21–30 of 131 posts
There has been at least one book about how "Germany/Germans are getting dumber", "The Big Crash is Coming" or something similar on the Spiegel Bestseller list at all times. So far, the big crash didn't come yet. These books don't talk about a market correction or a financial crisis like in 2008, but a total economic crash, because "a finite world can't have unlimited growth", because "capitalism", because "climate ch…
There has been at least one book about how "Germany/Germans are getting dumber", "The Big Crash is Coming" or something similar on the Spiegel Bestseller list at all times. So far, the big crash didn't come yet. These books don't talk about a market correction or a financial crisis like in 2008, but a total economic crash, because "a finite world can't have unlimited growth", because "capitalism", because "climate ch…
There has been at least one book about how "Germany/Germans are getting dumber", "The Big Crash is Coming" or something similar on the Spiegel Bestseller list at all times. So far, the big crash didn't come yet. These books don't talk about a market correction or a financial crisis like in 2008, but a total economic crash, because "a finite world can't have unlimited growth", because "capitalism", because "climate ch…
These books also have in common that they cover topics that everyone has an opinion on, and that you can get really upset and angry over while not being in a position to really do anything about the "issues" they describe. As you say it's about how "something needs to change" but it's never the reader who has to change. > Add some fears about the before-mentioned topics and there's your new book every few months, sam…
I don't really see a clear divide between book publishers and media publisher on this issue. Most news media companies are going for the same content: everything is terrible, the world is constantly very close to ending, and you need to buy this paper to find out how to save yourself today. Bad news is good news after all.
> Michael Winterhoff’s Deutschland Verdummt claims that German children today “have no tolerance for frustration, and they avoid all exertion.” By the time they graduate, half of them still “have the psyche of a small child.” The author of eight previous books on childhood development, Winterhoff’s primary concern is that children today have become “tyrants.” They don’t know proper boundaries; they have not been taug…
He says that the development of children is negatively affected by adults, who lack authority by elevating children to their level. Information technology had further enabled children to fortify this power imbalance.
Maybe he has a point, but as a psychologist for children you probably get a warped image after a while. Job hazard probably.
He recommends adults to take walks in the park for example to get distance and perspective from the horrible stuff younger people post online. That can align with my wishes to ban all politicians from Twitter at least.
But I think it should be pretty controversial to say that younger people form some kind of tyranny while keeping demographics in Germany in mind. Well, easier to take advantage of people that believe you a fool.
Still, younger people are the end of civilization as we know it, as is tradition. I believe there never was a metric or any empirical evidence but it might just be one of these timeless classics people seem to love. Maybe there is a hint of truth in a way that people drawn to these stories do indeed feel overtaxed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"not been taught how to submit" And a bet he wrote that unironically. I remember a documentary on Berlin and Berlinners have a slang term there that basically means "you have been controlled" when one of the many petty bureaucrats, pulls you up over some trivial infraction
You may be mistaking "kontrolliert werden" for "being controlled" when it actually means "being checked". Reminds me of when American friends were SHOCKED by a political poster that quipped "Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser" - they thought it meant "Trust is good, control is better", but it actually means "Trust is good, but checking things is better"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
These books also have in common that they cover topics that everyone has an opinion on, and that you can get really upset and angry over while not being in a position to really do anything about the "issues" they describe. As you say it's about how "something needs to change" but it's never the reader who has to change. > Add some fears about the before-mentioned topics and there's your new book every few months, sam…
> but it's never the reader who has to change. Well to be fair the top book was about how to eat correctly. Isn't that about how the reader has to change?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
These books also have in common that they cover topics that everyone has an opinion on, and that you can get really upset and angry over while not being in a position to really do anything about the "issues" they describe. As you say it's about how "something needs to change" but it's never the reader who has to change. > Add some fears about the before-mentioned topics and there's your new book every few months, sam…
> but it's never the reader who has to change. Well to be fair the top book was about how to eat correctly. Isn't that about how the reader has to change?
> There has been at least one book about how "Germany/Germans are getting dumber", "The Big Crash is Coming" or something similar on the Spiegel Bestseller list at all times.
Not all books on the list are like that but there is indeed at least one of them at any given time. And those particular books never require the reader to change.
There has been at least one book about how "Germany/Germans are getting dumber", "The Big Crash is Coming" or something similar on the Spiegel Bestseller list at all times. So far, the big crash didn't come yet. These books don't talk about a market correction or a financial crisis like in 2008, but a total economic crash, because "a finite world can't have unlimited growth", because "capitalism", because "climate ch…
I read somewhere that the German billionaire class controls 1T dollars. Why do people earn only 5k after tax ? There seem to be very little opportunities for investment in stock market. Real estate prices too seem insane.
You answered the question yourself no ?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This trope never gets old it seems... >> “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyranniz…
Except this is a made up quote.
There has been at least one book about how "Germany/Germans are getting dumber", "The Big Crash is Coming" or something similar on the Spiegel Bestseller list at all times. So far, the big crash didn't come yet. These books don't talk about a market correction or a financial crisis like in 2008, but a total economic crash, because "a finite world can't have unlimited growth", because "capitalism", because "climate ch…
I read somewhere that the German billionaire class controls 1T dollars. Why do people earn only 5k after tax ? There seem to be very little opportunities for investment in stock market. Real estate prices too seem insane.
Because Germany is a high-tax-country. People also generally don't have a lot of private pension funds, that's tied up in a publicly organized system that's based on income, and "shared" between employer and employee (that is, the employer will pay half of it directly, which generally means that your pay is lower by that much). You get pension claims instead of building personal wealth.
While there's still a lot of personal wealth to be inherited over the next decades, families appear to have more difficulties building wealth. It's why, whenever somebody says "Germany is a rich country", my instinct is to ask them "what is this Germany you speak of", because there are large differences when you look at the average/median citizen, a very well-off knowledge worker or rich person, or a person living at/below the poverty line.