Posted on 02/08/2006 6:26:13 PM PST by Atlantic Bridge
The world champion of export defends its title. In 2005 Germany exported goods worth 786,1 billion Euros.
Altogether the balance of trade closed with a surplus of 160,5 billion Euros. Compared with 2004 when trade surplus was only at 156.1 billion Euros it is a plus of 7.5%. The balance of activities under regard of services was about 90,4 billon Euros. The imports to Germany also grew about 8.7% to 625,6 billion Euros.
Germany is for this reason 3 times in succession the "world champion of export".
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
But what about the Dienstleistungsimportueberschuss?
PING!
You probably mean our "non-German" workforce like Turks, east Europeans, Italians etc. etc. etc.???
Since Germany is a immigration country it is okay with me. I can live with it as long as the immigrants match with us.
Germany has top notch products and an incredible trade balance. And yet their economy can not be considered healthy since they have tremendous unemployment. Their sucess in the first two make their overall failure a needless but inevitable result of their social welfare system.
They are a lesson in the pitfalls of over taxation and why socialist economies fail. They are also a reverse lesson for the US that trade balance is not all.
I hope they will straighten out as I admire their superior engineering and resultant products. What a waste.
Like a german paying for services in france. That is imported labour.
In english, it is called "economic drift."
The concept is that one spends money not where they earned it.
Just a curious question -----
Do these foreign workers typically learn the language, and adapt to German life, or do they expect Germany to bend over and grab her ankles and adapt to THEM?
Most of them do. It is correct that we Europeans have a problem with young muslims on our continent since they are usually undereducated and unemployed. This is the reason why they get aggressive - just as some minorities in the US (do you remember the Los Angeles riots in 1992?). But there is one thing for sure: They will not take over the power here ("expect Germany to bend over and grab her ankles and adapt to THEM"). I.e. Most Turks in Germany are assimilated, peaceful and decent people. I employ some in my own business and I know what I am talking about. The much more fanatic Islamiacs come usually from northern Africa or Pakistan. Their part in our German populace is nearly zero. That does not mean that we have to ignore the problem but we should get the right dimensions.
Good companies need good people. :-)
Is it true that if you want to start a company in Germany you have to post a bond with the gov't to cover employee costs if the startup goes under?
Wow! If that's all completely accurate then that is a nasty mixture for sure. Where do you get the numbers from, just general reading?
BS. The US sales tax isn't charged on foreign consumers either. This has absolutely nothing to do with a export subsidy. Love it or hate it: Germany is breaking records since its goods are simply competitive.
...and what is the state of its economy as a whole?
The German economy of course has many problems to deal with. One of those is the fact, that the high labor costs forced the German industry already in the 80ties to rationalize with all means. Today we can produce with very low unit labor costs, since we do not need that much people anymore due to our extremly mechanized and streamlined productions. This means that we lost many jobs espechially in the low level employment. This effect was worsened with the disappearance of the east German industry in 1990 - 1993. After practically half of all jobs were lost in this area, we had to create new jobs on one hand and to pay the welfare on the other. In addition the labor-force participation rate of east Germany is much higher than in the west, since in socialism all women were used to work because their kids were completely under state control (nursery homes, all day kindergardens, all day schools etc.). Those kides only slept at home and the women worked all day long. In difference to old west Germany we have a much broader workforce. Today we have a "socket" of maybe 4 Million people who will be out of work forever if not some essential things change:
1. Germany needs more consumption. VAT-tax, Oekosteuer etc. are contraproductive since people need more money to spend for starting a powerful domestic market.
2. Germany is a service desert. Germans are not used to serve others. If you are handicapped just try to buy something in a German supermarket. Nobody will help you, because service is reduced to the limit. This has to change to get all those people into work again. Our society will have a great benefit fron such change and people can earn money again with pride instead if being provided with socialist welfare.
3. Germany needs deregulation. There is no place on this earth were you can find more red tape than in Germany. The socialist Kohl gouvernment and its SPD predecessors created a bootless army of public officials that live parasitic from the public. They create regulations and control them to give themselves a reason to their sad existance (My solution would be to shoot them all, but this is not PC). Anyway we have to turn this wheel back. It will be cheaper to pay welfare to them for doing nothing than to pay welfare to have them spoiling our economy.
4. The German system of " fully comprehensive cover" has to come to an end since nobody can pay it. More than the half of the income of a German worker is used for liability isurances and tax. We have liability insurances for costs of illness, for costs of home care for elderly persons, pension etc. etc. etc.. All of these insurances are extremely ineffective. If somebody must pay into the pension insurance i.e. and earns normal money he get less out of the insurance than he has paid into it. We do not speak about bearing an interest (lol). This is a machine that is destroying money to grant welfare for everybody. Therefore we need freedom to handle our insurances and pension plans alone.
I think that Merkel is aware of those problems. The chances aren't that bad if the right steps are going to be started.
Actually, my inquiry was regarding a comparison to the massive influx of immigrants to the US, primarily of hispanic (Mexico/Central America) origin. May come here, then refuse to learn the language, or to integrate - instead expecting our adaptation to THEM.
The US use to be known as the "Great Melting Pot" - because people from many different cultures came here and melded into a uniquely "American" society. At that time, immigrants focused on learning to speak English (if they didn't already), and assymilated into society.
No longer.
I agree with what you have written. Deregulation is the answer. I don't think Merkel will be a great reformer however for two reasons --
the German people themselves are not ready to give up their socialism. Some hardworking people who are supporting the unemployed and pensioners may be willing but most are not. People prefer security, plush benefits and limited work time which causes employers to limit their workforce. Merkel won by the slimmest of margins and she is centrist.
Further much of the regulatory scheme comes from the EU. The EU has never seen a regulation they didn't love. The Western European attitude and severe regulation of new businesses stands in the way of entrepreneurship. It is this entrepreneurship that drives the US economy. US economy is much less risk averse.
I especially agree with your points about East Germany. Not enough credit goes to Germany for absorbing the post-Communist mess that has been a big drain on the German economy. The integration has been remarkable. Compare the South Korean attitude to North Korea. They want no part of them and fear an influx of refugees.
Europe has a much different attitude to new business than the US.
.........
Slashing the red tape is a start -- studies have shown small businesses are badly hit by regulatory burdens -- but it is far from the only measure. Europe has long suffered from a cultural opposition to entrepreneurship as well. A survey published by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in 2003 found Europeans are half as likely as their American counterparts to start a business, for reasons ranging from regulatory hurdles to a high fear of failure. In the U.S., entrepreneurs are bred at an early age -- the kids who sell lemonade and offer dog-walking services graduate to Internet-based businesses with millions of dollars in revenues.
Zolt Feher, a director at Junior Chamber International, an organization that unites young entrepreneurs and professionals, believes the problem must be attacked at its roots. "American children are assigned to make presentations and perform debates, they learn how to write and present their ideas in front of an audience -- these are skills which are important in the business world and which European students are not usually taught."
Rich Karlgaard, Forbes columnist and author of "Life 2.0," says European countries' emphasis on scholastic achievement and regulation is a factor. "People who strive to become the top grade earner in school are generally people who like to play within existing rules," he wrote in an email. "Follow their careers and you'll see they become lawyers, judges, professors, doctors. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, like to smash existing rules."
A common European argument against taking risks to create a business has been that failed start-ups are detrimental to the labor force, causing layoffs and other disruptions. This brings us back to one of the main obstacles to fostering entrepreneurship in Europe -- inflexible labor laws.
A Eurobarometer survey published in April found that among 4,000 one-person enterprises in Europe, one in three did not recruit new employees because of the nonwage costs of labor, such as social contributions and taxes by employers, and that more than 10% were reluctant to hire because of the red tape involved.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112000541592372351.html?mod=opinion&ojcontent=otep
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