Germany's economy seems to work

[pscot]

unlike ours. This is from the June 7 New York Times

Germany has been a frequent cudgel in recent fights over the American economy. When Germany has grown faster than the United States, stimulus skeptics like to point across the Atlantic Ocean and say that austerity works. When it has grown more slowly, people who think the American stimulus made a big difference — including me — return the favor.

But the full story is more interesting than any caricature. In the last decade, Germany has succeeded in some important ways that the United States has not. The lessons aren’t simply liberal or conservative. They are both.

With our economy weakening once again — and with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany visiting the White House this week — now seems to be a good time to take a closer look.

The brief story is that, despite its reputation for austerity, Germany has been far more willing than the United States to use the power of government to help its economy. Yet it has also been more ruthless about cutting wasteful parts of government.

The results are intriguing. After performing worse than the American economy for years, the German economy has grown faster since the middle of last decade. (It did better than our economy before the crisis and has endured the crisis about equally.) Just as important, most Germans have fared much better than most Americans, because the bounty of their growth has not been concentrated among a small slice of the affluent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/business/economy/08leonhardt.html?_r=3&hp

[dkf]

1. Their jobs program seems intriguing.

I could go for that.

[pscot]

2. Jobs program, apprentice training

worker-management councils, strong unions, medical care, paid vacations, secure retirement, strong central planning and a work ethic like Americans used to have. The planning is fundamentally different from what goes on here, since its main thrust is to strengthen the whole ecomomy rather than make money for corporations, though there's plenty of that.

[dkf]

3. I read before that German unions are run differently working more in partnership with companies

Than in an adversarial get what you can manner.

Medical care is a biggie too.

[lib2DaBone]

4. Germany is a high-tech, high wage economy. Their goal is not a "race to the bottom".. like the USA

... and I would bet.. that Germany does not let containers of Chinese junk come into their country un-controlled.

[mistertrickster]

5. KEY SECTION: Unions

Unlike what happened here, German laws and regulators have also prevented the decimation of their labor unions. The clout of German unions, at individual companies and in the political system, is one reason the middle class there has fared decently in recent decades. In fact, middle-class pay has risen at roughly the same rate as top incomes.

The top 1 percent of German households earns about 11 percent of all income, virtually unchanged relative to 1970, according to recent estimates. In the United States, the top 1 percent makes more than 20 percent of all income, up from 9 percent in 1970. That’s right: only 40 years ago, Germany was more unequal than this country.

(from the source)