RebiJes

joined 3 months ago
[–] RebiJes@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

This process is already underway. The crux of the question, is what will happen to the whole very significant part of the Germany economy that is currently employed in service to local manufacturing? They will all need new jobs...

[–] RebiJes@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

If only it was just the public sector. I do agree with you, but the problem is cultural. It's not just the government. None of the big or smaller corporations or companies are investing either.

[–] RebiJes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago (6 children)

IMHO, it missed the boat on everything to do with tech, and tech is basically 21st century capitalism. The only tech in Europe are secondary services like booking.com that ultimately depend on primary services (Google Search, Youtube, Facebook Platform, Twitter, ...etc). I agree in large part with Varoufakis. Although he is "on the left" he has better investment sense than all the suits who control European capital.

 

I live in Germany, which by some accounts, is the third largest economy, and we have literally no answer for what is next, economically. Neither in the public nor private sectors. Nobody is investing, nobody is building new things, nobody even knows what to do next. But the story is the same throughout Europe as far as I can see. All industries hope to keep selling the same old shit. But the 3rd world is catching up. They can manufacture goods that are just as good, and for much cheaper. Heck, some can even do it cleaner too, since they have access to cleaner energy sources. But we also have no real 21st century income streams.

It looks to me as though, only the US and China are undertaking really innovative projects.

Is my reading of the situation flawed? I would love to have your input.

[–] RebiJes@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Two factors that are seldom mentioned:

  1. Modern people make worse parents in many respects. They might be more caring, when they actually have children, but they have less time for children, and are more distracted by other aspects of life. And overall, the general perception is that their commitment to family is much looser than in times past.

  2. Standards are simply much higher than they used to be. People don't want to have children with whomever, and they want their children to be successful compared to their peers and that's not easy to achieve and failing that, they'd rather not have any at all.

[–] RebiJes@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Not planning to. I asked to try to gauge whether this was widespread behaviour.

[–] RebiJes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago

The top leadership is all "degenerates" by their own standards. I find this particularly ironic, because one of the biggest points of contention between red and blue is whether to be accepting of weirdness. The red aren't. But that doesn't stop them from being just as weird. They are just in denial.