Comments on: German Economy

By: Mimi S

Mimi S — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:14:19 +0000

Well, how about the rise of 400 € jobs? German government is praising itself that so and so many people are "taking a step into the right direction" by getting a part time job. The problem is that many employers split full jobs into 2 or 3 400€ jobs, saving big money. Its not only jobs like secretaries or cleaners or whatever, but it's regular jobs. By hiring three 400€ people, they not only save, in comparison to the one regular payment they would have to give a full-time position, but they also save on costs like insurance and unemployment insurance and other social benefits they would have to pay people who would earn more than 400€.
The people taking those jobs are happy to have found a job at all, mostly hoping that if they do a good job, they probably will get hired for a regular job later on. Unfortunately, as you can guess, 400€ is just about nothing. You can't pay anything for a month from that. So they either take on (illegally and unofficially) a second 400 € job, since if they did it officially, they would have to pay taxes on the second 400€, or they apply for "Sozialhilfe". "Sometimes" they do both.
Those people have trouble paying their rent, buying food ad so on, and just about make it through the month, yet the German companies complain the Germans are not buying enough of the goods actually manufactured in Germany (yeah, well, in the case of all those cars, all the parts are delivered to Germany from China and somewhere, and than they get assembled in Germany). With which kind of money, one might ask. The kind of money the companies are saving by outsourcing their plants into the cheaper east-european countries and to Asia, I guess, dumping thousands of workers in Germany into unemployment and than see above.
Also, sales tax and stuff is extremely high in Germany (19%on everything, save unprocessed foods like fruit and veggies in nature, and media like books and newspapers. For those things, sales tax is at 7%.). About 80% of what Germany pay for gas goes into taxes, and until a little while ago, you could only get a tax reduction if your commute to work was higher than 21 km one way. Thank G*d that changed.
They also started tuition fees for universities which are, with a couple of exceptions, about 500€ a year, plus insurance and bookkeeping fees. That is not much by US standards, but you have to see that money does not go to the school itself, it goes to the state, who than parts it down into how many students each school has studying in the allotted time-space for their degree, and than doles out the money to the schools again, keeping a hefty part of it for "administrative fees". Which would be alright, if they didn't charge you an additional 50€ per Semester simply for said "administrative fees". Now, most students need to earn money for their living, now they need even more money to pay those school fees. A system like in the US, with all those stipends and stuff is not available, and every German bank manager would laugh at you for asking him to give you a loan so he can study. Sure, an unemployed student wants a loan. U-hum, yeah, right.
Question is: how do those students earn money: By taking on small jobs. If they are lucky, they only need one, and if they are still more lucky, they get a job that has a little bit to do with whatever they study. Careful, though, many employers see a chance to save again. If you need the work experience for your studies, why not make an unpaid internship out of that job? People need to do it, anyway!
The generation of young professionals right now is called "generation internship" by German media.

So, if nobody gives the Germans work, and if they do, they don't give them money for it, than what money are they supposed to spend to help economy get better? German state officials say it gets better and they are giving us breaks, but with their history of inventing new taxes and raising the ones that exist during the last few years, and with the current situation, people save what they can.

By: corpo

corpo — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:35:52 +0000

you are clearly retarded & should be banned from the interweb

By: frunkaaay

frunkaaay — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:56:10 +0000

Not good – French soldiers lived off the land, so during the fighting there was a lot of plundering for food and destruction of homes,fences and so on for firewood.Also,once Napoleon controlled these areas many men were conscripted for his campaigns, taking away workers from the land.
After the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) Prussia lost land to Saxony and the new Duchy of Warsaw,so this was bad for the Prussian economy.The Prussian government had to do what Napoleon said, so giving supplies and troops for the invasion of Russia (1812) further depleted their economy.

By: noam c

noam c — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:22:55 +0000

Ebenezer Scrooge.

By: Johnny

Johnny — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:40:29 +0000

Yes and no.

The Germans have been smart enough to diversify where their factories are built. Many German factories are located in the United States, Brazil and other nations. To a certain extent this will help them. You would have to take a look at the overall net effect to decide.

I'd guess it is an overall negative, but not as drastically negative as one might think.

Take a look at German car manufacturing done in the Americas.

By: I'm a man

I'm a man — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:14:32 +0000

It doesn't get any worse than Germany after WWI.

By: Kat

Kat — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:02:39 +0000

Quite simply the conversion rate did not give German consumers the disposable income required to buy the more expensive mercedes brand.

By: I'm a man

I'm a man — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:57:35 +0000

German beer production is a little over 1 Billion gallons. Assuming breweries sell at $8/gallon, then sales would be $8B or about 2/10 of 1% of German GDP.

By: jpro

jpro — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:34:57 +0000

If obama pussy ass nigger see Dalai lama these days,China will invite Bin laden for working together.USA’s army is worldwide.Only china and Russian can stop its power growing.Pussy ass nigger borrow money from china and doing gay shit to china..This pussy nigger wanna beef with China when he find hem some.China has 99 problems,USA aint one.China will fuck all Americans Life up with the Art of War by sun tze.China fucks USA back to the Middle age.

By: rails

rails — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 09:57:39 +0000

Please watch my video. It’s about climate change, earth catastrophe and? our planet as we lives in.

Does climate change can affect economy growth?

watch?v=j7I_eFoIk64