

#315

Post by lispm »

DraftDodger67 wrote: post #311
biztos wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some members of my extended family own a company (actually a small family of companies) in that category, and of course it's in Swabia. They are market leaders in some very high-margin things most people never think about, and interestingly they sell a lot in Asia, where one might expect them to be more vulnerable to competition. German Quality is a huge brand worldwide. I also have a friend in Berlin who's sort of i…

Therein lies the problem - the current fertility rate for German mothers is only 1.42. How long until there are no more Germans left to run these companies?

Fertility rate in Germany is currently at 1.57.

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

#316

Post by lispm »

elfexec wrote: post #279
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…

> 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. Germany was export-oriented even before WW2. It's funny whenever you read about "How germany or japan became industrial powers after ww2". With many crediting the US or whatever aligns with their agenda. The truth is that both germany a…

> doesn't mean it isn't centralized

Not really. If you look at successful companies, they are all over the country - though not much yet in the former East Germany, for historical reasons.

> because german federal government and the state decided to make germany export-oriented manufacturing power

Germany has been manufacturing/trade oriented for centuries. The 'federal government' does not decide these things on their own just now. Germany does not work like that - there is no 'federal government' which decides the economic policy in a centralized manner, WITHOUT involvement of the Bundesländer and/or the companies/employees/... > finance oriented and service oriented

Germany is also finance and service oriented, just to a slightly different degree and with slightly different domains. Even the manufacturing companies are often extremely service oriented. Selling not just products, but a lot of services around these products.

> While in the UK, they decided to become finance oriented and service oriented and shifted their manufacturing overseas.

Good luck with that.

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

#317

Post by pjc50 »

vixen99 wrote: post #46
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly likely, the quest for a rational justification for brexit will continue.

Quest over! If you're actually interested in understanding the reasons for Brexit and you should before making such comments, try this https://briefingsforbrexit.com . Not recommended for those with a short attention span. "Briefings for Brexit is a small group of volunteers, mainly academics, who set up the website in 2017 in order to provide reasoned factual material to help to inform the national debate on Brexit.…

> entirely funded by well-wishers.

I wouldn't describe Aaron Banks and whatever group of people are named in the "Russia Report" as well-wishers.

https://www.theweek.co.uk/105289/what-is-in-the-russia-repor...

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

#318

Post by biztos »

saturnV wrote: post #254
biztos wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm American and I find Lidl to be absolutely ghetto; Aldi only marginally less so; but neither of them as scary as Netto! A lot of my friends shop at these places, because they're really cheap, and if you don't actually care who gets your money (or you can't afford to care) it's sorta like why not? In their favor I will say that there is less choice of products than in, say, a Spar or Rewe (mid-market grocery chains…

I feel that where all Aldi’s are relatively comparable, for Edeka it seems to depend a lot on the shop. Where I live there are two Edekas within a 3min drive, one is a bit more fancy than the average Aldi, however the other one has 50 different types of quinoa and people that make you sushi on demand. It is a totally different shopping experience.

I recall that my local Edeka, before Edeka got so big, gave a lot of room to the local managers, who were ex-rocker types who were really good at employing local young dudes who probably weren't all that employable elsewhere (and who did a fine job as it turned out).

Enough that I kind of assumed it was a franchise rather than just a chain, until they started buying up all the Kaisers.

So maybe that's part of their strategy, to give the managers more responsibility to differentiate their stores instead of making them all the same?

If so I wonder how they incentivize that.

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

#319

Post by kiney »

nick_meister wrote: post #302
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, expats are lured here thinking Germany is the Promised Land but realize too late that they can't afford to buy a family worthy home on your average white collar wage and due to how German corporate politics work, most of the non-natives are locked out of the lucrative careers even when speaking the language. Like someone said, Germany is a rich country of poor people.

Interesting. I live in a "third world" country (Argentina, one of the worst-performing economies in the world) and just had an interview with a German company (a large SaaS in Berlin) offering relocation to me and my family. Not sure what to do, I have a shit boring remote email marketing job for a US company. But with my small US salary, I live quite well here (own a big house w/ 1000 sqrt. m. garden in a nice small…

I'm german. In 2004/05 I was in argentina a whole year as an exchange studen. Last year I visited my guest family again. Let me tell you that argentinians are very good in talking argentina way worse than it is. I also travel quite a bit, argentina is _far_ from being third world. In Berlin you will only be able to afford a smallish rented flat with a typical IT salary... used cars in good condition on the other hand are quite cheap - but won't be of any use in berlin traffic. As an argentinian you probably won't like the weather here. There definitely are upsides and downsides to both countries.

Feel free to ask me anything.

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

#320

Post by playing_colours »

nick_meister wrote: post #302
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, expats are lured here thinking Germany is the Promised Land but realize too late that they can't afford to buy a family worthy home on your average white collar wage and due to how German corporate politics work, most of the non-natives are locked out of the lucrative careers even when speaking the language. Like someone said, Germany is a rich country of poor people.

Interesting. I live in a "third world" country (Argentina, one of the worst-performing economies in the world) and just had an interview with a German company (a large SaaS in Berlin) offering relocation to me and my family. Not sure what to do, I have a shit boring remote email marketing job for a US company. But with my small US salary, I live quite well here (own a big house w/ 1000 sqrt. m. garden in a nice small…

If you are interested, I would be happy to answer your questions and share some information about living in Berlin - rent, taxes, kids, salaries. You can ping me via email dmitry.makesense at gmail
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