Existential threat almost at the door yet 0 reaction, Germany is still massively under mandatory NATO 2% contributions and 0 attempt to get there. Wehrmacht is a joke considering size of the country.
He didn't turn around Merkel's horrible energy policies while whole world was just watching in awe how it unfolded. Nothing about semi-permanent migrant crisis.
Really, german population deserves much better leaders than him or Merkel, these are tough times and weak leaders lead to degradation of not only economy, plus it spills all over EU.
> Existential threat almost at the door yet 0 reaction
June 2022 "German lawmakers approve 100 billion euro military revamp" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-lawmakers-approv...
> massively under mandatory NATO 2% contributions and 0 attempt to get there.
2015: 1.19%, 2016: 1.20%, 2017: 1.24%, 2018: 1.26%, 2019: 1.36%, 2020: 1.57% (https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/10/p...)
Do you think German voters want to spend more money on military?
I would hope so, the Bundeswehr is the thing we should worry about though.
Why do people pretend that Russia is capable of even threatening the EU? They can't even subdue the backwater that is Ukraine. Even if Putin takes all of it, he will need decades to make Russia capable of striking meaningfully into Europe. And we can outproduce him 10 to 1 for every piece of military hardware, and we have enough fighting age immigrants pouring into Europe in the last decades that we can mobilize and throw into the meatgrinder before having to tap our own population. I am convinced that this is one of the reasons we have so lax borders in Europe - to have cannon fodder for WWIII
I could say that this is extremely macabre (which it is), but I guess I have a better chance reaching the HN crowd by saying that soldiers under force usually perform atrocioucsly, especially fighting for a cause they have zero interest in.
Because its regime has verbally done just that, and has conducted sabotage and assassinations on EU soil on multiple recent occasions.
The fact that is attacking Ukraine in part as a response to its attempt to join the EU is also very reasonably interpreted as part of this intrinsically threatening stance.
Of course part of this is by design, letting the education sector drift into becoming utter crap. Wouldn't want a populace capable of thinking for themselves, now would we? And as such maybe we do deserve better, but are somehow incapable of voting ourselves out of the bad situation we are in. Doesn't help at all, that there is a growing aging polulation, that is basically not actually capable of living democracy and simply always and forever votes for corrupt gangs, oops, I mean parties.
I expect from a person valuing and living in a democracy, to actually inform themselves before voting, instead of letting calcified brain cells vote. Maybe I am asking too much here, but all it takes is 2-4h once every couple of years, and not only thinking of oneself, actually being a member of society and understanding oneself as such.
You should strike that word from your active vocabulary. Our armed forces are called Bundeswehr, and people might mistake an honest mistake for some Nazi leanings.
The reason Scholz came to power, was not because he is strong, but because he wasn't. Germany is as divided as the rest of europe. Some think the war in Ukraine is the most important. Some think climate crisis is. Some think cheap energy is the most important, some think the immigrants, ... so how does it all go together? Well, it doesn't. And since we are a democracy we need to find some compromise. Not a dictator.
But yeah, some indeed want to have a dictator and a strong Wehrmacht back. And their numbers are rising.
But that's the playbook for France and the UK, and all of Europe. I think it will take 10+ more years of slow-grind reductions in their standard of living for Europe to change its ways.
I'm an entrepreneur myself and there is still a lot of red tape I'd rather get rid off, but the last four years saw a lot of movement and were really good in this regard. If anything I would hope that any new government keeps up the pace!
You just described word-for-word "Industrie 4.0" - Germany's attempt at this back in 2014 [0]
It did not take off.
And this is the issue - these are all buzzwords, but there are more systemic issues in Germany caused by it's conglomeratization. It's always the same handful of conglomerates (Siemens, VW, Bosch, etc) lobbying for industrial policy.
[0] - https://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/image/docu...
New companies that do what?
But with which skilled workforce? Investment? Regulatory flexibility? Infrastructure? Energy?
So the real question is "how", IMHO.
If there is any reference to a disaster, a catastrophe or poor decision(which there always is in any thread about Germany, even if it has nothing to do with energy), it's ALWAYS about Nuclear.
My favourite was a comment which unironically described it as "the most catastrophic peacetime decision in human history".
The outcome is political instability when voting citizens and industry demand that the government solve the issue, and people get more upset as the energy market get more unstable. A secondary effect is that most political solution to this problem results in significant government costs which get put on taxes and energy fees, which only infuriate people more when price variability continues.
Technically I guess it's true, but this is not exactly a rare occurrence in parliamentary systems, and since we don't really have an equivalent event in American federal government (the lengthy process to elect a Speaker of the House last year was probably the closest we've come), I think most American readers interpret "collapse" as something much more dire than it actually is.
Not disagreeing with the American media’s love for click-baity nonsense, but I’ve been under the impression my whole life that this was a Britishism we imported. Not that British media is known for shying away from shock-value, but for what it’s worth, the BBC and The Guardian both refer to this as a government collapse, and have done so in the past when the French and Dutch governments collapsed.
Also a bit less confident this is a British import now than I was since I can’t track down a useful etymology. Would appreciate if anybody could post one here if they have it.
No. The closest is when the federal government shuts down because of the debt limit, which has happened multiple times. It's also arguably more impactful compared to a government "collapsing" (ie. new elections called).
What's there in the meantime before the elections? Would they appoint some kind of interim ministers? Which of course would not do anything at all to stir whatever policy currently there is, because they are not supposed to have any initiative. Also, "what if AfD wins?".
Situation normal, all fucked up...
Oberfeldwebel Hans Schultz was known mostly for turning a blind eye to the prisoners' various doings at Stalag 13 (to whom he was known simply as "Schultz"). Having proved himself hopeless in that capacity, it's not surprising that he'd be hopeless for Ukraine as well.
Something tells me you may be thinking of the current German Chancelllor, Olaf Scholz.
CDU’s policy document this week is likely to keep the debt brake which is actively preventing any meaningful investment in infrastructure here.
So the Germany economy can die while being in perfect health. Super.
They have imposed 3% deficit cap and then expanded it all over Europe using the Maastricht Treaty. Economist Steve Keen has called a ‘suicide pact’.
There’s a definite time bomb coming on the aging population, to boot.
Although I still think things are looking better in Germany than the UK right now.
- German economy is heavy on manufacturing: Part of their success was cheap raw materials (oil, gas, etc.) from Russia. That edge has disappeared thanks to the war in Ukraine.
- More competition from China: China is moving up the value chain in manufacturing, competing with Germany in previous strongholds. Lowers margins for lots of German companies.
- At the same time subdued demand from China itself: A large part of growth - esp. in the automotive section - came from China. Domestic manufacturers of EVs have now better offers than Germany, meaning it's losing market share.
- Misguided energy politics: With an unnecessary exit from Nuclear energy (German nuclear power plants were among the most reliable ones). Driving up energy costs just at the moment when gas is already in short supply due to sanctions on Russia.
Will any new Government fix all these issues? Unlikely, they are structurally too deeply a part of the German economic model that a new Gov. could change them (except for restarting Nuclear power plants - but that seems unlikely atm).
I feel that Germany felt like EVs wouldn't take off, and thus ignored them for too long, and they got taken by surprise.
For example, the Model 3 Performance on 20" wheels has 303 miles of range, a 0-60 of 2.9 seconds and is about 20k cheaper than the BMW i4 M50 on 20" wheels has 227 miles of range and a 0-60 of 3.7 seconds.
Why? Well, the i4 isn't a purpose built EV. It sits on a platform that must incorporate everything, starting at a tiny 1.6 liter 4 banger, a 2 liter 4 banger with electric motor, a 3 liter 6 banger, and a plethora of configurations, manual, automatic, (air)suspension, performance (M3/M4), bodies (station wagon). And on top of that a battery pack beneath everything and electric motors.
Look under the hood on a BMW i4. Take the cover off. There is empty space there. It's wasteful.
So now I'm looking at our next car. Do I get the Tesla? Or the BMW?
CDU should just agree to work with AfD in return for some bright lines excluding the most extreme stuff.
@dang feel free to update to this, I generated it myself.
