Interesting read. However, it would have been interesting to further elaborate upon the fact whether Germany's at times "cozy" cooperative model might also be one of the reasons why the country is currently rather behind in adopting to and spearheading developments in a digital economy? Covid-19 has proven this failure in cooperative change-management imho on many fronts. A case in point is the fact that a country which prides itself of its engineering prowess is not able to provide adequate IT-enabled home-schooling of its pupils. Another point worth considering is that the car of the future might rather be build in Silicon Valley than in Wolfsburg or Ingolstadt. Lastly, the low strike rate in Germany is rather down to the fact that article 9 of the German Basic Law, i.e. constitution, guarantees freedom of association of economic stakeolders, i.e. capital and labour. Hence, the low strike rate is not necessarily down to the merits of capitalism. Put differently: does China not also have a low strike rate?
You raise some interesting points. I am myself somewhat perplexed at the loss of engineering prowess in gErmany, but be aware that German engineering was never about IT. Germany was already behind the US in terms of IT in the 1980s and 1990s. German engineering is about mechanical and electrical engineering, etc. which is the "old economy" and will increasingly become less important. But that is a structural problem across Europe. The US and China are developing most of the new technologies while the rest of the world is lagging. Does that mean that it will lead to a decline of the German car industry or other German companies? Not necessarily in my view. Take battery production and R&D. BMW has closed all its European sites for battery technology and is exclusively doing R&D and production in China for a couple of years now. Because they are a global company, they go where the expertise is. So, I am not too worried about the companies, but obviously more worried about the availability of jobs in Germany. But there again, Germany is focussing on one key growth technology that plays to its strength in traditional engineering: Solar and wind energy. And there, Germany is world-leading and neck and neck with China but way ahead of the rest of Europe and the US.
Interesting read. However, it would have been interesting to further elaborate upon the fact whether Germany's at times "cozy" cooperative model might also be one of the reasons why the country is currently rather behind in adopting to and spearheading developments in a digital economy? Covid-19 has proven this failure in cooperative change-management imho on many fronts. A case in point is the fact that a country which prides itself of its engineering prowess is not able to provide adequate IT-enabled home-schooling of its pupils. Another point worth considering is that the car of the future might rather be build in Silicon Valley than in Wolfsburg or Ingolstadt. Lastly, the low strike rate in Germany is rather down to the fact that article 9 of the German Basic Law, i.e. constitution, guarantees freedom of association of economic stakeolders, i.e. capital and labour. Hence, the low strike rate is not necessarily down to the merits of capitalism. Put differently: does China not also have a low strike rate?
You raise some interesting points. I am myself somewhat perplexed at the loss of engineering prowess in gErmany, but be aware that German engineering was never about IT. Germany was already behind the US in terms of IT in the 1980s and 1990s. German engineering is about mechanical and electrical engineering, etc. which is the "old economy" and will increasingly become less important. But that is a structural problem across Europe. The US and China are developing most of the new technologies while the rest of the world is lagging. Does that mean that it will lead to a decline of the German car industry or other German companies? Not necessarily in my view. Take battery production and R&D. BMW has closed all its European sites for battery technology and is exclusively doing R&D and production in China for a couple of years now. Because they are a global company, they go where the expertise is. So, I am not too worried about the companies, but obviously more worried about the availability of jobs in Germany. But there again, Germany is focussing on one key growth technology that plays to its strength in traditional engineering: Solar and wind energy. And there, Germany is world-leading and neck and neck with China but way ahead of the rest of Europe and the US.