Germany has the economic strengths America once boasted Germany with its manufacturing base and export prowess is the U.S. of yesteryear, an economic power unlike any of its European neighbors. It has thrived on principles America seems to have lost. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-germany-middle-class-20120122,0,1551154,full.story
In the attached chart you can see a direct correlation between IQ and GDP per capita. The chart comes from a Wikipedia page about the book: "IQ and the Wealth of Nations": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IQatWoN_GDP_IQ.png The average IQ in the United States is at least 10 points lower than Germany.
But crony capitalism IS capitalism! What you really want is free enterprise, but you don't understand that free enterprise and capitalism are not the same thing. If you have free enterprise, then privatizing "almost everything" can work nicely for the common man. But in the capitalist climate of the U.S. privatizing nearly everything is a disaster for he common man. You want to limit government's role in our lives and have a simple tax code. I agree completely. However, consider that it is government's role to protect free enterprise from the capitalists -- if not government, who? There must be government interference in business and regulation if government is to fulfill its proper role. The U.S. government has failed miserably at protecting free enterprise, and has actually become a counter force fully in bed with the capitalists. The U.S. has perfected capitalism -- R.I.P. "Free Enterprise".
Because they save, focus on education and value shopping. This means the swiss/german rather buy quality (preferably MADE in Germany/Switerland) less frequently than the American uneducated, lumpen proletariat at the f'ing Walmart for led poisoned, cheap chinese SHIT - weekly! You can buy stuff that lasts OR you can buy disposable cheap shit daily and perhaps spend more.... We have to take a long deep look into our own phyche (value system) and shopping habbits. Also many made in USA goods are cheap crap too, namely some cars....
excellent... might I suggest a modest proposal for others on this thread. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick,[1] commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in 1729. Swift suggests that impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies.[2] This satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as Irish policy in general. In English writing, the phrase "a modest proposal" is now conventionally an allusion to this style of straight-faced satire.
One third of the population in Germany has a migration background - of the G8 countries only Canada has a higher rate.
When the wall came down, they took over a foreign country with 34 million people and an infrastructure and professional education that slightly topped those of Cuba. That is why they had such a high unemployment rate for almost 20 years and a sharp rise in public debt.
Harvard Professor Robert Putnam's study showed that the more racially diverse a society is, the lower the levels of trust. http://goo.gl/YWJv2
He had to go to Harvard to figure that out? What college do you have to go to to learn people fear what they don't understand? Why do you think I'm so scared about cloning?