As a German who lived abroad a long time, but moved to Berlin eight years ago, here’s my (completely personal) assessment of why Germany is going down the drain economically - and will continue to do so: 1) Mindset and Culture. The idea of entrepreneurship, hard work and reward for risk is becoming completely alien to Germans. New technologies and high growth sectors are almost exclusively perceived in terms of their…
I want to add to point 3) German's pay a lot of taxes. Living costs and rent are sky high in cities. In the past, I reduced my hours to 28 hours a week because the difference was negligible in taxes paid. I even got money from the government to pay rent because my wage was lower. There is a real problem where between salary band's, the money after taxes does not change significantly even if you're paid more. Working…
I met many engineers who would be completely willing to work more hours, but it makes very little sense as you are working the additional hours for far lower wages.
The idea of banning lower work times is new to me, but seems in line with the German government approach to invent an anti-solution to the problem with severe potential downsides (e.g. for parents).