[Rummenigge]

The shift of work force is one of the major threats to global security in our times. Please comment.

[Mikey_1962]

Germans are earning less because their productivity is not increasing.

[durasell]

What do you have against everyday low prices?

[G-Man 1]

Like water, wages will seek it's own level. The lowest wage will rise and the highest wages will fall. It's a matter of time.

[G-Man 1]

Like water, wages will seek it's own level. The lowest wage will rise and the highest wages will fall. It's a matter of time.

[CarrotAndStick]

This is more of an "Old Europe" problem, than a Western one. Specifically, in Germany and France.

[MonroeDNA]

Unions are threatened.

Good.

[WOSG]

Der Speigel hates America.

See David Kaspar's Mediacritik.

http://medienkritik.typepad.com/blog/

[AdmSmith]

Do not worry. The Chinese banking system has big problems due to low profitability of the Chinese companies. When they will address this many companies will go bankrupt. The fight for workforce will increase the Chinese salaries, and the increase in interest rates will force increase in selling prices for the goods in order for the companies to provide profit. Combined with increase in exchange rates the cost of the Chinese products will increase. We will never be able to purchase Chinese products with the low price that we have today. Let´s party now...

[WorkerbeeCitizen]

Another issue we face is US state education system turning out youth that are ill prepared for the workplace. I expect the US to have a shortage of suitable professionals to supply our industries.

[Leisler]

People are unlimitedly inventive. The tone of the article is from a zero some perspective. That is that if some poor guy, working for food gets a job, a guy in the west is laid off.

We need to have a little faith. Just making things isn't enough now adays. People want quality. People by MP3 players but want Ipods. People buy cars but want a BMW, even in Japan. The thing itself is no longer sufficient. People want to buy the idea, the style, the fashion.

Germany's problem is the difficulty in new, young business growth. It is difficult and expensive and the risks are high and profits low. This makes it hard for technical, medical, scientific business growth that would hire young Germans and become the future leaders of German industry. It seems like such a waste of schooling, youth and talent.

This anti business atmosphere is not so much one of cost, but of time. When dealing with government permits, time means nothing to government and who's workers that are habituated to pay checks coming in more steady then the tide. Government workers and agencies know nothing of competition or the time value of money. In the states many business move from older, slower, more bureaucratic states in which permits, if gotten at all, take lots of time, move to younger, quicker, lower tax states. As a phenomenon it wouldn't be bad if state workers just stayed home, then only the tax burden would have to be carried. As it is now, each state worker wants to have a say in everything, at every level so to justify and protect their job from wrong decision making and risk. Thus each worker is incentiveized to be as slow and as cautions as possible. The more state workers, the more commissions, the more hearings, the more permits the more costs the more time. Meanwhile in Florida, or China the competitor is up and running, and what does the state worker care? Back to the article. First labor goes. Then business. But what happens when, as is happening now, business development is done quicker and faster in Asia? That is were the article author should of looked. No business, no jobs. But, still the state doesn't care because they can manufacture their own gold through the printing press, credit markets or higher taxation.

[DB]

Socialism is what is destroying Europe.

They are becoming less and less competitive as a result.

When you reward people for not working you get more that don't work. They drag down the rest that do work and take away that capital that would otherwise be available for productive investment in the future. Instead it just goes down a black hole...

As far as China goes, I don't think their capitalistic business practices are compatible with their totalitarian government. Those two forces are going to come to a head sooner or later. When they do, the government is going to fall.

[sphinx]

Through 50 years of the Cold War, we argued that the communist block should abandon the dead hand of socialism and join the market system. Now they are doing it, albeit with bumps along the way. This is what victory looks like. Certainly there are challenges, but the world has become a dramatically more productive (and therefore more competitive) place. This is a good thing in the long run.

The author here makes a fundamental error that runs back to the earliest leftist critiques of industrial capitalism -- he forgets that mass production implies mass consumption. We have seen the proliferation of an incredible array of new products and services, and many of these are available at astonishingly low prices. This needs to be factored into any analysis of living standards.

[TADSLOS]

Because Germans (and western Europeans in general) work less and less...yet demand the same level of work benefits, social programs and social welfare that they have become accustomed to from decades of socialism.

[Thrownatbirth]

The French found a nifty way to eliminate pensioners from the dole but got grilled in the press, so to speak.

[Tenacious 1]

You asked for it.

This article may be more appropriate for Germany than the US. However, I submit to you that the article misses the most important part and provides a sort of "out of our control" excuse for the decrease in a standard of living.

Here in about 10 minutes, America will officially be 300 million strong. And there are folks that are convinced that there are too many of us using up the worlds resources, yadda yadda yadda. The population of a nation has little to do with its economic wealth. The most important factor is productivity per citizen. On this planet, no nation even comes close to the output of American citizen (person for person that is). Before you argue about it, remember, children in a factory in some third world country are making X amount of shoes per day, while 50 line workers here in a factory can pump out a 100 of automobiles. The comparison is tough to measure apples to apples.

Here is the point. Americans are motivated to work harder and sometimes longer because they are adequately rewarded for their effort. They are also more innovative because they want to be more productive because they are adequately rewarded for their effort. In Europe, where the freedoms they once enjoyed are now stifled by oppressive socialization, high taxes, mandated equal pay, constant leisure and a lack of motivation, citizens do not produce (on average, person for person) like Americans.

What about those wacky Asians you say? Well, the stereo type we have of hard working Japanese we have comes from none other than, our media. Yes, in their largest cities, there are die hard workaholics just as there are here. The Chinese seem to produce a lot, but ironically, they don't produce enough, person for person, to provide for their own citizens. Most of their population produce only enough to survive.

Europeans are comfortable with their status quo. They do not work to hard, they don't expect much in return, and the government takes care of what's left. American's are greedy and able. We'll work harder for things we want (sometimes to the point of diminishing our family values).

The major difference and that which the article failed to mention? American is still a very free country. Our economy is driven by the entrepreneurial spirit of our people. We believe we can get ahead of the Jone's by out working them. So we do. We use the worlds most resources to churn out the worlds most products and drive the worlds economy.

All that said, I believe we are headed in the wrong direction (towards a European model) and need to get back to our roots. We need to considerably downsize our government and continue to leave our economy in the hands or our working citizens.

[Theophilus]

• The most valuable commodity in Germany are Germans
• The most valuable commodity in China are Chinese
• The most valuable commodity in America are Americans

The sooner governments and even more importantly, the people, realize this, the better theirs economies will be in the long run.

America 300 million strong - and growing!!!

[Gritty]

The taxes in Germany are high, and everything is expensive. A gallon of gas costs $6.50.

Socialism costs money, and lots of it!