I'm not sure why people keep ignoring that, it is as if you could simply install the 'correct' economic policy in the central african republic and out would pop another germany. Any country or economic system is only as good as the people in it. One of the primary reasons for american success is the high historical percentage of northern europeans, and lately some east asians. That's all about to change folks, say hello to the U.S. of Brazil.
Actually, it is debatable. The middle class in most of EU does not have that much discretionary income as Americans do. They live well, eat well, dress well, but they live in very modest swellings and consume much less imports. So, I will not compare their middle class with the American middle class.
Good points, but I disagree. The reason of American success is innovation and the pricing power that it gets you. Then comes in the best armed forces and the super power status and the reserve currency and the reserve currency opens up all possibilities of spending. This created an illusion of wealth that never was. I agree that as the demographics changes, the productive people will have to carry the weight of the disgruntled citizens, for they have the votes. The future is not looking good for the productive people. The productive people have 2 choices: - Keep producing in US and share their wealth because even after sharing their wealth, they do better than any other place. - Produce somewhere else.
A quick look at the job vacancy/offer data on the F.R.E.D. website for the US reveals a fairly severe breakdown in the Beveridge curve (the relationship between the unemployment rate and the job offers out there) during our financial crisis. This leads me to conclude that there are job offers out there, it's just that this crisis has the added friction that people are geographically illiquid (they're tied to their homes since many are "upside-down") and hence cannot fill the vacancies. Germany has a fairly deep rental market and has one of (if not the) lowest home-ownership rate in all of Europe. Germans are not geographically illiquid hence the German equivalent of the Beveridge curve will reflect this and give the impression that the labor market is MUCH more efficient at clearing than ours (which it is). Home ownership (the so-called American dream) has been historically pushed from a bi-partisan politic since both sides of the aisle agree that it is good thing both from an income equality standpoint (democrats) and a private property standpoint (republicans). So while many of the replies in this thread seem to indicate a normative inclination for argument, we need to take the effort and look at the data itself and conclude from a positive perspective.
ok lets call it properly - settlers dream - mortgage locks you in and cant escape when things get tough.
a lot less immigration, higher taxes, and basic socialism. they also started being germany again since the wall came down. i am guessing they started that debt free with a decent economic infrastructure. am i wrong?
Germans are efficient, but those Mexicans are damn good, especially on a hot day, they hardly sweat at all, but for close work you can't beat a China man, or even better a China woman, they see things through those little slanty eyes most Germans would miss. But I wouldn't give a tinkers doodle for an englishman. Even if they could do a decent days work do you really want to listen to someone who doesn't know the difference between a Bock Beer and Barack Obama? otherwise I agree, Germans are good, especially Johanne Sebastion Back.