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.
I found this Economics Explained video on the German economy pretty interesting. They suggest that Germany is losing its edge when it comes to advanced manufacturing but that isn’t really as bad as it sounds. America and China are massive economies and neither specializes in advanced manufacturing but in international trade. They suggest that Germany is simply moving into becoming another country that specializes mostly in international trading instead of producing things domestically.
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…
Yeah the end of the video mentions that. They say that from the perspective of a heartless economist, Germany is going to be fine, but that doesn’t mean all Germans are going to be fine.
So uhhh welcome to the club? You now get to hear your politicians brag about how well your economy is doing while the quality of life of your people slowly declines.
Economics Explained has a massive neoliberal, pro-western bias which makes his analysis very questionable to say the least.
Their latest video about my country France for example is 18 minutes of him yapping about why akshually it’s a good thing that Macron is taking away our retirement pension, during which he says such absurdities as unironically arguing that France is kinda socialist.