To understand the decline of German manufacturing and productivity it helps to understand how Chinas has risen as Germany has declined.
China is not the only factor involved here but it is a major contributor.
Peter Hesslers book 'Country Driving' explains the methodology China has adopted to reverse engineer and out compete western manufacturing, brilliantly.
50 sats \ 1 reply \ @TomK OP 23h
This had an impact for sure. But the EU is a problem in itself. And the Euro is a disaster
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92% of China is one ethnic group, Han Chinese. There are undoubtedly regional tensions but there is also a unity of culture, unless you are one of the 8% minorities... Europe as the EU has embraced diversity inclusion and multiculturalism but this comes at a price. You lose unity of belief and purpose. You lose unity in a tribal sense. The EU seems to have had a great ambition- to prevent more intra European wars, but the tragic consequence of imposing/including so many diverse viewpoints has been that all that is achieved at best is compromise and mediocrity. It is also ironic, as a primary strategy via which Europe gained dominance over Africa, by creating absurdly inherently dysfunctional nation states which are composed of incompatible cultural groups who previously were self governing (divide and rule), has now been self imposed upon Europe in turn creating paralysis of purpose and action. This has made Europe, that imposed its empires upon the globe, now easy prey for China...the one nation it never completely subjugated. Its a mess for Europe. War it seems, is inevitable for the progression of human power structures? Should/could Germany break away as the UK did? If not what could be the solution to this mess? Could The Bitcoin Standard be part of the solution? - erasing the ability to tax citizens via debasement.
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