<story><title>The deindustrialization of Germany</title><url>https://www.politico.eu/article/rust-belt-on-the-rhine-the-deindustrialization-of-germany/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tdrz</author><text>I found the article quite good but has missed a couple of points that need to be mentioned:&lt;p&gt;1. The attitude of the average German consumer&lt;p&gt;It seems to me that one of the national sports in Germany is to find cheaper deals for pretty much anything (and then brag about it). Even if it&amp;#x27;s fractions of a euro! After trimming down on everything that they could, the manufacturers and service providers had to finally reduce quality. This happened to such an extent that the famous &amp;quot;Made in Germany&amp;quot; is now meaningless, if not worse.&lt;p&gt;2. The attitude of the average German manager&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I am your boss, you are the employee, now shut up and do as I say&amp;quot; attitude does not work well in knowledge-based industries like Software. And I believe this is one of the reasons why Germany is behind in digitalization, let alone in digital innovation.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aeyes</author><text>1. Made in Germany for consumer products might be worth less today but the export of industrial supplies like machines, chemicals and materials are much more important to the economy as a whole. Outside of Germany it is still quite respected - to the point where foreign companies give themselves and their products German sounding names while slapping German flags on their boxes to sell more.&lt;p&gt;2. Why software Made in Germany doesn&amp;#x27;t work well has a number of reasons but I&amp;#x27;d say that it is primarily because it is much harder to raise capital for things that only might work 1 out of 50 times. People who start businesses are much more risk-averse and most try to be profitable or self-financed from year 1. This makes them uncompetitive in innovative sectors.</text></comment>
<story><title>The deindustrialization of Germany</title><url>https://www.politico.eu/article/rust-belt-on-the-rhine-the-deindustrialization-of-germany/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tdrz</author><text>I found the article quite good but has missed a couple of points that need to be mentioned:&lt;p&gt;1. The attitude of the average German consumer&lt;p&gt;It seems to me that one of the national sports in Germany is to find cheaper deals for pretty much anything (and then brag about it). Even if it&amp;#x27;s fractions of a euro! After trimming down on everything that they could, the manufacturers and service providers had to finally reduce quality. This happened to such an extent that the famous &amp;quot;Made in Germany&amp;quot; is now meaningless, if not worse.&lt;p&gt;2. The attitude of the average German manager&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I am your boss, you are the employee, now shut up and do as I say&amp;quot; attitude does not work well in knowledge-based industries like Software. And I believe this is one of the reasons why Germany is behind in digitalization, let alone in digital innovation.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>patall</author><text>&amp;gt; I am your boss, you are the employee, now shut up and do as I say&lt;p&gt;This would also not work in engineering and never did. In fact, it&amp;#x27;s likely one of reasons why german engineering was so good: because people would (and still do) tell their boss bluntly what is wrong.</text></comment>