Having lived in UK and Germany for some time, although I'm a big fan of the British culture, I keep maintaining that Germany is much much better country overall simply because it's not centralised as UK is centralised in London.
Germany is prosperous, maybe there are not as many Unicorns as in USA or even UK, the country works like a clockwork and everyone is very active in very wide range of stuff.
All those charts showing how Europe is behind because top 100 largest companies are mostly American tech giants, some petrol companies and some construction and bank stuff from China? Those are so so misleading into making people believe that Germany or mainland Europe is a wasteland that missed out on technology.
Especially Germany, they have very well educated and healthy population and even if they don't make the most trendy consumer products right now, they still have wast infrastructure and people who can produce things.
Of course not everything is rosy, but Germany's and mainland Europe's core problems all come down to cheap energy availability and that's solvable. It's much easier to solve than stuff like widespread social problems like decline due to drug use or political instability.
They tend to rely on paperwork a bit too much maybe, they don't use credit cards that much etc. all these stereotypes are true but technology is not limited to computers, other stuff is also important and they are still pretty good in these things.
Germans have a lot of legal requirements, red tape, old ways of doing things. Netherlands and UK are more streamlined, more parts of govt and daily life are digital, bank systems are more modern.
No, it really is bad. I've lived in the UK and in Germany and Germany is definitely worse. I don't know why you would have such an opinion on something that you, by your own admission, know nothing about.
If anything the opposite of what you're saying is true. Everyone abroad thinks Germany is so efficient and Germany has this amazing reputation, but the reputation is a lie.
I found Germany absolutely dogshit for innovation in IT when I lived and worked there. It took the pandemic to move the needle even slightly on digitalisation of government services, and even then.
As for salaries: the salaries in tech in Germany aren't particularly competitive compared to Ireland, America, the UK, etc.
As for healthcare: its not free (its mandatory insurance), and the quality/speed of care is often worse than the NHS in my experience, however, I will grant them that they have some fantastic experts available at hospitals like the Charité in Berlin.
While certainly Germany has done a lot right and deserve credit for their current economic strength, we have to recognize that they've both chosen a very different path: i.e. stability over growth, and also have a very different culture than we Anglo-Saxons - which I would argue are quite inter-related.
When it comes to quality manufactured goods, Germany is legendary and has strongly biased its economy over the past 100 years to take advantage.
The US & Briton on the other hand, have always been first movers to adopt breakthrough tech - often at the expense of quality, stability of investments, etc, and are seemingly always better at the "soft" side of business: sales & marketing.
The world needs both the Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon models, and seemingly they both are still going to head down the same paths as before will little change in overall direction - with the exception of America trying to get better educated the Germans trying to become better sales/marketers.
Well looking at the comments, some germans make comparisons to growing up in east germany, the stasi, etc. And germany is the better performing economy in europe right now.
Germany is in the EU, easy language to learn, decent cost of living, good roads, good connections to other countries, nice people (once you get over German frankness), also, Germany is in the EU.
Why do I mention that Germany is in the EU? It means that it's much easier to go there for EU citizens, it is trivial to trade with Germany, it is not hard to start a company there, it is trivial to rent a house there, it is easy to travel there.
No matter some "minor" issues with German energy politics, this makes Germany a pretty interesting location.
This article is bullshit fluff. In Germany, I've witnessed excellent efficiency of course, but most of the workers are dicking around just as much as their counterparts from any other country. They're not machines, after all.
I won't get into details, but here's some first hand observations: the health care is great, the pay is average, the taxes are high, the Internet is average, working hours are average and there is no minimum salary (also there are people who work 9-6 incl. Saturdays, mostly foreigners), people are great, crime is low, language is hard, opportunities through the roof, business is hard (esp. compared to the US and nearby UK), basic living prices are OK, but any "luxuries" are expensive.
Germany lost 2 World Wars and today it has greater GDP than UK by $1 trillion. It doesn't matter who is hit harder it matters whose economy is more efficient and has more innovations.
If there's one thing living and working in Europe (Germany) has taught me is that all countries are more or less the same. It's just how well the culture manages to mask the "unattractive" traits we love to criticize in places like China (or America, as of late), and the PR/propaganda campaign they run to convince everyone they're the best place on the planet.
China is a prime example of subpar image/PR management. They really gotta take a hint and learn from the Germans, who are well respected and have lots of positive stereotypes parroted around the internet "work-life balance, efficiency, timeliness, high standards of living, LE FREE HEALTHCARE!!!"
IMO Germany is worse than America (the country they love to poo-poo on) and even China in so many respects. Yet America and China are the places people call "third world" nowadays.
- Trains are constantly late.
- Majority of offices don't have airconditioning or any air ventilation system (in fact, my previous workplace of 300 employees was in a building with NO insulation or fire alarm/suppression system!)
- Card payments are not accepted in at least 50% of places, particularly restaurants. Cash only in 2019 (can anyone say TAX EVASION?).
- People boast about contactless payments which just became mainstream last year like it's the second coming of sliced bread.
- Boasting about the public transportation system which is only the best if you're a student with a massive surplus of time/shortage of cash, otherwise it takes you anywhere from 10 mins to 1 hour (depending on time of day and route) more to get between two places compared to a car. Heaven forbid you have a family, then public transportation even costs more than having a car.
- Employers are extremely exploitative, especially in tech and especially startups - I'd say some places in America/Asia have better work-life and are less toxic than German companies. The only difference between America/China and Germany is the latter has employment laws that are actually enforced, but only if you go to court (but contrary to popular belief, don't make you "unfireable", just allow the employee to get a few thousand EUR as compensation for when the employer does try their hand at something exploitative - and they will, hoping you're not aware of your rights)
- Virtue signalling on all sorts of things. Not gonna get into politics/immigration, there's plenty on that elsewhere. But German companies love to boast about EQUALITY FOR ALL, DISCRIMINATION IS DISGUSTING. All while lowballing immigrants in terms of salary and imposing an industrial-grade glass ceiling for any non-German who tries to work here. E.g. they will boast how their company of 300 has over 80 nationalities and work exclusively in English (because 90% of clients are American/British) but oddly enough, everyone in mid-upper/upper management is white and German. Maybe throw in the occasional white non-German European or token Indian guy for DIVERSITY!!!111!!!!1
- Diesel, until recently, was the bragging point for efficiency. I remember not 5 years ago, there would be so many Europeans in comments sections of (any discussion remotely car/transportation related) poo-pooing on the "dumb Americans" for still using gasoline and polluting the environment by not getting "the bigger MPGs" using diesel. LOL.
- Free healthcare isn't actually free if you're not like the classic local European who still is a student with 0 work experience at age 30 shitposting on the internet. Look at the "KV" (health insurance) field of your payslip: I pay hundreds of EUR every MONTH as a healthy young person for "free healthcare". Out of sight, out of mind right?
TLDR China is about as attractive as any other country on the planet, they just have subpar image management and PR at the moment
A country that is incredibly rich in historical significance (both good and bad), cultural traditions, art (historical and modern), regional variety and nature. Cities are walkable, public transport is mostly decent (it's perfectly fine to live without a car if you're in the city), crime is low, poverty is low, the economy has been tanking a bit recently, but has traditionally been doing well.
In terms of mentality, Bavarians are very different from Rhinelanders who are very different from East Germans. Berlin is a bubble in and of itself and can't really be compared to the rest. In general, Germans tend to take comfort in clear rules and structure, and are used to a certain kind of cutting through bullshit, both of which may be a good or a bad thing. I'll also add that, to my knowledge, no other country has reflected its own role in history as deeply and critically as Germany has, which to me comes as a bonus even when there is a tendency to overcorrect.
Food is IMHO not great (except Käsespatzle), but beer is some of the best in the world.
If you just compare to continental countries that are very interconnected (lots of travel, import+export), I'd say Germany is doing a bit better but still not as successful as you'd wish. I think it really shows when the highest executives have a higher scientific education.
One has to view it from the long term perspective. Germanys success doesent seem very stable from the inside. The age pyramid is similar to japan, and a working social system + lots of future retirees means, there is a lot of unseen future debt here.
The main industry - the car industry is flailing and failing, by falling behind when it comes to e-mobility (except for BMW, but thats just the premium segment). Because of that perfectionism streak in engineering and a attitude against "untouchable" aka not real products, we suck at Software, which shows in particular when you look for example on the digital entertainment market. Pols have the Witcher and lots more, Czechoslovakians have Arma and lots more- what do we got? We make chips and databases- both important fields- but both closer to the german mindset.
Europe is falling apart as we speak, and the inability to fix it shows, as politicians promises the glue that held it together is loosing its binding power.
They should have abandoned the brussel parliament, and made a virtual parliament from all the national ones- in this way unifying the whole continent, by having a voted for legislator- that actually has something to say to those who rule the continent.
Also germans democracy suffer from the same symptoms as the US- aka the partys kill it with sleeping pills. The media and they political party system) does not allow and does not show any hard debate (reason: "the citizens dont like it when mummy and daddy fight"), but this creates the impression that the voters causes are unheard and not worth fighting over for. It doesent show who fights for them, and as the eternally same faces deliver the eternally same messages (Too Long Did Not Change; TLDNC: "There is going to be a little bit of hardship, but its going to be good, once we are through it, we take the citizens problems very serious, we will take care of all your problems, as long as you dont have any.."). The state is rife with untouchable special interest groups who basically degenerated to something similar to the regressive left in the US. Lobbyism is even more of a problem- the state literally allows to hire company employees into ministry's, to write on the laws legislating themselves.
While all this is going on, the citizens never get a chance to vote a head of this hydra, thus some "populist" alternative has formed, which is going to win the next Vote, and similar to France is going to rip Germany out of the heart of Europe. Which is a shame- in a world where the big bullys push you around on the schoolyard- being small has lost all the comfort remembered from the cold war.
If you have all this in mind and a picture of the outside world, germanys strategy seems like a long term suicide- and what do you do if your own strategy is failing? You blindly copy whatever strategy the successful competitors employ - of course without understanding whats at its core (careful risk management).
I wouldn't wonder if something similar at some point happens at the German software industry (mainly embedded electronics and databases). Because silicon valley seems so much more successful, blindly try to copy the structure and place some German engineering in it. Then wonder why you always get incremental improved products way to late, instead of brittle cutting edge. Anyway that's the state of the nation, which spawned this bank.
Germany is prosperous, maybe there are not as many Unicorns as in USA or even UK, the country works like a clockwork and everyone is very active in very wide range of stuff.
All those charts showing how Europe is behind because top 100 largest companies are mostly American tech giants, some petrol companies and some construction and bank stuff from China? Those are so so misleading into making people believe that Germany or mainland Europe is a wasteland that missed out on technology.
Especially Germany, they have very well educated and healthy population and even if they don't make the most trendy consumer products right now, they still have wast infrastructure and people who can produce things.
Of course not everything is rosy, but Germany's and mainland Europe's core problems all come down to cheap energy availability and that's solvable. It's much easier to solve than stuff like widespread social problems like decline due to drug use or political instability.
They tend to rely on paperwork a bit too much maybe, they don't use credit cards that much etc. all these stereotypes are true but technology is not limited to computers, other stuff is also important and they are still pretty good in these things.
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