The anecdotal evidence the author supplies: economic growth is slow, trains are late, IT investment as a % of GDP is half that of US and France, business license takes 120 days to acquire. Nowhere does it seem to talk about living standards of the population. As if the economy is its own end and the population is just an epiphenomenon.
Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
11–20 of 200 posts
Re: Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
#12How many outside professionals know German language. No wonder many won't prefer Germany.
The public services and service industry is particularly brutal to non German speakers. The unfriendliness is astounding if you don't speak german
Not my experience in Munich, but French are quite 'rude' too compared to southern Europeans and Anglos, so I would understand why people would think so.
Re: Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
#13> Added to this are worsening geopolitics, the difficulty of eliminating carbon emissions and the travails of an ageing population. Worsening geopolitics and an ageing population are more immideate problem compared to the inability to eliminate (not reduce) carbon emissions. Or am I missing something? Can someone explain to me why ”eliminating carbon emissions” was sandwiched between the other two issues?
I suspect because of the also mentioned "own goal" of eliminating nuclear power despite not having green alternatives.
Re: Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
#14When a newspaper article is headlined with a question the answer is always no
[flagged]
Re: Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
#15The anecdotal evidence the author supplies: economic growth is slow, trains are late, IT investment as a % of GDP is half that of US and France, business license takes 120 days to acquire. Nowhere does it seem to talk about living standards of the population. As if the economy is its own end and the population is just an epiphenomenon.
That’s what economists do, look at numbers outside the big context that is earth
Re: Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
#16This article is not saying anything at all. It's just a bunch of vague, loosely related complaints thrown together, as if the author built their thesis from reading reddit comments about Germany, but never stepped foot there. It's a real Gish gallop.
Re: Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
#17How many outside professionals know German language. No wonder many won't prefer Germany.
The primary issue of language is that, the large movers and shakers strictly enforce the language in upper level and so it flows down and below.
For the smaller shops who opens their doors to speaking common language(English), the quality of pay is sub-par compared to COL, so there is nothing attractive for talents to be there.
Re: Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
#18We should be thankful that Betteridge's law of headlines applies here because Germans have a historical trend of coming up with internationally unpopular policies when they feel like they're in an economic downturn.
Re: Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
#19> Germany has liberalised its immigration rules, but the visa process is still glacial and the system favours refugees over professionals who might want to settle in the country. A big issue for professionals to move is they have to learn German.
I’d argue you can get by with English in any bigger city and most higher ed jobs.
Re: Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?
#20> Germany has liberalised its immigration rules, but the visa process is still glacial and the system favours refugees over professionals who might want to settle in the country. A big issue for professionals to move is they have to learn German.
Not really. It's possible to earn a living as an English speaker.
The biggest issues are housing and the horrendously slow immigration office. Bureaucracy in general is so slow that some people give up and leave. Employers can't wait 4 months for employees to get the permission to start working. Employees get tired of waiting for weeks for every little piece of paper. It's infuriating.