According to 2021 figures, east Germans still have 11% less disposable income than their western compatriots, and they inherit only about half as much wealth. Impose almost any economic indicator on to a map, and the old east-west divide reappears.
Socialism is such a shit economic system that imposing it for only 40 years still causes vast problems near four decades later.
Not, exactly, an advertisement for it, is it?
… it made even Germans poor!
(I’m sure we could come up with a long list along these lines)
Never fear, the “traffic light” coalition will bring equality by the simple expedient of deindustrialising the west.
And that’s despite the vast sums that were spent rebuilding the place. The roads in Thuringia were far better than those in Bavaria when we were there a couple of years ago. Both Leipzig and Dresden were rebuilt and not on the cheap, they restored or replicated a lot of the old buildings.
A lot of the problem is the difficulty in retraining older workers, as seen in the west when we had economic turmoil, and the best you ng workers leaving for richer parts.
That would also be known as “Your Big Book of PJ O’Rourke Quotes”
Gone from inheriting the square root of nothing to inheriting half in 40 years. I’d settle for that.
Some people seem to expect miracles from capitalism and free markets.
This would have lent a feather weight to the argument “If you don’t vote Tory you’ll get Labour” if the Conservative Party wasn’t stuffed to the gills with socialists…
Don’t worry, the rest of Germany is rapidly converging on East German levels of economic success.
There’s surprisingly (?) little coverage of it in the UK media, but the newly energy-poor German industrial sector has considerably worse prospects now than it did in 1943. Because at least in 1943, the end was in sight, and with it the prospect of recovery.
Net Zero is doing to them what Arthur Harris and Henry Morgenthau could only dream of. Double digit declines in output across the board, and a massive year on year reduction in electricity demand caused by economic collapse.
Oops!
NB – while the German economy gasps for air, “Greens” are trying to hold its head underwater:
Far-left group claims attack on Tesla factory in Germany
Production halted at electric vehicle plant in Brandenburg after suspected arson attack causes power outage.
Tesla has halted production at its German factory after power lines supplying the plant were set on fire in an act of “sabotage” claimed by a far-left group.
Emergency services were called early on Tuesday after reports of a burning electricity pylon southeast of Berlin close to the Tesla plant.
The blaze was extinguished, but damage to the lines knocked out power to the electric car factory, located in the state of Brandenburg, as well as surrounding villages.
We can either have the comforts of civilisation, or we can have “Greens”.
Hans, get the flammenwerfer.
Steve, those are just more results of Brexit and could easily be remedied by our re-joining the EU.
Actually that’s an argument so stupid that presumably the FT or the Economist or the Guardian will use it soon.
‘Hans, get the flammenwerfer.’
You really do feel the same way about Greens as I do. Don’t you Steve?
I like Katie Hoyer. I don’t always agree with her, but she writes level headed copy usually for The Speccie or Unherd. I guess it makes it all the more remarkable when a sensible column like this appears in the Graun.
The corollary is that socialism is only just workable in countries where the population is mostly hard-working types. The peoples of Eastern Europe (including Germany) have the work ethic of Boxer from Animal Farm. Conversely, socialism wouldn’t last long in Greece (unless Germany is accidentally paying for it).
“Impose almost any economic indicator on to a map, and the old east-west divide reappears.”
The same was true for uptake of the faux-mRNA vaccine – it seems memories of and trust issues with totalitarian Government remains strong in the East.
I did love my old MZ motorbike though. Weird looking things but very practical. I commuted on mine for years.
You’d really have to compare their pre-war conditions, wouldn’t you? Perhaps the eastern part of the country has been poorer since the creation of the German state, or even before. That said, I have no trouble accepting that 40 years of communist solidarity made a lasting difference in accumulation of wealth, as well as physical and human capital.
Wait, how do you set an electricity pylon on fire?
Aren’t they made of steel?
Or did the Germans make it out of something else?
dcardno
There were islands of prosperity such as Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin/Potsdam. A lot of industry and coal mining was lost to Poland. There are rich iron ore and similar deposits along the Czech border. Most of it though was Junkertum farming. Both the Nazis and Communists did a lot to improve the peasants’ lives by doing away with that system.
Gone from inheriting the square root of nothing to inheriting half in 40 years. I’d settle for that.
Yeah, but did inequality also increase? That’s what Guardian leader-writers need to know.
It’s heartening if unsurprising to see that the crowd here is so well jnformed about economic developments in the Fatherland. Or, as we should perhaps gender neutrally call it these days the Parentland.
In terms of political freedoms, particularly of speech, and demographics, things are going just as swimmingly. The Ampel truly are worthy successors to Merkel, indeed trying to outdo her.
Adam Smith said there was a great deal of ruin in a nation. We are doing our best to quantify it.
For anyone on the fence, it really is as bad as it looks. If not worse.
dearieme – You’re absolutely right, although I do feel also that perhaps this is also because Germany isn’t doing enough to centre the lived experiences of Black trans women.
Bboy – NB that this is a Tesla factory they’ve knocked out of commission. “Greens” don’t even want us to own electric cars. They want us to shiver in the dark.
The El Salvador solution would work tho. Anybody vandalising critical national infrastructure should get a minimum 50 year sentence.
BiFR – as an incorrigible optimist, I do think there will be an alternative for Deutschland, and Europa.
But not until some of the ruling class defect to the proles, in order to save their own wealth/necks. Populist rebellions don’t go anywhere without elite support.
CD – I don’t know, but the damage is substantial:
The plant’s senior director, Andre Thierig, estimated the economic loss to Tesla from the production stop and subsequent ramp-up in the “high hundreds of millions” of euros as some 1,000 vehicles each day cannot be built.
Jail the cunts. Jonty, Arabella and co. (whatever the German equivalent is) deserve to go to a small room with bars on the windows and not be allowed to leave until they’re in a pine box.
We will eventually be left with no other option but to treat “Greens” just like a normal society would any other seditious terrorist group. That includes their ostensibly “peaceful” political wing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10332051
I would be so amused to go back in time to ask that generation if they could design electricity infrastructure to be a little more dangerous for the chavs.
@Stonyground
I did love my old MZ motorbike though…
I did love my old CZ 175 Trail motorbike. Built from tank steel
Weird left kick-start / gear lever made it unstealable too
Wait, how do you set an electricity pylon on fire?
I used to live on a property bordering a right-of-way for the local utility’s high-voltage power line. (Well, actually there was a 25-acre woodlot between them, but we owned the woodlot.) Quite a few of the pylons were made of wood, although the utility has been replacing them in recent years.
ISaw the early stage of the Tesla factory Shanghai being built. Took about 168 working days to finish. I think it reasonable to assume that no idiot Greenies tried to slow down or stop progress. Probably some connection there on why China is prospering, and Europe is going down the tubes
Plenty of wooden electricity poles in the UK so I assume the same in Germany with lots of forests to supply them. It’s true that the higher voltage ones need to be higher off the ground and that’s easier with steel but I have seen a 132kV line (judging by the number of insulator segments) on wooden poles near Huddersfield.
I just tripped over an article about the Tesla plant. I wondered how far it was from some of my friends near Berlin ( the live in the equivalent of Woking or Guildford and the factory is sort of Maidstone ).
With the factory employing 11,000 and churning out 5,000 cars a week, Brandenburg saw 6 percent GDP growth this year, compared to no growth in the national economy and a decline in industrial output, and the number of workers is expected to more than double.
The problem the Greens have is that a wood was cut down to make space and that the plant uses excessive water in an area that is prone to shortages.
Very interesting article for Politico
https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-us-elon-musk-tesla-grunheide-ev/
“It’s different when we do it”
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/08/germany-begins-felling-120000-trees-from-fairy-tale-forest-to-make-way-for-wind-turbines/