An inability to operate government even under single-party conditions strengthens my argument.
Its not “single party conditions” if another party holds enough seats to block critical legislation.
Feel free to post a source for your claims that the party with 5+ decades of majority control is excused from its failures to alleviate the problems of its most desperate citizens because of spoiler votes.
In any case, the fact that that situation is even possible is support enough for folks to move to lower density areas.
It happened because German car makers were not willing to commit to electric cars.
Plus there is no infrastructure to actually charge them. Plus our electric grids do not support millions of electric vehicles. Plus, you may realize that in Germany we emit a sh*t-ton of carbon dioxide for generating electricity that ball-park wise you may only save about 25% compared to a regular car (e.g., 25% charging losses, 400 g/kWh carbon dioxide intensity in Germany,…)
The funny thing is: even if we had the infrastructure, right now it costs ~0.50€/kwh to charge on public chargers. Apposed to ~0.30€/kwh which I pay at home. Unfortunately I don't own a home and can't have my own charger. This + that I don't want to sit at a charger for 45m once a week is, for me personally, the strongest argument against buying an electric car right now. And I don't see that changing or plans to change that.
China is outcompeting Germany as a manufacturer of high value goods, particularly cars [1][2]. Last year it overtook Germany as the second biggest car exporter. In the first three months of this year, China has surpassed Japan to become the world's top car exporter for the first time. This is due to its strength in EVs (while Germany's strength is in ICEs). Volkswagen holds a 2% share of the Chinese EV market while t…
Adding insult to injury, Germany (and other European carmakers) voluntarily withdrew from Russian market, writing down local assets. Then Chinese companies entered the country, negotiated very cheap reusing of abandoned factories (the main condition AFAIK was just to keep people employed), and now dominate the Russian market.
And even the new VW cars sold in Russia are now Chinese-built versions imported without VW's consent.
That too. German car makers got lazy with research and development. In addition, they were hesitant to give up their investment in ICE production, risk staff reductions, and corresponding political and strike problems. This lead to most of the knowledge around EVs being developed and patented elsewhere, especially battery knowledge is firmly in Chinese hands. At the same time the grandparent is also right, China wise…
So you would have bet the future of an entire industry in the German governments ability to actually get the electric grid ready for everyone moving to EV?
No, that isn't a relevant risk. German car companies are mostly export-oriented. Of course the home market is mostly theirs, but if Germany were to lag behind on EV viability, foreign sales can still be sufficient to create a viable EV business. It would never have been a hard transition anyways, EV production would have been slowly built up while ICE production were ramped down accordingly, just as sales figures guide.
Or at least several different eurozones. Germany and Italy or Spain are rather different economies to say the least.
Imo that would leave Italy and Spain and their respective union members in the dust competing against the US, China and India. But maybe that's worth it, or maybe the Brexit will turn out great like pg said due to them not having stringent EU-type regulations on things like AI and banking (though if you're a founder leaving the EU i don't see why you'd go to the UK over the US or Canada).
Leave in dust in what sense?
Italy and Spain are heavily based on tourism and snobbery (e.g. high fashion). They ain't competing against US/China/India. And that's OK. But they need different economical policies than, for example, Germany.
China is outcompeting Germany as a manufacturer of high value goods, particularly cars [1][2]. Last year it overtook Germany as the second biggest car exporter. In the first three months of this year, China has surpassed Japan to become the world's top car exporter for the first time. This is due to its strength in EVs (while Germany's strength is in ICEs). Volkswagen holds a 2% share of the Chinese EV market while t…
...and all this happened because German car makes were willing to give COMPLETE KNOW-HOW (on how to make good cars) just to be able to sell in Chinese market... Now China has learned how to make good (enough) cars and - they will out-compete Germans with low prices... Who wants to pay 60.000€ for an electric car in you can get one for 30.000€ from China?
> German car makes were willing to give COMPLETE KNOW-HOW (on how to make good cars) just to be able to sell in Chinese market
Do you have any source where I can read more about this?
So you would have bet the future of an entire industry in the German governments ability to actually get the electric grid ready for everyone moving to EV?
No, that isn't a relevant risk. German car companies are mostly export-oriented. Of course the home market is mostly theirs, but if Germany were to lag behind on EV viability, foreign sales can still be sufficient to create a viable EV business. It would never have been a hard transition anyways, EV production would have been slowly built up while ICE production were ramped down accordingly, just as sales figures gui…
got it. Doesn't make sense to limit supply and also subsidize a product a the same time. Wouldn't that automatically increase prices? How does high prices help the people govt is trying to help. All this makes no sense to me. why are they doing this.
Mortgages are subsidized by the federal government. Housing supply is limited by state and local governments. Those are separate entities which often work in conflict with each other.
Doesn't matter who is limiting the supply though? Subsidizing something with artifically limited supply will automatically raise the prices and hurt ppl who they are intending to help. What am i missing here?
China is outcompeting Germany as a manufacturer of high value goods, particularly cars [1][2]. Last year it overtook Germany as the second biggest car exporter. In the first three months of this year, China has surpassed Japan to become the world's top car exporter for the first time. This is due to its strength in EVs (while Germany's strength is in ICEs). Volkswagen holds a 2% share of the Chinese EV market while t…
Adding insult to injury, Germany (and other European carmakers) voluntarily withdrew from Russian market, writing down local assets. Then Chinese companies entered the country, negotiated very cheap reusing of abandoned factories (the main condition AFAIK was just to keep people employed), and now dominate the Russian market. And even the new VW cars sold in Russia are now Chinese-built versions imported without VW's…
Meh. At this point China will dominate most things in the Russian market. They're gutting their economy and exacerbating a demographic crisis via heavy losses and huge departures. Outside of nukes they will otherwise be China's pet for the next few decades.
The balance on an existing loan doesn’t increase with inflation, though.
Yes, but the interest payments on mortgages with variable rates had doubled. Now some people basically are paying interest only without paying off their principal amount.
Most folks aren't on variable rates.
If you're on a fixed 15-year or 30-year then inflation is generally working in your favor.
Salaries not going up is not directly related to mortgages, and while I can't speak to all jobs, has been pretty good in the STEM field.