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What Germans Are Reading

the-american-interest.com

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Re: What Germans Are Reading

#41

Post by martin_a »

orbifold wrote: post #17
maze-le wrote: post #4

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.

Look up the Hagakure, even there's a part about how "the youth of today" is lacking basic discipline etc.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#42

Post by ekianjo »

> Since then, the entire eastern half of the country has been brought into the fold of Western liberal capitalism—but not entirely successfully. Unemployment is still higher in the east, and brain drain to the west remains common.

Not sure how to understand this. I have traveled to the DDR and to East Germany after the reunification many times, and by far and large life is much better than it ever was. People can actually buy cars instead of Trabants. Of course an economic gap has long lasting consequences (the long tail of economic policies) but what you should point out is how much better it is now than it was during the DDR era.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#43

Post by ekianjo »

WA wrote: post #5

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…

Owning stocks is actually risky - in case of market crash (and it has happened often enough so that it's definitely possible as a once-in-a-lifetime event) you can lose big especially if you counted on it for pension/retirement purposes. Investment should always be done in context. Sometimes it's right to buy stocks, sometimes it isn't. Right now the market reaching sky-highs is not natural: there is no massive gain of productivity going on across industries so there should not be a massive uplift of all future earnings/values across the board.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#44

Post by jotm »

epaga wrote: post #20
C1sc0cat wrote: post #6

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"

Wait until they hear the German national anthem (well, the first verse) :D

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#45

Post by dgellow »

ekianjo wrote: post #42

> Since then, the entire eastern half of the country has been brought into the fold of Western liberal capitalism—but not entirely successfully. Unemployment is still higher in the east, and brain drain to the west remains common. Not sure how to understand this. I have traveled to the DDR and to East Germany after the reunification many times, and by far and large life is much better than it ever was. People can act…

Successful industries and top universities are in majority in the Western side of the country, thus people looking for higher salaries or more job opportunities leave the Eastern side. Over time that results in important disparities.

I don’t believe that the article is saying that the situation was better during DDR time.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#46

Post by ekianjo »

dgellow wrote: post #45
ekianjo wrote: post #42

> Since then, the entire eastern half of the country has been brought into the fold of Western liberal capitalism—but not entirely successfully. Unemployment is still higher in the east, and brain drain to the west remains common. Not sure how to understand this. I have traveled to the DDR and to East Germany after the reunification many times, and by far and large life is much better than it ever was. People can act…

Successful industries and top universities are in majority in the Western side of the country, thus people looking for higher salaries or more job opportunities leave the Eastern side. Over time that results in important disparities. I don’t believe that the article is saying that the situation was better during DDR time.

My point is simply that this kind of adjustment is likely to take a century or even more. Look at the long lasting impact of economic disparities in the US between the South and the North as another example.

Also, we would need to check in the economic History of Germany if the Eastern Lander of Germany were not always poorer compared to the Western Lander. The large economic output of the Rhur should already have tipped the economic scale way before the DDR.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#47

Post by watwut »

ekianjo wrote: post #42

> Since then, the entire eastern half of the country has been brought into the fold of Western liberal capitalism—but not entirely successfully. Unemployment is still higher in the east, and brain drain to the west remains common. Not sure how to understand this. I have traveled to the DDR and to East Germany after the reunification many times, and by far and large life is much better than it ever was. People can act…

The quote continues:

> It is in these eastern Länder where the AfD has gained the most ground. Fear-mongering arguments against immigration and an Islamic takeover continue to attract scores of German citizens whose future economic prospects are less than rosy.

Not everyone is happy. You can have some people unhappy while others are being better off.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#48

Post by tr33house »

ekianjo wrote: post #37

My German is rusty but: > Toleranz: Einfach Schwer (Tolerance Isn’t Easy) is an improper translation. That's "Tolerance: Simply Difficult" and that translates fine in English too since you can keep the same style while being accurate.

+1

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#49

Post by luckylion »

tatami wrote: post #31
thecleaner wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 and we say "after tax", but actually it's after tax, health insurance, unemployment insurance, pension fund and few more peanuts.

I'm not an expert on that since I'm self-employed, but imho that's not completely accurate. Most contributions aren't completely tax deductible (pensions: 86/88%), and many of them share a max deduction limit of 1900 Euros, so you'll quickly get above that if you're earning an average salary.

Re: What Germans Are Reading

#50

Post by LeanderK »

ekianjo wrote: post #40

Besides the obvious sampling issue (The Spiegel as a reference), not sure there anything interesting in that list, because it's a reflection of: - What is published in the German language (much smaller than in the English corpus) - What is published at all (choices from local publishers) - What matches the political/media agenda of the day/year: people are well known to read about the topics that is being talked abou…

I am not sure what your comment is suggesting? Literally the third sentence is:

> Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series looking at the books, authors, and ideas capturing the zeitgeist in various countries this summer.

Isn't capturing the zeitgeist exactly trying to understand what's occupying the thoughts of a country? Also I think you're greatly exaggerating the speed of "fashion". These are all issues we have been talking about for a long, long time. From tolerance [1] to education [2]. I don't see at all how this arcticle talks about a irrelevant topics, I can assure you these are all isssues we have been discussing for a longer time now.

[1] since the refugee crisis it's one of the main themes of political discourse. We also experience a rise of the right and far-right and many are not sure how to react to this change of the policial landscape and where tolerance ends. I was quite active in politics 4 years ago and I remember it being important back then (which was even before the refugee crisis) because I had contact with a group organizing a counter demonstration to a far-right gathering.

[2] During my time in school i was in one of the first in a new system and when I finished (5 years ago) many switched back to the old system. Our pisa-scores are still a major point for public dicsussion.

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