American Reacts to Why GERMANY is SO RICH!
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- čas přidán 1. 11. 2022
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As an Aussie I worked for a large Germany company SIEMENS for 10 years, and lived in Munich for two years. Enjoyed the experience working as an engineer on high tech equipment. They work hard, efficient and attention to quality, with a good work life balance.
You might have made the vacum cleaner i got at home hahaha its a siemens
The good work life balance was probably because of the EU rules. Under EU rules, employers can not force their workers to work more than 48 hours a week. More than that, the employee would have to fill out additional forms that stated they are not forced to work the additional hours.
So basically employees are allowed to work long hours. The employers, however, are not allowed to retaliate when an employee refused to do so.
@@aabidamn I lived in Germany in the late 80s, there was a core time we needed to work. Any hours more we could take off later as “kernsite entnehmen”. Back then we had magnetic card to swipe in and out, which kept track of our hours.
@@cherrydragon3120 may be not a vacuum cleaner… but if you made a phone call then it may have gone though equipment I worked on.
@@georgecurrenti3602 Were the rules similar with what the EU have today? If so, the EU probably were the ones adopting the Germans labour regulations.
Its not that German people do not take up debt or credit lines. The difference is that most people keep a close eye on how much debt they currently owe and how long it would take to pay off. Before taking up any more debt we calculate if it is feasible, how much we would save through the new purchase and if it is even necessary in the first place.
Societal/Pier pressure is not so much a thing here that people always need the newest and shiniest thing. We would rather save up or make sure we can afford the credit/mortgage for the next car or house before committing.
Also it's a difference to take up debt for an investment or just consuption e.g. new TV
@@ravanpee1325 True. Debt is mostly only for consumption here (the exception would be for a house, but that is more to live in which would change it back to consumption). It is really unusual to take up debt for any investment as any investment that could beat the costs of credit also inherently bear a risk of also losing value meaning you are saddled with paying off a credit as well as maybe being forced to sell at a loss to cover the costs.
@@rushinroulette4636 Also here in Germany, an house is considered a life-long investment. If you buy a house, you have to pay 10-15% sidecost just for the buying process. People will live in the same house for >30years. Whereas in the US it's common to buy and sell every few year and move by speculation on the market
Fun Fact about Germany:
Made in Germany is a designation of origin. Originally introduced in Great Britain at the end of the 19th century as protection against supposedly cheap and inferior imported goods, the designation is now regarded by many consumers as a seal of quality
a good definition of "jokes on you, i'm into that shit"
Fun fact about made in Germany: large chunk of products are made all over Europe and shipped to Germany where everything its "stamped" Made in Germany.
@@MrMessiah44 Which is prevented by law in Germany, as you cannot stamp "made in germany" onto a product, where you dont at least have a 20-30% of own, german value in it.
So, thats simply not true 🤣 And in order to get the deaired product, most purchased parts from else in europe have to go through testing. You cannot do shit stuff and germany buys it and seals it with a "made in germany" stamp...that bullshit and only uneducated people go down that rabbit hole.
BTW: All "made in..." are exactly the same no country usually builds it all itself depending on the products....or do you think "swiss chocolate" is entirely swiss? Some poor mofos delivered the cocoa to nasty nestle. 🤣
@@MrStubbs8157 Up to 30% ? No shit that's not misleading at all.
it was beginning with knives: german clones were cheap and poor quality and ruined business and call of original british knives(no idea about producer name). So must they marked with bla-bla(but)"made in Germany" different to bla-bla of original
The video fails to mention that unions and worker councils (that even have a seat in the board of directors) usually cooperate with the company rather than fighting against them. Sometimes even trading wage cuts for granted job security.
Right! 👍
On the flip side the Company does not see the unions (and their staff) as an enemy to be broken, but the best way to get workers who produce more, and have an interest in keeping quality up.
That is totally right we call this Sozialpartnerschaft (social partnership). There is the Betriebsverfassungsgesetz (Company Constitution Law) allowing to establish a workers council having at least 5 employees. And by the way we have 30 days holiday (working days Mo to Fr) per year at least in the machinery industry with another average of 15 public holidays and working approx. 35 hours per week only.
@@renepinos3236 This year I only have 33 days off in my company. Shiftworkers have 36. 🙄
The opening comment about Germany being the sick man of Europe ignores the fact that in 1990 West Germany merged with East Germany at a cost of 2 trillion Euros over a 20 year period. This process caused a large movement of people as the two economies were reconnected and aligned. It is a rare example, of a country separated by war reintegrating without experiencing massive economic havoc and conflict.
It is amazing that it went as smoothly as it did. Sure, there is still problems and segregation but at large it went very well.
@@RiderOftheNorth1968 And still we didn’t and don’t manage the merger well.
Sweeping everything good about the east under the rug like for example the strong position of the woman in society.
The east was very strong in the medical field but eh, we had to dump everything western style upon them, because commie bad, and we’re still filling most of the political jobs with western politicians, that don’t understand the problems of the east, while they are inexorably outraged at a lot of things we don’t even want to understand most of the times. Kinda sad.
I just hope we can learn to understand each other and adopt better over the years. It eventually will, if no other mega crises emerge, I’m sure of it. But it will take time. And I hope the process can undergo peacefully.
@@derfliegendetempler To be honest. When the reunion happend i feared civil war or, atleast, civil unreast and violent street protests. But you are right: there is alot to be done still and many good things from the easten side needs to be reconsidered.
@@derfliegendetempler lets be real west good / east bad is a common theme and honestly its not the worst road to follow as the east definitly fails in way too many regions sure maybe some stuff could have been beneficial but its a easy solution to just align urself with the clearly more succesfull west and call it a day. Also i think the position of women in the west aint that bad i dont rly see a issue with it men are naturally ment to do the work and women to stay at home it worked out for a long time and the recent shift is honestly not the smoothest transition. Overall i feel like u cant rly blame the decisions that led germany to its present in any way as we are one of the most succesfull nations on the globe in almost all sections i personally wouldnt want to change anything looking at our current extremely strong position for a pretty small nation that just came out of 2 world wars as loser....
And its no fun at all...
Germany had the second most patent registrations worldwide in 2021, after the USA
Sweden's economy and industries is like a small version of Germany. The bread and butter of our economy is just like Germany, the thousands and thousands of small to medium sized, hyperfocused companies in smaller towns. And similar to Germany we have very low national nebt, only 35% of GDP! It was fun to see this video and compare it to my own country, finding that Sweden is basically the smaller brother of Germany, haha!
I think Sweden isn't our only little sibling, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and maybe even Switzerland and Belgium have very similar economies and mentality / work ethics to ours, don't they?
@@hape3862 I’m sure it is similar in those mentioned countries, but I simply do not know enough about their economies to point that out. I can only speak to what I know. But yeah it is probably quite similar!
@@tobias_dahlberg After all, we are still the good old Germanic tribes that we always were - within and around Germany. And albeit quite similar we like to poke fun at each other, hehe. And after 2000 year we finally grew up and at least don't fight each other anymore … 🤪
@@hape3862 Denmark with the "flexicurity" has a total different approach and more small than "medium" sized companies like Germany. Also the Netherlands are not like Sweden or Germany
@@ravanpee1325 The Netherlands are doing their own thing and they are doing it well.
We have the same here with the word for debt and guilt in the Netherlands. I doesn't necessarily imply that debt is bad, but it certainly instills the message that you have something to do, to make up for it.
The netherlands has the fourth highest export surplus in the world, so not doing too bad either :)
Middle europe is crushing it :D
That's based on the protestant belief and so insttilled in Dutch politics to this very day it chokes us to death. The Netherlands is probably the only country in the world without debt, but because of idiot politicians we hamper ourselves. Dutch citizens combined have more then 1600 billion in pension and about 1200 billion in life insurance savings on top of that.
That's before taxes, Dutch state bonds are the most wanted and safest investments in the world. The Netherlands earns money when it lends it because of that, but our politicians are to scared or better said to totally incompetent to capitalize on that fact. Politicians are idiots no matter what country, but the Dutch politicians are a special case of stupid.
We have no pension problem, just a fracking bunch of retarded politicians that keep counting with the wrong numbers so pensions dont get indexed properly and taxes keep getting raised because they are utter, incompetent and total idiots.
We have no debt or guilt in the Netherlands
Germany makes the thing that others use to make their things. Like most shoes are produced in china by using german shoe making machines. Pretty much all Rollercoasters in the world are designed by one small german design firm. Big container vessels use propellers made by one german company. That's what he meant by highly specialised companies that are really at the top of their field. And it's not even all high tech companies. A german company is the biggest producer of pencils in the world, another german company is the biggest producer of ladders in the world. Germany is the third biggest exporter in the world but germany has by far the biggest export surplus in the world, which is always a topic for criticism from other countries because it is so "selfish". The country with the biggest export deficit (by far) is the us.
If you like longer videos, there are two really great british documentaries about germany. One is "Make me a german", about the average german and the other is "Das Auto. The germans, their cars and us" about the german and uk car companies. Both a couple years old but really great and they tell you alot about the germans (and the british).
And also small car parts are made in Germany ordered by car makers outside Germany.
Rollercoasters are also made in Vlodrop, the Netherlands and sold all over the world.
@@mercyunselt2035 there are also German suppliers for German suppliers for car factories outside of Germany
There are many countries who could benefit from watching this whole story
I am from Germany and I worked in a factory (in the holidays; I am still a student) for a company that produced for car companies (the company that I worked for made pressure sensors for tires for porsche and mercedes etc) and it was incredible to see how important quality control was and how strict the rules where. Every item had to be controlled by hand.
been working as welder for past 5 years, im from Latvia. In Latvia for first 3 years, i worked in local companies, that also, just wanted to crank their numbers, didnt care about quality, then i moved to sweden to work for a year in a company, where we made metal constructions for a skyscraper, that is being build in gothenburg, 250m tall, which will be tallest building in scandinavia. And i did in half a day more than they had full days norm, and they started shouting at me, that the work is done far too quickly and i should doublecheck and tripplecheck all my work. And now ive returned home, and i actually got into small machinery building company , with 37 employees, and here, the company surprisingly for my country is also quality over quanity, and atmosphere is far better than in quantity over quality companies. They dont care if we do stuff overdue, like 3-4 weeks after deadline, rather its actually safe to use, its well made, than we rush it and make a garbage.
I like you story and vision. 👍👍I always refer to the story that products have 2 out of 3 characteristics: well made, cheap, on-time. The customer can only choose 2 of them and doesn't get the third one.
@@lbergen001 well, we are building large machijenry for trash compressing and stuff like that, where people have to work around now, so, if we dont follow safety and dont work carefully, we risk peoples lives, and so was in skyscraper construction. If we rush, we risk peoples lives, thats why all large constructions always never make it in time by deadlines, because safety is concern number one there.
I remember i started welders profession with making handrails, if my welds were so bad now as they were with handrails in my first months on working as welder, all buildings would collapse, but employers didnt care, if those handrails broke apart on the way where they will set them up, because they just needed the quantity, nobody gave a shit about quality.
One fact Beni didn't mention is one special sector of the industry - manufacturing machines. Germany constructs and sells the machinery that lets others produce products. E.g. a rather small German company is the world leader in machines that make soles for shoes. Without these machines, no factory in China, Vietnam, or Bangladesh could produce a single pair of shoes. And there are thousands of companies we never even have heard the name of that are world leaders in their highly specialized sectors with world market shares of 50% or even more. Their focus is on quality, steady improvement, and innovation. They need competent and well-educated employees to keep in front of the competition. Therefore they offer vocational training for high school graduates, often times a guarantee for a job afterward (if the trainees passed their exams) and they are interested in keeping their workforce happy. There are still a lot of SMEs that have a very low turnover and where it's more normal to stay in the company your whole life than to change jobs every 5 years.
Government is also a huge factor. For example, during covid, the government allowed "Kurzarbeit" (short work), which means, the company puts a worker on 10-100% leave and only pays the rest for salary - BUT the rest is covered (to an extend, usually 60% of the remainder) by the government. This way, companies could keep good employees on the payroll without loosing to much money. And once the crisis was over, the employees returned to work with full salary.
As an example let's assume:
Original salary was 1000€
Kurzarbeit was 70%
Then the company would pay 300€ to the employee and the government would pay 700€*60% = 430€.
So in total, the employee would work only 30% of the time, but would receive 730€.
And yes, you were allowed to work other jobs during the time off to make ends meet.
The "Agentur für Arbeit" (eng. agency for labour) is not a gouvernment departmend but a so-called "Körperschaft öffentlichen Rechts" (self gouverned legal entity which provides public services by law). Companies pay social insurance fees for the "Kurzarbeit". It's no free lunch
@@ravanpee1325 The technicalities don't matter. The fact is, the government passed laws to make Kurzarbeit possible. Other countries didn't.
@@m.h.6470 It's therefore important that not just the gouvernment in the capital like in France decides what's right or wrong, but the "social partners" (companies + unions) with help of the gouvernment have to find solutions. Also Kurzarbeit has to be approved by the "Betriebsrat" (employeés/workers council) of the company.
The reason for this long term job security is, that the average worker in Germany has more industrial related skills (painter in company A has the same standartized certification like the painter in company B. You know what you can expect from someone with a vocational training in painting -> moving between company jobs, but not between different occupations). Whereas in the US you have workers with more company specific skills (Trained in using machine x in company A, whereas company B train their guys in machine z -> skills are not movable to other companies, change in occupation is normal)
@@ravanpee1325 only companies with 50+ employees need to have a Betriebsrat. Smaller companies, which are the companies most affected by Kurzarbeit, do not have a Betriebsrat and therefore do not approval.
And just for the record: government does not have a "u". You very consistently made the same mistake there.
@@m.h.6470
Thank you for the advice with the spelling - I don't know why I do this mistake.
For the other topic, I have a different information:
"Wie viele Angestellte braucht man für einen Betriebsrat?
Grundsätzlich können alle Arbeitnehmer*innen einen Betriebsrat gründen. Zur Gründung reichen drei Beschäftigte. Mindestens fünf Beschäftigte müssen im Betrieb wahlberechtigt sein. Von ihnen müssen drei die Voraussetzung zur Kandidatur erfüllen"
But I do not know if the company size also influence the scope of things the workers council can decided. That instead of a "has to approve" there will be just "has to be informed" in smaller companies. I don't know.
Also if you have less than 10 employeés than the "job security act" (dt. Kündigungsschutzgesetz) is not applied for this small sized company. Therefore the company can just fire the worker more easier than in a medium or big company. Might be the better option with less liquid funds
Hello Ian, you will also read in the comments from many dissatisfied Germans who prophesy the decline and the near end of the German economy. (We've been doing this for as long as I can remember) That's our mentality. But only the dissatisfied can develop further and look for solutions.
the first one who discovers that mentality as an advantage :)
@@kellymcbright5456
This also has to do with the perfectionism that we are often said to have. ...everything can somehow be made a little bit better than it is.
@@ilonahaun When it comes to perfectionism we have a long way to go before we reach the Japanese. In Germany we say when it comes to irregularities in handcrafted object - ah, well, it shows it is done by hand. In Japan they train their people to produce even quality, every time, yes, while handcrafting. In a Japanese bakery all products of a special kind look exactly the same - because the clients want it that way. Germans live by the good enough approach compared to that. We just set a high bar for good enough.
@@franhunne8929
The aesthetic (not technical) perfectionism in Japan can also have strange excesses...would you pay 50€ for a particularly beautifully grown apple?
@@ilonahaun I agree about the excesses, but all I wanted to say was, that we are not the most perfect perfectionists
In Germany, there’s on average one niche world leader per village.
Sometimes it’s firms that make stuff like opera courtains, other times it’s shops specializing in reupholstering cinema chairs or expert steel craftsmanship (examples of the latter two are located in my village).
The reupholstering firm even gets requests from the middle east. It’s quite amazing to learn about these kinds of things.
I would suggest you the video "Geography Now Germany" it's really informative about everything that's going on in Germany. Would love to see your reaction to it. BTW great content, keep doing your thing love to watch it all the time. greetings from Germany 😜🇩🇪
... and in addition, if you are interested in to have a look on the beauty of Germany, you maid check "This is Germany"... 🙂
What also isn't mentioned is that many, probably most Mittelstand companies are incorporated not as a joint-stock company, but as a public limited company or some other limiting model, disallowing hostile buyouts by industry giants. Even one of the giants, the Bosch company is still a GmbH, a public limited company, which is still privately owned and not traded on the stock market.
Nearly all of these Mittelstand companies harken back to days when guilds and guildmasters still held a HUGE influence on how and when you could perform your craft. It was seen as a mark of honor to be called a "Meister", a "Master" of your craft. While those days of guilds are long gone, there is still a long standing tradition of accruing honor to someone who successfully finishes their Meisterbrief (literally master's letter), their master's degree. As such being part of crafts and the production process is not considered low skill or dishonorable here. But to be considered a real master at your craft you also have to prove, everyday, that you are willing to give your very best, and shoddy work should not be accepted. Sadly though, this mindset is slowly dissolving in the 'get-rich-quick' world of today. Cutting corners has sadly become a fairly common occurence even in Germany.
But then there are the owners of many Mittelstand companies that still work in their companies, stuck elbows deep in machine grease or wielding pliers, hammers, and other tools. Those are the ones that are laudable examples of the Mittelstand. They still want to produce the best product, and show pride in their product, as well as try to get their employees into that same mindset. When everybody has a similar mindset to that then everyone is also willing to take cuts when a company is a-hurtin', just for everyone to have a chance to stay afloat.
In 2008 the previously very successful owner of a Mittelstand company had just bought and renovated a small mansion, more or less a tiny castle when the housing crisis hit the banking sector. His company was in a dire financial situation. Instead of retaining his full spread of luxury cars, he sold all of them, bought a small compact car, and took that to work. When that wasn't sufficient he mortgaged his 'castle' to be able to continue to pay his employees' wages. When his employees found that out, they decided to petition the union and the worker's council to offer him a cut to their work time / Kurzarbeit, which allowed the company to reduce their wages but still retained all employees. The owner had to be convinced that this was the way to go. He reluctantly accepted. A few years later the economy and his company recovered, with all employees still being retained by the company. Yet now, everybody in the company, owner and employees, knew that they could trust the others.
I think a lot of germans also know the stories from the war or shortly after the war were people had a very hard time and often little food. So a lot of us were taught to save food and money. This could maybe change when the older generations are gone. Not sure if a word alone formed that mentality alone. greets
Germany had to change2 Deutsche Mark for 1 Euro,there was no devaluation. the point is,without the Euro Deutsche Mark would have become highly expensive.
If you want to feast your eyes on some amazing landscapes and buildings in Germany, you should check out the video by Dr Ludwig „This is Germany“ and put on captions to get to know what is what.
Mabe someone said it before, maybe not: You weren’t wrong about France being bigger than Germany. In fact France is almost double the size of Germany in landmass. Germany on the other hand has the densest population in all of Europe.
Haha yeah. There's barely a region where you can drive for longer than 10mins without at least passing a village, if not driving through one.
Makes it quite pleasant to get lost in the woods because you'd have to be the unluckiest moron of all times to not accidentally stumble over a settlement... 🤣
But hey, not complaining. 🤷♀️
Sorry but you're wrong. Monaco is the densest country in Europe with more than 15000 people ! per m2. Germany is on the 10th place with only 225 people per m2.
@@Marohntje Yes, i know, and there's also the Vatican. But that doesn't fit in the comparison for me. You can't compare a city to a quite big country (in european measures). Maybe i chose the wrong words, but in relation to it's size, Germany is at least one of the densest countries.
P.S.: 225 people per m2 is pretty packed btw.😉
@@Prof.Dr.Diagnose what about the Netherlands. 504 people per m2... We think Germany is quiet. Lots of room to drive (fast).
@@Marohntje Yes you’re right, that’s why i corrected myself to 'one' of the densest.
And compared to other countries of roughly the same size or bigger, Germany is very highly populated.
Fun fact:
Many of our digital Products are directly tied to a german company for a relatively simple chain:
Most of our modern processors for Computers, phones, even TVs, and other stuff are made via a process known as "EUV" (Extreme Ultra Violet Lithography, basically the way you burn the actual structure of a Chip into a piece of silicone) and there is pretty much one company, who is able to build the machines for that (ASML in the netherlands), because they need to be stupidly precise (remember, those structure are only a few atoms wide). And to achieve that precision, they need even more precise optical systems (mirrors, lenses and so on), that are manufactured by ZEISS Semiconductor manufacturing Technology in the City of Jena
As Germany was divided between West and East world, competition made both sides to invest a lot in it, too.
I think that a main factor is our system of education for all craftsmen. The dual system. I started as an car mechanic apprentice in 1974 at a Mercedes dealership in Hamburg. 3 years of education. 50% in the workshop under supervision with a detailed learning plan from the guild. 50% in a school for car mechanics. After the 3 years we had final assessment in theorie and practical. When we passed we where able care mechanics. All car mechanics and all other ligns of business go through that education. After three years of work in your line of business you can go to the next level. Becomming a Master of your profession. Me as a Automotive Master Mechanik. I joyned school for two years in the evening time after job of the Automotive Craftmens Guilde.
After two years we had to pass two weeks of final assessments. 50% theorie and 50% practical. In economics, teaching apprentices, automotive engineering, workshop organisation, mathematics, metal work and welding, etc. When we passed and got our certificate got we where alowed to run our own service workshop. But you need this certificate to run a workshop. I whent to the headquarter after my degree as Master Mechanic and started another carreer with further more education and trainings. I think that this education system is the key reason for our success. Today i am retired and hug my vintage car and motorcycles. ;-) Have a look at my youtube channel Fritztoons.
Why is Germany such an Industrial Leader? This is another nice video about this theme.
I think the funniest bit about that is that people who aren't particularly into stuff like that always are confused when they hear "number three exports behind USA and China". "Uh... Wait ... What? How? They don't export THAT many cars, do they?"
Nah mate, we don't. But we're the ones who sell all the machinery and parts to China they need to produce all of their shit. 🤣
Because we wre the China from the 19th century and the institutional setting devolped to strengthen a industrial economy e.g. vocational training system
I work in the quality department at one of the big german car manufcturers. I am not allowed to say what company but i can say that the production volume is as important as the quality, especial for exportcars for Japan..those have to be perfect.
Queensland Australia import a shitload of solar panels from Germany for there big budget solar Skeem's that are supposed to employ a lot of local people and then the council's and local governments dont do as they say and end up contracting most of the work out to people from overseas
Yes, you have to admit German products are generally of superior quality. One only has to look at cars and specialised machines to see why the German psyche of producing the best has made the country what it is now. I think their economics approach is far better than in other countries. I also think that their approach to debt is so positive and again why their economy is doing so well.
Add to that the facts that Japan has about one and a half times the population of germany (around 125 mil), the US is about 4 times larger (around 330 mil), and China has about 17 times as large a population (around 1.4 billion).
Germany punches far, far higher above its weight than one could reasonably expect.
We also generally treat employees like people. Our unions usually work TOGETHER with management to get the best result for the long term survivability of the company, which of course benefits the company and its employees. The US model of going from quarter to quarter is very frowned upon here in Germany.
I still find it funny that originally the label "Made in Germany" was introduced by either the UK or US in order to discourage people from buying products made in Germany.
Err the Deutschmark was converted to Euros at a ratio of 2:1, i.e. 2 Mark for 1 Euro. Not the other way around. But of course he's correct in his analysis, without the Euro German products would be MUCH more expensive on the international market. On the other hand we have given up control of the currency.
What an amazing education
BMW has also introduced the dual education system in their factories in the USA - with success, the quality of the products from these factories has improved significantly!
From 2002-06 Germany was Export-Weltmeister. No kidding ☝️☺️
Ahjo. Beim Saufen sind wir immer an erster Stelle. Export, du weißt schon, ne? :D
I really like your calm voice, nice to watch/hear
I am german and i find IT intrested what think USA people from germany and her people and her Produkts smile
Puma and Addidas are right across from each other in the small town they were started. and what you see at 9:18 is i believe an arial shot of either cambridge or oxford from england
You're right, that's the Christ Church, OXFORD.
Harsewinkel is in my home area in North Rhine Westphalia, almost sure he mentiobed it because Claas is from there, a manufacturer of agricultural machinery that is kinda big. Miele, Bertelsmann and Nobilia are somewhat big players in their respective fields and they're also from the same district area 😊
It’s amazing how everyone admires Germany’s economy but we seem unable to apply its lessons in the rest of the West. The Mittelstand sounds like an awesome idea.
Not totally sure, but I don't think that the Netherlands and other states are far behind or it might even be ahead. This is just me looking at GDP per capita, which might be a bad indicator?
@@klaesregis7487 it could be a bad indicator. I don't think it's the case with the Netherlands, but if a country has a high inequality between poor and rich (exploitation), GDP per capita might be misleading in terms of general living standards.
it is no idea.
Well the model for the others was quiet simple. cheap cheap cheap products worldwide!
A lot followed the free market idea, free trade, economies based on service, producing abroad, and get in debt at low rates to fuel the economies. And went down.
Those who kept their industries, manufacturing leading edge&quality products, possessing low debt levels are winners today.
It may have to be mitigated.
austerity policies, the energy crisis and inflation are hiting hard (working poors) .
Retirement pensions based on stock exchange is quiet risky.
Plus the euro may blow off in case of some members defaulting their debt...
One explanation for why Germany is rich is what Continental company doing against the trade union in Mako, Hungary. They exploit the workers.
he didn't mention the highest export surplus.
Yeah many bigger (not huge) companies are located in smaller towns or even villages. I've got an example in my 20km radius. If you ever see the printing FRIPA-MIltenberg on something paper related like paper tissues you can be certain it has been produced by a company in Miltenberg a bavarian town with around 10k population. Or another example is Josera which ships out entire trains of pet food regularly. Just located a few kilometers away from FRIPA
As an software developer, I really appreciate the German (and French) approach to making things open. When a competitor hides their source code it may be extremely painful or impossible to develop that piece of software further. This has very big impact especially on datacenter products, server software and tooling which you may use to create other pieces of software
Hi Ian, we just passed the 84 million mark in terms of inhabitants recently so population is growing again.
Klar, dank der "Fachkräfte"zuwanderung in's völlig überfüllte Schland trotz Pandemie und Co. :)
I just learnt a lot about diffrent mindsets because of language and meanings of words, very interesting.
Germany products are famous for top quality here in sweden. But its quality has been decreasing the last 2 decades.
Im talking about tools, cars, electronics and such.
That's so. Because many parts are manufactured abroad and only completed in Germany. It's often the same with cars. Usually some plugs, clips or holders that are manufactured somewhere in the world break.
Some german jeans are from Bangladesh, are only labeled and packaged here and are then a german branded product.
yes, the last 20 years were neoliberalism: "cheaper, cheaper, cheaper!".
In Sweden too? Didn't expect that. I thaught it would be just in far away countrys, not our "neighbours" :D Since Sweden also produces all things of good quality.
If you want to sell a product a satisfied customer will guarantee your future success. Quality gets customers satisfied because of reliability, longevity and sustainability. So that is what you will do when you are interested in longterm relations with your customers thus securing the future of your enterprise and the future of your employees.
That's the sober German approach to business (exceptions from the rule do always exist...), that is actually how we are as a people - a little boring to some - but things are getting done
Dutch economy is heavily relying on our big neighbour.
And we rely on you, now more than ever! Thanks for keeping the Groningen gas field running a bit longer and taking the risk of earthquakes for us. And thanks for helping us out through your LNG terminals until our are up and running. We appreciate that.
Sadly Germanys economy is being hurt at the moment by Putin and the cutting back of gas supplies. Their manufacturing relies heavily on gas.
As an English person, I appreciate and respect Germanys approach to work and education. And I wish we could be a bit more like that in the uk. 🙂
ohhh it isnt that much putin who is hurting us... its our own bloody politics wich screw us over...
we started the sanctions... not him. we. as in, the politics started that shit...
wich in the end hurt us more than him or russia as a whole.
Putin is selling USA gas at 4 times the price?
Der restliche Wohlstand ist hier bald aufgebraucht und die "w0ke" Generation Z/Klimakids etc. werden nix zu Stande bringen, außer den völligen Ruin noch schneller herbeizuführen.
Wer versteht, der geht.
Well, let's hope for a piss warm winter so we need less gas to keep warm and can therefore use more of the scraps we have for production. 🤷♀️
I still can't believe past governments bought into Putin's lies like that. Every time something about Russian gas and pipelines was on TV I felt like screaming "DON'T FUCKING BELIEVE IT! AT LEAST DON'T MAKE US DEPENDENT ON THEM! TRY TO DIVERSIFY IN SOURCES!"
But. Who cares. Can't change that now. 🤷♀️
Please look at Siemens, VAG, Bosch and others financial statments, they never had larger profits than these days.
Germany needs another 2 milion workers, and it needs it yesteday.
Putin and Covid did not schratched them by now.
As long as you want to drive a Mercedes-Benz everything is ok. ; ) Cars, pharma or chemicals ... Germany is always top-notch - we produce "the good stuff" - maybe a bit more expensive, but the world buys it anyway ... "Made in Germany" = you want it - we make it!
we are some what about 80 million folks in germany . we grew strong in number when west germany and gdr reunited in the late 80`s .
And where are all the goods exported? in Germany, but not just anywhere. but here in Bremerhaven. Container Terminal 4 is one of the largest transshipment hubs in Germany and Europe.
Among other things, it is also one of the largest parking areas for export vehicles for America and Asia. Porsche, VW, Mercedes, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and many other car brands are shipped via our port to the wide world.
He made a mistake, the € had nearly double the value of the old DM. I can remember the € starter kit from 2001, cost 20,- DM and had 10€ in it.
The introduction of the Euro was not only beneficial for Germany. It was positive for export oriented businesses, but imports became more expensive, holidays in foreign countries became more expensive for Germans, inflation increased while wages did not, resulting in a loss of buying power - etc.
A currency reflects the economic power of a country. As such, the Euro is too weak for Germany while it is too strong for other countries in the Euro zone.
Right. The Euro was good for economy and cut my salary in half in just a few years. How long did it take for the goods to have the old D-Mark price in euros? Some goods were not unlabeled at all.
At that time, many people also had to struggle with dumping wages because small companies could not pay the wages that large ones and the large ones were dictated by a narrow price range. Companies that hardly anyone knows, such as Magna, Schaeffler, Hella, Mahle, ATE, etc., work almost exclusively for the large automotive industry. They produce the things for which the big corporations don't want to pay top wages.
On the other hand, the small companies also pay the taxes here. The big companies have a mailbox somewhere in the world, Luxembourg, Ireland, Cayman Islands and calculate where taxes can be avoided. You can see here too. Our neighboring town has a lot of heavy industry and is constantly broke. Apart from Jägermeister, we only have small companies, everything runs smoothly here.
There are two aspects I'd like to add to the picture.
Low national debt rate of only 70% may sound nice, but what it actually means is a lack of public investment, resulting in various difficulties.
For example....an underfunded education system (slow digitalisation, rotting buildings, staff shortages...), privatisation within the health system for cutting costs an therefore staff shortages and sinking service quality, a crumbling rail network and underfunding of public transportation in general (regarding what would actually be necessary regarding sustainability goals), lack of social housing, crumbling road infrastructure, ... the list goes on.
The distribution of wealth is becoming increasingly unequal. A significant part of recovering from beeing the sick man of Europe was wage suppression. Germany has one of Europes biggest low-wage sectors. Of course, there are economic sectors, especially those with a high degree of unionisation or the high level service sector, where people get payed reasonably. But still, most of the productivity gains as well as benefits of price increases flow towards the top 1% of the people.
*edit: typos
Germany was actually the largest exporter a few years ago. Bigger than China or the USA
5:40 Thing is, we still have a lot of buildings standing that are hundreds of years old, and they're actually protected very strictly.
They can't be torn down, and can only be restorated by specialists.
That's why those old buildings are still standing, and still beautiful, sometimes, right next door to incredibly modern buildings.
We have an insanely rich history, and we're proud of that.
_...and people like my mother enjoy making fun of america, for thinking something from the 1800s is old._
The town I live in has existed since the early 700s and the downtown area still features buildings from the 1300s, and parts of the old wall surrounding the town, that are over 800 years old.
In the Netherlands, we also have the woord 'Schuld' for debt. Not unsurprisingly, we have even less national debt as Germany.
I have heard some people refer to the big three that they want to sell you your next car while japan and germany want to sell you your next 10 cars.
Hey, you seem like a great guy! I really enjoy your videos. And just to have said it, I love the US, but there are some tweaks to be done! Wish you and your country all the best
I'm a German who left Germany when I was 17 years old and worked in 20 countries and I never forget what my Father told me. Buy only what you can afford! Because of that I never had any debts. For every car, I purchased (over 26 because some countries left driving and some right side driving )I paid cash as well my Houses. It suited me well!
Another big difference between central European countries like Germany and the US or UK is the public sector.
In many central European states, the public sector makes up about 50% of the nation's GDP. in countries like the UK and the US, it's about a third.
Now, many people might say this is a bad thing, but every coin's got two sides. First of all the public sector is somewhat insulated from economic crisis to a certain degree, which is quite useful to attract long-term private investors who like to see predictable development. Second of all, the public sector in central Europe tends to lose *less* money than its American and British counterparts -- despite being bigger. Which is kind of weird but there you go.
What's even scarier is that a few years ago we were even the world export champions ahead of the USA and China
Also we own the second most amount of gold.
A small family business that you probably know is HARIBO. The company comes from Bonn.
And what does HARIBO mean?
Well...
HA = Hans (first name)
RI = Riegel (family name)
BO = Bonn
Have a nice day and stay healthy...
Magnus
Thank you so much. (i didnt know. To me, it was french because we have a factory & museum in Uzès/France.. LOL)
There are more reasons to the German economic success.
The working culture and attitude toward employees is rather different in Germany compared to the US:
Germany has got paid holidays for workers, health care, firms paying into social security and retirement funds for their employees, and sometimes there are other social benefits such as daycare centres for children, after-work recreation and sports schemes being provided by some firms etc.
Some things are required by law (social security, health care etc.), other things are optional, but the rationale behind all these schemes is, that the government and companies have recognised that if you treat your employees well, they tend to be motivated and thus are more productive.
The hire-and-fire mentality is not as widespread in Germany as it is in the US, since most german companies , especially those of the „Mittelstand“ regard their employees as an asset that's worth investing into. When you have hired a new employee, a young person that has just left school and which your company at its own expense has put through apprenticeship and training schemes either within or outwith your company, you have already made a considerable investment, and you want this investment to bear fruit. Thus, as company management, you are well advised to look after that person’s needs and create a worker-friendly environment that motivates the employee stay with your firm and put his best efforts into his job.
Strong unions are another thing in Germany, which means company management has got to work with the union not against it, resulting in strong employees' rights.
BTW; The picture around 09:05, that's Radcliffe Camera, part of the University of Oxford.
About benefitting from the cheap Euro - the German Central bank has currently over 1 TRILLION of open demands (Target 2 salds) towards other the central bank of other European states. This mean they buy German products in masses, but only on credit - wich they never will and can pay off.
- They work hard..
nuff said
Man kann sich auch beim Schrott produzieren hart anstrengen... Oft ist das der Fall, wenn man keine Ahnung hat, von dem was man macht.
I live nearby 2 little towns where some big player are stationed. Just 5 of them are Bilstein, Spax srews, Dorma, ABUS and DEMAG cranes.
Who knows non of them?
Haha, no one. Just like no one knows Alfi, Schuller, BRAND, K&M and Zippe. 🤷♀️🤣
We're kings of being stealthy world leaders in little things no one seems to notice but everyone needs.
(Though... Does one REALLY need Thermos cans and cups and stuff? 🤷♀️)
@@asaris_ called Hidden Champions (50% are German)
Well its no secret their work ethic is top tier just like Japan. Both also have outstanding quality regulations. Two main factors to become successful if you have a lower population and limited land resources.
Hahaha. Reminds me of the Japanese guy I used to chat with who worked for the German branch of a Japanese company (here in Germany) who'd endlessly complain about German work ethics.
"They're all just leaving early on Fridays! There's an ungodly amount of paid vacation time, you can just call in sick whenever you please and people actually do that, and they only do overtime work when it's really necessary! Not even talking about the dude who seems to just skip every second Friday entirely! And you're not allowed to contact them during the weekend and their vacation. How do you people get shit done?!?"
"Uh... By giving our employees a good work/life balance so they're more productive during the time they actually work? 🤷♀️"
"HOW'S THAT SUPPOSED TO WORK?"
"Uh... The people you work with DO get their shit done, don't they?"
"Well... Yes... But..."
"*eyeroll*"
Germany and Japan have very different work cultures. In fact, you could say that the japanese work culture is rather inefficient. The relationship between a company and its employers is basically family in japan. Once you work in a company, you will work there forever. That also means a company is not getting rid of bad employees. That also means another company does not have an easy job getting qualified workers from elsewhere. The average japanese worker has 16,5 vacation days but on average they do not use 8 of them for cultural reasons one would assume. I hear similar things about the US where even if you have paid vacation days, you will be looked at weirdly if you actually take them.
Germans on the other hand work fewer hours than most other countries, the IGM union contract has a regular weekly work time of 35h (IGM is Germanys biggest worker union with 3m+ members) and 30 paid vacation days among many other benefits. Germany has a lot of strong employee protection laws and a working culture where it is accepted to make use of these laws. When you have 30 paid vacation days in your contract, you will bloody take them, if anything your company will ask you to take them before the end if the year if you haven't taken them yet. And there are many side benefits to shorter work days. You have a better work/life balance so you are generally a happier person, you will be less stressed meaning you are more likely to have creative ideas that could lead to the improvement of the product you're selling. Creativity goes down massively if you are stressed. Germans take pride in their work and especially in a Mittelstand company, work can be very rewarding for qualified workers due to great ideas being implemented more easily than in big companies without sacrificing your work/life balance and pay which you would do in a smaller company.
Some of the top earners, especially people in the IT do complain about lower pay than in the US, partly due to Germany taxing its citizens, especially high income citizens, higher than the US. But its a system of solidarity where everyone has healthcare and is guaranteed a roof over your head. Im fine paying a few more in taxes so even low income people can live a life worth living.
One thing to keep in mind: Export vs Import surplus.
Germany used to be the number one in exports
G'day Ian. Your shaver has a large hole in it . Hahahaha
I also have a BRAUN shaver, inherited from my father, about 50 years old - it works perfectly.
Used to be Nr. 1 exporter for quite some time!
Germany is very succesfull,because they got good educated People,that work very hard,disciplined and produces highest quality stuff..same Attitude you find only in Japan,switzerland,austria...🤔🇪🇺
2021 : EXports : China 3.3 Trillion USD , US 1.75 Trillion , Germany 1.63 Trillion , Netherlands 0,835 Trillion ... Russia 0.434 Trillion
Population : China 1.4 billion , US 330 Million , Germany : 83 Million , Netherlands 17 million
The Mittelstand also includes hundreds of hidden champions of world economy - companies you do not know but leading the worlds best companies
example : Zeiss Jena
the second most important company in the world for making further developments on computer chips .... ( right after ASML - Netherlands )
in addition german companies CARE about their employees - no hire and fire mentality - that is only the case in shareholder driven turbo economies like the US !!
9:14 - that is not Germany - that is Oxford UK - no clue why he uses that in his video .. maybe because it costs 10th of thousands of pounds per year to learn ther - while the german universities are for FREE !
The US system is mainly built around consume and shareholders value - not around the people.
In the US you pay 10-13.000 usd for giving a birth - and same amount for a funeral and all time inbetween you are sentenced to CONSUME !!
and ofc most of the companies pay low salaries and people have to work their ass off and have to have 2 - 4 jobs ... unbelieveable ...!!!
the US system is one of the most brutal capitalistic systems only enriching 1 % of the people - the rich ones - on the back of all others !!! what a broken system !!
For the past 3 weeks i came across a youtube channel call King luxury and it's really crazy
Even from a Dutch perspective, Germans really focus on quality.
Also imagine a country with no real rich natural resource. A big part of other healthy economies like e.g. Norway is the oil or gas. Take away those and the country would stand on the same pedistole. The US is big in oil as well. Take it away and the powerhouse is much more equal if not lower than other countries.
BTW: Rich is a stretch and only gdp based in this.
People here have net incomes where you wouldnt even stand up for. Something that is over 100k income in the US is equal to 40-50k income in Germany. Peiple dont earn crazy numbers and a net income is freed for health care programs already...if you wanna be on the same footing as in germany, your 100k shrinks significantly to a point of being just equal.
Many people from around the world are shocked sometimes that the normal wages arent that high in germany.
Before reunification West Germany had about the same population size as France or the UK, but East Germany added another 16 million (and a very low birth rate at the other hand). Since population is aging ever since economists calculate Germany's economy needs about 400,000 immigrants per year to maintain the current workforce.
One strength of German industry is to build the machines others need for their manufacturing. Its weakness is the naivety with which it sold many of its most advanced technologies and particularly its robots building industries to China.
Germany is not afraid to import!
Import talent, I mean.
I am an International student pursuing a Master's degree. I can tell with experience the Germans are now investing heavily in the IT industry to fill the gap and slowly but surly establishing a digital driven economy.
Problem though: we have been able to sell our products at a relatively competitive price, because the energy used in the process was cheap, aka russian gas and oil. That’s why moving to renewable energies is not only environmentally important but also for our economy.
Than why are the energy prices so high at the moment? I thought the sun doesn't give you a bill :D
Germans live to work
The French work to live
I think the original video got ONE thing wrong - the Deutsche Mark was never twice the value of the Euro, it was rather the other way round. The Euro was 1,95 DM. Which means when I buy a bread now for 3,50 € - it is nearly seven Deutsche Mark. Which makes you choke a bit. Thankfully my income rose, too.
Maybe an easy way for US citizens to remember - or get an idea of - the population of Germany is: The German population (about 84M at the end of 2022) is (currently) almost exactly 1/4 of the US population.
or (population, approximately):
4*Germany= USA
Germany= 2*CA = 4*FL = 4*NY
While everything mentioned in that video sounds nice and glorious, how many of the factors that contributed to today’s wealth are quickly falling apart.
Take the vocational training as an example. As the video mentions, it is an important Conerstone of German employment and practice vocational training does allow people to get qualified in their field without having to go through academic training. However, as the accessibility for university improves (University does not have any tuition fees, etc) vocational training is becoming increasingly more unattractive. It’s commonly not as well paid (despite generating the majority of the actual value) and is seen by many as less desirable as traditional white collar careers backed by a university degree. This often makes it hard for companies, big enterprises and Mittelstands alike, to fill vacant positions with qualified workers and grow properly.
This problem will only become more severe as time goes in because the baby boomer generation is about to enter pension age within the next 5-10 years. So many people are leaving the job market and a lot fewer are coming to fill those positions.
Many industries in Germany have relied on cheap labor for years now. With increasing cost of living, this labor is increasingly hard to find and rightfully demanding higher salaries. This trend will also continue with the job market exodus of baby boomers. To make it ever worse, many of the positions now becoming vacant are jobs that are absolute critical (many companies in the trades for example) but incredibly/impossible to automate which could be used to offset the reduced workforce elsewhere.
i would love you to react on some star 266 offroad videos
also China and the US have tons of natural resources additionally to the big population while Germany has to import most of it. And Germany also has extensive and expensive workers rights to pay for. If that is the price for having China overtake us, i'm very happy to pay it.
Of course it's not perfect but in the whole it's ok.
I agree, quality over quantity. No matter where you're from. Quantity just benefits the the stakeholders, not the public at large. The world would be a better place when quality would be the main focus in society!
I work for a German company in my country, but the model didn't translate well and they don't use the same operating methods as the parent branch back in Germany and just seemingly adopted a more US style. So high turn-over, high pressure, no benefits and average wage. CEO and other officers are German born and raised so I guess they didn't want to try and adapt the model. You might think my country uses a US model, but it's more mixed and I think could have worked. I guess we'll never know.
Yes indeed Germany Economic Powerhouse Number 1 in Europe
There are many many many great Companies from Germany
You are telling about beautiful buildings... yes, because Germans are still proud of these and taking care of it!
Old Stone Houses taken care of with even the repairs made in high quality can last hundreds of years. It's part of our history!
Products Made in Germany very good Quality.long lasting.the higher Prices are simply justified .And thats alright.Good Quality Products cost Money.
6:47 Würth
Würth Group as the world's largest fastening technology company[
Germany successfully exploit the common currency. They export a lot. That should rise the value of the currency.
However other countries in Euro Zone could not export so much and lots of them have crumbling economy. That lowers the value of the currency.
In short Germany exploits poorer countries in the Euro Zone.
On the other hand you have to look into the EU develpment programs and that germany funds the biggest part of the EU budgets which are needed for these programs.
I wish Portugal could learn from Germany, but we're literally turning into a mini USA and it's very sad. Yes, I'm talking about the school and university depts, healthcare being agonizingly slow that more and more people are going towards the insurance systems. Enough said, I don't want to go too political on a comment also I shouldn't.
and now compare the size of the US.... 3,809,525 square miles.... with the size of Germany... 138.067 mi²... thats a big difference
Hope you are open to react to Asian countries after this. Maybe Japan or Korea and so on.
France may be a little larger, but it has more rural areas, the population is not as dense as in Germany.
Take a look at Switzerland 🇨🇭
- Income
- Public transportation
And so on...
And view it in relation, Switzerlands population is less than 10% of Germany