It's interesting to look at the issues in Germany's upcoming election. Incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is in grave danger of being ousted in spite of his popular anti-US views, largely because of large and growing economic problems.
It seems that Germany's generous social welfare programs are being burdened by an aging poplulation and high unemployment and have become unaffordable, dragging the country ever further into debt. Also, German industry has sky-high labor costs because of laws ensuring high salaries to workers and because of powerful labor unions. Autoworkers, for instance, make $41.37 per hour. Employers are downsizing and moving jobs to other countries, causing further unemployment problems.
Challenger Angela Merkel describes the problem this way: “What do I do in an economy where 1,000 skilled jobs disappear every day and where, at the same time, my entire social security system, pension, unemployment and health insurance are financed by this shrinking pool of full-time jobs?” So in the perverse irony of big government, all of the social programs and mandated employer benefits designed to take care of workers are strangling the economy and erasing their jobs, and the only solution--lowering those benefits--will harm the workers in their time of need.
Americans beware: This is how a welfare state bottoms out, and it isn't pretty.
FoxNews.com: German Election May Revive U.S. Relations
filed: politics.world
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