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Why doesn't Britain make things any more? (2011)

theguardian.com

81–90 of 115 posts

Re: Why doesn't Britain make things any more? (2011)

#81
post #75
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you are wrong. The ECB does not have to balance interests. It‘s independent and it‘s job is monetary stability, not economic interests. It‘s also not widely accepted that it‘s in Germanys interest. In fact it is against it. Germans hold most of their wealth in cash. They received interest for it. That‘s hundereds of billions now gone. Germans are poorer than most other Europeans (even than Spaniards and Italians)…

> Germans are poorer than most other Europeans (even than Spaniards and Italians) er, citation needed? Or is this due to the former DDR?

That may be a part of it, but it's mostly due to homeownership. Germany is a super risk-averse country, thus few people invest their money. Most people hold everything in cash, thus they get very low returns. It's also the reason why they are hit so hard in a low-interest environment.

https://jakubmarian.com/wealth-per-capita-by-country-in-euro...

It's describing the median wealth based on a Credit Suisse Wealth Report

You can also find these results in the ING research ("Surprising differences between countries", page 14ff): https://www.ezonomics.com/pdf/Household-wealth-in-Europe.pdf

"When dividing the Eurozone into a group of countries often labeled as ‘core’11and a group of Southern-European12countries, it turns out that Southern-European households are more capable of keeping up their standard of living compared with those living in the core countries (see figure 18)"

"It is striking that German households have fewer assets than Eurozone households have on average. They not only own relatively little real estate(see figure 20)but also hold less financial assets than is common in the Eurozone(see figure 21)."

Re: Why doesn't Britain make things any more? (2011)

#82
post #64
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The general point that the Euro will be controlled by the ECB, which must balance the priorities of all member states, is true. It’s also true that this generates some well-known public goods problems. And it is widely accepted among economists that ECB policy has been better suited to Germany than to e.g. the PIIGS countries of the Mediterranean. Hence the anger about European austerity in Italy, Greece.... Seriousl…

No, you are wrong. The ECB does not have to balance interests. It‘s independent and it‘s job is monetary stability, not economic interests. It‘s also not widely accepted that it‘s in Germanys interest. In fact it is against it. Germans hold most of their wealth in cash. They received interest for it. That‘s hundereds of billions now gone. Germans are poorer than most other Europeans (even than Spaniards and Italians)…

>Germans are poorer than most other Europeans (even than Spaniards and Italians)

You get to read some things here that you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Re: Why doesn't Britain make things any more? (2011)

#83
post #82
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you are wrong. The ECB does not have to balance interests. It‘s independent and it‘s job is monetary stability, not economic interests. It‘s also not widely accepted that it‘s in Germanys interest. In fact it is against it. Germans hold most of their wealth in cash. They received interest for it. That‘s hundereds of billions now gone. Germans are poorer than most other Europeans (even than Spaniards and Italians)…

>Germans are poorer than most other Europeans (even than Spaniards and Italians) You get to read some things here that you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Welcome to HN! There are a lot of facts to find here.

Median wealth (USD) per adult:

#13 Spain 87,188

..

#15 Italy 79,239

..

#29 Germany 35,169

#30 Slovenia 34,043

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_pe...

Re: Why doesn't Britain make things any more? (2011)

#85
post #83
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Germans are poorer than most other Europeans (even than Spaniards and Italians) You get to read some things here that you don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Welcome to HN! There are a lot of facts to find here. Median wealth (USD) per adult: #13 Spain 87,188 .. #15 Italy 79,239 .. #29 Germany 35,169 #30 Slovenia 34,043 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_pe...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c...

Re: Why doesn't Britain make things any more? (2011)

#86
post #85
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welcome to HN! There are a lot of facts to find here. Median wealth (USD) per adult: #13 Spain 87,188 .. #15 Italy 79,239 .. #29 Germany 35,169 #30 Slovenia 34,043 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_pe...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c...

Disposable income is not wealth

Re: Why doesn't Britain make things any more? (2011)

#87
post #86
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c...

Disposable income is not wealth

Wealth is useless. I bet Spaniards have more wealth because they own houses instead of renting. But that's some wealth they can't touch. What are they going to do, live under a bridge?

"poor" is simply a generic term, personally I think it's income what defines if you live a poor's life or a rich's life.

Re: Why doesn't Britain make things any more? (2011)

#88
post #87
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disposable income is not wealth

Wealth is useless. I bet Spaniards have more wealth because they own houses instead of renting. But that's some wealth they can't touch. What are they going to do, live under a bridge? "poor" is simply a generic term, personally I think it's income what defines if you live a poor's life or a rich's life.

Not having to pay rent seems to be far from useless. Substract that rent from the disposable income and recheck the numbers.

Wealth is worth much more than income.

Re: Why doesn't Britain make things any more? (2011)

#89
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s one possible approach. The one I favour is a total moratorium on new building work in the South East. That’s the only way to force both workers and companies to look to the North. The problem with “tax the rich” is that the numbers of truly rich are tiny and you could swallow their entire fortunes and they’ll be gone in a week. Exercise for the reader, how long would Richard Branson’s entire wealth run the NHS…

Much of the problem is that so much of the problem-causing wealth sloshing around the country is from overseas, and often from questionably lawless petro-states like Russia and Saudi Arabia. The most basic start would be to have a proper non-capped property tax. Let's copy socialist New Jersey and charge people 1.89% of their property value a year.

How does that 1.89% work with mortgages?

Do I pay that tax on the amount I have currently returned to the bank or on the full property?

Re: Why doesn't Britain make things any more? (2011)

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason China dropped out of super power status was tremendous sabotage/criminality by the top 5 economies of the world. There rise is not a fluke, this is an inevitability of the planet we live on, India is next and it will outperform China by the end of this century (like it did in the past, pre-British invasion). General ignorance of world history in the West will make this transition harder than it needs…

Bit more perspective. At the end of 1800’s and start of 1900’s China was still almost feudal agrarian society that didn’t modernise due to internal reasons. Neighbouring Japan had their Meiji restoration that made it a powerful modern country, that happily joined others in bashing China. So at that point China was already decades behind Japan. After this came the Chinese civil war between Kuomingtang and the Communis…

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