Reply to: May signals She won't give more brexit details

[_V_]

Looks like the UK is heading back to the 1950's when only the well off could afford a car.

Sounds good to me.

And if that Allegro was the Vanden Plas model in dark tulip brown, I'd take it.

[Bluenose]

Then you need to keep up with what happens in the real world. Germany has a minimum wage: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindes...er_Mindestlohn

Hey mr, not so fast I mentioned it in my posting above.

I don't personally class this point as material anyway as the gap between productivity increases and real wages increases in Germany is chasmic.

[AtW]

Tories will make roads safer and get the car pollution cleaned up, you've heard it on here first!!!

[SueEllen]

Looks like the UK is heading back to the 1950's when only the well off could afford a car.

Lots of young people have given up driving due to the cost of insurance and cycling to get around is becoming more popular....

[BlasterBates]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/3371...-jobs-at-risk/

Looks like the UK is heading back to the 1950's when only the well off could afford a car.

[Paddy]

Now we know...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/motors/3371...-jobs-at-risk/

TARIFF NIGHTMARE Brexit could see the cost of British-made cars rise by THOUSANDS… and put 169,000 jobs at risk

...every car sold in the UK could rise by as much as £2,370, and in turn inflate the price of parts and servicing astronomically.

[northernladyuk]

Now we know...

You won't be laughing when you are interned as a potential saboteur.

[darmstadt]

Now we know...

[darmstadt]

i am a reader of economics, the german economy is no miracle nirvana, like Japan was in the 1980s.

behind the marketing glitz it's a rag and bone economy.

up until fairly recently 25% of the german workforce was on 9.50 EUR per hour and due to no minimum wage over a million in 4 EUR per hour.

at the cost of the other member states Germany has:

Then you need to keep up with what happens in the real world. Germany has a minimum wage: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindes...er_Mindestlohn

[Bluenose]

if 25% of the German work force are on 9.50eur an hour, then how come when I contracted in FaM ten years ago the local LIDL offered cashier jobs at 13eur an hour ?

I have a very strong feeling you are talking total cr@p

history has shown one of the attributes of the German success is their long term planning

they are and always have been, investing in the future, and forward looking 2, 3, or 4 generations

the low interest rates, this is a result of the financial crisis, every country has low interest rates, even the UK !

so, let's see some evidence to substantiate your fiction

Milan.

Sorry Milan, I love Germany (and its people) but the idea that Germany has a grand long-term strategic plan for the country which benefits its trading partners is, at this time, a ridiculous notion.

The Germans may have had the resemblance of one for re-unification (West German know-how with cheap East German labour) but the current plan looks more like the final stage of a parasitic ponzi scheme, at the cost of its trading partners, rather than a work of genius.

You can talk about German success but I prefer to also look at the balanced, overall picture of German failure also as they are extremely good at marketing.

Failure to trade with the rest of the work in terms of the services industry, failure for it to invest in itself (roads, schools) and to allow others to more easily invest into it.

This is the first major root cause of the trade imbalance.

In terms of high wages in Germany, its a mirage. How else can they compete with the likes of South Korea? efficiency and know-how only take you so far.

OECD (2012 statistics) state that that low-wage employment accounted for 20 percent of full-time jobs in Germany compared to 8.0 percent in Italy and 13.5 percent in Greece.

Since then Germany has implemented a minimum wage (2014-2015) and has agreed recent wage hikes for major industries but the trend is still a low wage economy with high productivity and wage rises have not tracked the increase in efficiency and output, not by a long shot.

This is the second root cause of the trade imbalance, wages have not tracked productivity (output). German output per head has simply been exceptional.

This wage deflationary spiral started with the German labour reforms in the 2003-2005 which were designed to swap high un-employment (15% at the time - a 70 year high) for higher-employment but lower wages.

This of course worked but in exchange the Germans created an internal near-deflationary bubble within the country to make it very competitive with the likes of south korea.

This is now being slowly un-wound but the problem is, as the German population will decrease by almost 1/3rd by 2050, the older Germans (or which there are currently legion) are not spending, they are simply hoarding money and not buying foreign stuff.

This is the third root causes of the current trade in-balance.

What comes next? My own prediction is that unless Germany reforms its attitude to its trading partners the bloc will eventually collapse. Ponzi pyramids only last for so long.

Germans, nice people but oh so stubborn.

In terms of the U.K economy, the British like to earn lots, borrow lots and spend lots and the economy reflects that. Bigger highs and lower lows. Warts and all.

There is no right answer as to whether the British or German economy is better for the society it serves, they simply reflects the will of its people.

[BlasterBates]

if 25% of the German work force are on 9.50eur an hour, then how come when I contracted in FaM ten years ago the local LIDL offered cashier jobs at 13eur an hour ?

I have a very strong feeling you are talking total cr@p

history has shown one of the attributes of the German success is their long term planning

they are and always have been, investing in the future, and forward looking 2, 3, or 4 generations

the low interest rates, this is a result of the financial crisis, every country has low interest rates, even the UK !

so, let's see some evidence to substantiate your fiction

Milan.

fact

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...y_average_wage

UK has lower average wages than Germany.

QED

[shaunbhoy]

history has shown one of the attributes of the German success is their long term planning

Military planning being one notable exception of course.

they are and always have been, investing in the future, and forward looking 2, 3, or 4 1000 year Reichs


Milan.

ftfy

[milanbenes]

if 25% of the German work force are on 9.50eur an hour, then how come when I contracted in FaM ten years ago the local LIDL offered cashier jobs at 13eur an hour ?

I have a very strong feeling you are talking total cr@p

history has shown one of the attributes of the German success is their long term planning

they are and always have been, investing in the future, and forward looking 2, 3, or 4 generations

the low interest rates, this is a result of the financial crisis, every country has low interest rates, even the UK !

so, let's see some evidence to substantiate your fiction

Milan.

[Bluenose]

So the German economy which makes things and sells them is a Ponzi scheme, while the Uk economy which is based on high house prices and borrowing to consume is not?

i am a reader of economics, the german economy is no miracle nirvana, like Japan was in the 1980s.

behind the marketing glitz it's a rag and bone economy.

up until fairly recently 25% of the german workforce was on 9.50 EUR per hour and due to no minimum wage over a million in 4 EUR per hour.

at the cost of the other member states Germany has:

a) near limitless supply of money at near zero interest rates to soak the capital costs of running factories and making things and lending money to car buyers in finance deals

b) a supply of cheap labour to work in factories, don't care where they come from. 2M from Syria? wheel em in!

c) 25% cheaper currency than it should be. the suffering of the southern states is necessary to create this

d) a single common market and trade deal to sell its goods whilst shunning deals for services

e) a population willing to accept minimal wage increases

so yeah the Germany doing just fine (at the expense of all the other southern EU states) but these conditions are temporary and are not sustainable.

'making things' is a low margin activity in the main and i am much happier the UK is not in competition with the Germans. I am far happier (and so will my children be) earning plenty of money not working in a factory.

what i am not happy about is the Germans (and the french) looking after their own interests by blocking a common trade deal for services.

every dog has its day and judging by the number of brand new german cars on UK roads this year we are very much at 'peak car'.

ponzi schemes can run for decades without getting found out, the EU ponzi scheme run by the Germans will eventually collapse.

[BlasterBates]

The General Election is a great domestic side show, but in the end is completely irrelevant.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/a...y-u-k-election

The U.K. “is in a very weak bargaining position anyway,” Schmieding said. Victory for May’s Conservatives in the June 8 election “gives her a strong hand in selling to the domestic audience in the U.K. whatever she wants to sell, but it does not give her any advantage in selling in Poland or in Romania or in France or Germany,” he said. “Brexit will mostly be shaped by what the EU-27 is ready to offer, and Theresa May will just have to accept that.”