Dave's dangerous game

[Ugg]

Originally Posted by oscillatewildly

How's the Euro v the Mark?

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Germany's affordability is largely due to the Euro. If they were using the DM, then German goods would simply be unaffordable. It is somewhat ironic that Germany is profiting from Greek, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian profligacy.

Originally Posted by eric/

It's all about diversity. Germany can make cheap goods (apparently, and obviously they would be able to without problems) and also roll out $120,000 BMWs.

The US has the same advantage. The key to a prosperous economy in the long term is not specializing in one thing, but being good at many things and able to retool when needed.

That's a simplistic view of the situation. I believe that Germany's investment in Education, Health AND Healthcare as well as the general welfare of its people is largely the reason Germany continues to not only produce high quality goods, but also allows companies to switch gears quickly. Happy people make for good products.

Originally Posted by twietee

It's not that easy actually. Germany, as pointed out already, as the former 'Exportweltmeister' - a term they used quite proudly around here, profits enormously by a weak Euro "caused" by weak member states, too.

Although I see some short term advantages in some industries profiting by unemployed - and desillusioned - young and skilled folks, the youth unemployment may very well cause an implosion of the system as it works right now. It wouldn't be unjust, too. That said, some of these states, i.e. Spain, as a second, hidden, job market within the tourism or whatnot sector. Much, much more than here in Germany. These numbers don't show up in the stats of course.

That's something that hasn't gotten enough coverage, IMO. The black labor market in much of southern Europe is huge and while the unemployment rate in Spain and Greece is very high, it's probably a lot less so when you consider how many people are working under the table. Awhile back I read that Spain is the Euro country that orders the most 500 Euro bills mostly because of the black market.

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Originally Posted by Ugg

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That's something that hasn't gotten enough coverage, IMO. The black labor market in much of southern Europe is huge and while the unemployment rate in Spain and Greece is very high, it's probably a lot less so when you consider how many people are working under the table. Awhile back I read that Spain is the Euro country that orders the most 500 Euro bills mostly because of the black market.

Some combination of unwillingness to pay taxes or inability to collect them.

For some reason this reminds me of Gerard Depardieu.

[eric/]

Originally Posted by Ugg

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That's a simplistic view of the situation. I believe that Germany's investment in Education, Health AND Healthcare as well as the general welfare of its people is largely the reason Germany continues to not only produce high quality goods, but also allows companies to switch gears quickly. Happy people make for good products.

Well you're kinda saying the same thing that I said, you're just explaining why it's the case.

[Bug-Creator]

There aren't really founded at all....

Most of those are in smaller companies where the appentrice will work for rather low pay for the rest of the week.

The quality therefore varies very much as some companies see them just as cheap labour while others (espially bigger companies) will put them into special workshops with close to 0 productivity for most of the times.

There are offcourse some regulations but in combination with the school part it does lay a decent foundation.

I for example learned at electrician back in the early 90s and while that mostly was running cables and fixing washing-machines it gave me the required knowledge to nowadays build&fix sometimes quite complex industrial cranes.

If ever needed I could quite easily fill a wide range of jobs without bigger problems.

[niuniu]

Nice 'shop of Cameron on today's Economist