Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted By: edyvw
Well yeah, maybe I suppose to be clear. But there is so much emphasis in the South to bring these kind of jobs, and so much emphasis to gut education, that there is only one possible outcome.
Germany is per capita largest manufacturing country in the world, but they do not have problems balancing that. Though, those evil unions are making sure manufacturing jobs are also paid well (in reality, not measured by South East standards).
Factory workers in Germany have influence that US blue collar workers could only dream about.
A US semiconductor company had a fab (wafer factory) in Germany that it wanted to shut down, but it couldn't legally just close the building and fire everybody...the whole process had to be worked out with the worker's council. Instead of dealing with that, they found a startup company (that I ended up working for later) that was willing to "buy" it for a token sum with the understanding that they were going to keep running the fab.
Now, that company ending up basically collapsing a few years later (after I left) and I'm not sure what happened to the fab at that point. But, the workers got a few more years of pay and time to look for a better job before that happened. Seems like this level of protection hasn't killed off the German economy by a long shot...
Of course, those workers are also paying taxes out of the wazoo compared to what US workers are used to...while also getting social supports like universal health care and good unemployment protection.
I did not even come to that.
Let's not forget how Wal Mart crashed and burned in Germany once they wanted to treat workers in slightly similar manner like in the U.S.
Originally Posted By: edyvw
Well yeah, maybe I suppose to be clear. But there is so much emphasis in the South to bring these kind of jobs, and so much emphasis to gut education, that there is only one possible outcome.
Germany is per capita largest manufacturing country in the world, but they do not have problems balancing that. Though, those evil unions are making sure manufacturing jobs are also paid well (in reality, not measured by South East standards).
Factory workers in Germany have influence that US blue collar workers could only dream about.
A US semiconductor company had a fab (wafer factory) in Germany that it wanted to shut down, but it couldn't legally just close the building and fire everybody...the whole process had to be worked out with the worker's council. Instead of dealing with that, they found a startup company (that I ended up working for later) that was willing to "buy" it for a token sum with the understanding that they were going to keep running the fab.
Now, that company ending up basically collapsing a few years later (after I left) and I'm not sure what happened to the fab at that point. But, the workers got a few more years of pay and time to look for a better job before that happened. Seems like this level of protection hasn't killed off the German economy by a long shot...
Of course, those workers are also paying taxes out of the wazoo compared to what US workers are used to...while also getting social supports like universal health care and good unemployment protection.
I did not even come to that.
Let's not forget how Wal Mart crashed and burned in Germany once they wanted to treat workers in slightly similar manner like in the U.S.