Benefit scrounging parasites from Europe

[sasguru]

We have banks to gauge risk and reward of industries and invest appropriately.

What you are suggesting is the government be the bank. But why is the government more qualified to act as a bank over an actual bank?

I'm not saying anything.

[DodgyAgent]

A competitive advantage is temporary and comes and goes; unfortunately it can come, go and come back again in a cycle that's to fast to close down, rebuild, close down, attract new capital and so on, but too slow for industries to survive the dips (many companies won't survive a downturn in sales of just a few months because their shareholders demand dividends instead of the company laying down reserves) . That's why the Germans have subsidized their heavy industries several times; they've kept the skills and the infrastructure, even in times when it wasn't producing profits, and in doing so they've done well in the long run.

Have they?

If Germany were to leave the euro, it would be better off - Telegraph

not that the German economy has been a stonking success during the euro's existence. Its average growth rate has been only 1.4pc, below the UK's – and below Spain's and Ireland's. The explanation is clear. Whereas consumer spending has grown by about 30pc in America and the UK, in Germany it has grown by only 10pc. The reason is that over the last 13 years, German workers' average real incomes have fallen by 4pc. The very success in keeping costs down has also kept pay down.

[Mich the Tester]

We have banks to gauge risk and reward of industries and invest appropriately.

Yep, and they've demonstrated they're really, really good at that.

[Mich the Tester]

Have they?

If Germany were to leave the euro, it would be better off - Telegraph

not that the German economy has been a stonking success during the euro's existence. Its average growth rate has been only 1.4pc, below the UK's – and below Spain's and Ireland's. The explanation is clear. Whereas consumer spending has grown by about 30pc in America and the UK, in Germany it has grown by only 10pc. The reason is that over the last 13 years, German workers' average real incomes have fallen by 4pc. The very success in keeping costs down has also kept pay down.

They have done very well if you measure over about 50 years, instead of the (up to now) brief lifetime of the euro.

[Robinho]

It's not really idealogical is it. It's just common sense.

[Robinho]

Yep, and they've demonstrated they're really, really good at that.

And how well has the government performed?

[sasguru]

Have they?

If Germany were to leave the euro, it would be better off - Telegraph

not that the German economy has been a stonking success during the euro's existence. Its average growth rate has been only 1.4pc, below the UK's – and below Spain's and Ireland's. The explanation is clear. Whereas consumer spending has grown by about 30pc in America and the UK, in Germany it has grown by only 10pc. The reason is that over the last 13 years, German workers' average real incomes have fallen by 4pc. The very success in keeping costs down has also kept pay down.

Of course the Germans grow organically through exports not through spending and housing booms and busts.
And if Germans real incomes have fallen by 4%, neither have their housing and other costs risen by the ridiculous amounts seen in the UK.
The average German has a far higher standard of housing than the average Brit, for example, for a lot cheaper.
Anyway the facts are these, total UK debt per capita is in the top 3 in the world, Germany's isn't.
Our prosperity is illusory.

[sasguru]

It's not really idealogical is it. It's just common sense.

What a cop-out argument.
How can it be common sense, if the facts don't bear it out?

[Robinho]

If an industry doesn't need help, it doesn't need help. That is the fact.

Not sure what's so hard to understand.

[Mich the Tester]

And how well has the government performed?

Well, of the bets the government made, som failed, some were spectacular successes; don't forget that most of the biggest innovations of the last hundred years came from government employed scientists who were given the freedom to innovate or research. The private sector hasn't produced a great deal of new stuff, but is very good at improving stuff that's already been invented.