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China’s rising industrial strength leaves EU fretting about its manufacturing future
(www.irishtimes.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
109 points (94.3% liked)
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Germany is the biggest economy in Europe, and especially before East and West Germany were reunited, Germany did contribute the most as the biggest economy, but Germany also reaped the biggest benefits.
And yes EU will keep existing because it remains beneficial for all member countries. And calling it silencing problems with money is a weirdly skewed way to put it. Conflicts were not "silenced", problems were solved, and the distribution of how to pay for it settled.
Just look at @plyth's comment history. There's nothing but these weird and skewed pieces. Save our breath I would say.
That's where the trouble started. Schröder cutting wage costs shifted production unfairly to Germany.
Now if Germany is not competitive it affects the entirety of the EU.
In Germany, Bavaria had received transfer payments for decades. Once they were prosperous themselves and had to pay, they questioned the system.
Somebody has to pay the EU budget. If Germany is in a recession then other countries have to increase taxes to compensate. I hope that the union is established enough but I won't be sursprised if it fractures.
Let's not forget that the US has announced to fracture the EU.
All in all Bavaria has paid the other German states 125 billion € more than it received (10bn a year right now). That number is accelerating almost every year. Out of the 16 German states there are basically 4 states that give massive amounts to the others with Bavaria being the biggest giver by far.
Cut the crap.
Our governing party is full of arrogant assholes but this mechanism needs to be reformed.
This is the same mindset that is disappointed when they pay more for their insurance than they get.
Those profits come from past investments. The goal must be to make all German states profitable.
This proofs my point that the EU is at risk.
Or high wages unfairly shifted jobs away from Germany previously. There is nothing to substantiate your point, it is merely a biased opinion.
By the same logic all previous eastern European countries, and Portugal and Greece and Italy and France are unfairly shifting jobs to their countries by having lower wages than Germany.
And Denmark is shifting jobs away from Denmark by having some of the highest wages in EU. Yet we have the lowest unemployment rate in EU.
No that is not how things work, this is such an extreme oversimplification to the point that it is decidedly wrong. (just as your previous claim).
Budgets are negotiated, and obviously the state of the economy is a significant part of those negotiations. But when making the budgets a certain percentage is decided for each country to pay of their GDP or a fixed amount is decided, depending on which program. One country paying slightly more or slightly less because of variations in GDP has no impact on how much the other countries pay. All countries can pay the same percentage on next years budget if that is what is decided.
Your economic thinking is wrong, you need to educate yourself more if you want to have valid opinions on economic issues. As it is now, you have controversial opinions but without the required understanding to validate them. If you had the understanding, you wouldn't make these claims.
That's how it should be. Innovate and create new jobs so that weaker economies can catch up by doing the old jobs. Otherwise the EU becomes a tool to exploit the weak countries.
There was less pressure to innovate which is becoming a problem now.
Technically correct but I didn't specify next year's budget. The EU will decide differently when the income declines.
Nonono you can't just explain it away with more platitudes. How do you define that the wages were to low after the job reform?
If they are to ow, why don't the unions fight to make them higher?
That simply doesn't make any sense, are you saying other countries pay more on a budget already decided? Because what you wrote before was wrong, but this is crazy!
For starters:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_2010 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_euro_area_crisis
The problem is that resource allocation became wrong. The German workers lost income while money had to be payed for unemployed people in other countries. Overall the EU lost.
It was only good for German company owners. Funny enough, most shareholders are not German.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/VW-Korruptionsaff%C3%A4re (only German)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hartz was a key figure in the reform and the skandal.
No. The EU would simply take a credit or cut the budget.
But a new budget has to be decided the next year and the military budget cannot be cut.
Link #1 doesn't support your claim:
So the problem was not Germany, but that other countries INCREASED their wages above what was sustainable, Germany is in no way to blame for that.
In Your german link the only appearance of wage when translated to english is VolksWagen. I also checked salary, and that only appears as part of how a fine was calculated.
I see nothing at all relating to your claim. Also I read German fine, but I read English faster, but feel free to post German sources.
Regarding the Harz guy, I have no idea why you find him relevant, apart from being part of the corruption at VW so what?
Now you are contradicting yourself from your previous comments.
Are you an AI in beta? Or what the fuck is your argument? So far you have shown NOTHING!
I'm considering simply blocking you, because you make absolutely no sense?!?!
I can throw you links too without explanation:
Here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid
https://www.andersenstories.com/language.php?andersen=037&l=en&r=da (includes original text in Danish)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorvald_Stauning
The last link in particular is very informative.
You are technically correct but another part of the article shows that the share of wages declined in Germany.
The unions are heavily influenced and don't necessarily do what is best for the workers. Thus no strikes.
There is no contradiction. I am talking about different years.