America's misguided culture of overwork

I've worked in both countries and I noticed at least one explanation for the productivity difference that isn't mentioned in the article. If a German is at risk of missing a deadline on a project he will put in a lot of extra hours to avoid that. An American who already puts in way more hours has much less time and energy left to make up for unforeseen circumstances. So the increase in flexibility pays off by avoiding rescheduling dependent projects. Perhaps this flexibility may have other benefits too, such as that people have more time to intellectually enrich themselves in ways that benefit the company.

Yes, comparing European 'socialism' to Soviet/Chinese style socialism ('communism') is so myopic that it has become a litmus test to detect writers who have at least a basic understanding of American/European system comparisons. Someone who sees 'socialism' and interprets it American-style, and thinks that Europe is that, starts out so wrong that anything based on those assumptions is tainted.

As a London based person, the 'suddeness' of the interest in Deutsche strategy is palpable.

Last years 'sick man' is now the healthiest man on the block:: IF the Keynsian stimulation favoured by America does not work.

Further, there are mounting concerns (valid or not) that China may not be the saviour some hoped. If that transpires, the situation will be bleak indeed for the indebted US and good for the 'austere' Germans. This may feel like being the 'best' survivors of a nuclear war however.

I think people are gently probing which entities will be the big players in the next few years and are trying to copy plays from their playbook.

This day and age, "social mobility" is mostly a function of the dysfunction and inequality of the society in question.

The -American angle is horribly overplayed. With some highly insulated exceptions, very few people actually have anything more than a thin veneer of rituals - if that - linking them to the "old country". There are some genetic personality traits but even those are more often shared with other Americans than people from the "old country" (stubbornness, distrust of authority, tendency toward religion etc.).

Oversimplified, for purposes of inspecting e.g. "work ethic", a person is the product of the country in which they lived their formative years. A second-generation immigrant will get some heritance from their parents but at that point the effect starts wearing off.

As to your dissection of "social democracy"...well. Suffice to say Europe is, from experience with both, much more democratic than the U.S.