TGeraghty, thank you for this excellent piece! It's nice to see our front pages of good news about France and Germany! "Confidence" is a psychological thing...if we start to talk more publicly about the good things that exist and are happening in Europe, people will start to feel better and more confident (even if they don't trust the political class...though this gap seemingly must be addressed, at some point), Half the population is under the age of 18. Tanzania's future is NOW...join the 50% campaign!
N-n-n-n-o, I don't think so. The current phenomenon is deffinitely a change from the nineties. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
- N-n-n-n-o, I don't think so. The current phenomenon is deffinitely a change from the nineties.
Fran's comment might be a bit exaggerated, but actually I think it is not too far off the mark. German consume society has some deficiencies which stem from its lacking and multiply fractured historical tradition.
During the last century, whenever economic crisis became severe, one of the first ideas that were thrown overboard, was that of the comsume society. Moreover, the beginning of the consume model was quite late, compared to other western industrial countries (first of all, of course, the US). It began in the 1920s but failed to establish itself before 1929 when the World Economic Crisis, in Germany aggravated by several extraeconomic factors, wiped it out. It tried a new start in the 1930s under the NS regime and was, for a short period, very successful. But the the NS war economy, especially since 1942, again cut it short.
Consume society returned no earlier than mid-1950s and now was, as it seemed, strong enough to survive economic and political crises (as, for example, the oil crisis in the 70s). But, to be honest, I am not so sure if confidence in the consume model has grown sufficient roots in German mass psychology.
Thinking about writing a diary about the issue.
But thanks for supplying the historical outlook. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
(In the early nineties, I even had the idea that multinational corporations, while problematic on other fronts, might eventually spell the end of wars - how naive I was...) *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
Exports are already doing quite nicely, there are limits to what government can do, and businesses tend not to want to invest today unless there is the strong prospect that people will buy their products tomorrow.
So, yes, I think consumption growth and increased consumer confidence are part of the answer to re-start economic growth.
Having said that, I think there is a middle ground between where Germany is now and the debt-ridden consumer society of, say, the US, where Europe should not want to go.
