Germany joblessness lowest in two decades!
 

Despite the economic weeping and wailing around her, Germany reports her lowest joblessness in two decades.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/04/bu...o-decades.html

In a socialist country yet!

I wonder if they calculate their unemployment figure the same way we do?

Exhausted your unemployment insurance have you, well, you must be employed then.


RC

Read up on their unemployment and retraining benefits. It's miles ahead of ours (as is their trades/craft training).

Just a guess, but I'd put the "real" number here in the US closer to 16% or so, truth be told.

Isn't that the truth.

Maybe that's why everything they ever build is of excellent quality. Look at the printing presses, pocket knives, watches, and Mullard tubes. I think their steel recipe is actually better than ours for some things. Japanese tool steel is getting pretty good too. I think China is still using pot metal for tools.;)

Miles ahead I tells ya!

We don't promote the trades here anymore and thats quite a shame. Better to get a degree in something useful like American or Womens Studies.




RC

Man...so true.....lot of worthless paper out there. We got "corporate culture" from it though and where would we be without that :rolleyes:



Yup!

As an engineer who lived and worked in Germany for 11 years, I have the highest regard for their engineering know-how as well as the workmanship of their workforce. Their mechanical engineering is the best in the world; civil engineering excellent, particularly their precast and prestressed concrete technology, though the electrical engineering prowess failed to impress me a lot. Their machine tools, manufacturing/packaging equipment and robotics are second to none.

Plus, it's a great place to live. My son is doing engineering work there now and has no immediate plans to come back to the US. He went on a three year contract and will likely stay for 7-8 years.

Social work.

Damn good living in helping the poor to remain poor.

Chas

There's another one. Helping people is certainly a noble undertaking but we don't need two on every street corner. At least I hope we don't.

RC

I think everyone should replace a water pump & thermostat on v-6 VW Passat at least once. I seen a christian fella cuss up a storm over 1300.00 bucks, nearly a grand of it in labor.The shop owner said he hates having to tie up a bay with those things. I was asking the owner for a job when the customer came in and handed him the check, and cussed all the way out of the office as he was leaving. I know it's a bitch to work on them, but thats still a bit to high IMO. Some guys would rather pull their teeth than to touch that job at a fair price.

That's right up there with replacing the spark plugs on a Toyota Sienna minivan - $600. You have to remove the entire intake to get to the rear bank of plugs.:(

Precious few new cars are built with any thought of them being easy to work on anymore. Luckily, cars are considerably more reliable than they once were.

Thats true, they do run alot longer nowdays.

The 2.5 v-6 Cougar has 4 overhead cams and the water pump is on the rear of the engine ( completely external ), and is belt driven by one camshaft. 20 minute job, tops, but better hope the alternator doesn't go out. It's tucked nice and neat under the front corner of the engine with the sub-frame right in the way under it. :D

There are, of course, a multitude of reasons the nations of Northern Europe are outperforming us. But if entitlements and social democracy were anywhere near the impediments to enterprise that Romney claims, Germany would hardly be the most successful economy in the advanced industrial world, with those of Scandinavia close behind.

The secrets of social democracy’s successes are in plain view. In Scandinavia, government commitment to worker retraining and job relocation mean that there is no major political pressure to keep failing firms in business; it’s a policy that favors innovative start-ups. In Germany, management and unions cooperate to upgrade their products and their processes — partly because corporate boards consist of equal numbers of management and worker representatives.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...DZP_story.html

I read that article this morning, amazing that upward mobility is more prevalent in Northern Europe than it is here.

When I hear the GOP candidates, especially Romney, talk about a meritocracy here I really have to laugh, isn't a sort of reverse meritocracy when you give fat bonuses to people for running the economy into the ditch?:rolleyes:

I have noticed watching Germanies' english speaking news channel that, when a new law is discussed, one thing they talk about is whether it will bring money into the country or make it leave.

Pete

I think Germany learned to distrust demagogues in 1945. We haven't gotten there yet. Plus, they approach problems with a certain rationality that we don't. We still follow our emotions, not to mention mythology, in dealing with a lot of public policy issues.