<story><title>Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs</title><url>https://flipboard.com/@HBR/-why-germany-still-has-so-many-middle-cl/f-d472ddd580%2Fhbr.org</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>polmuz</author><text>&amp;gt; Tax advantages are another reason. The high taxes on assets in France and the inheritance tax in the U.S. prevent the accumulation of capital necessary for the formation of a strong mid-sized sector.&lt;p&gt;Really? How?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>zackmorris</author><text>Ya this is propaganda (inheritance taxes affect mainly the very wealthy, not the lower and middle classes).  Germany&amp;#x27;s real secret is that labor still has voting rights within corporations:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Codetermination_in_Germany&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Codetermination_in_Germany&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;And actually if you look at the history of the United States, the civil rights movement depended on a strong labor sector.  They don’t teach this in schools, but Martin Luther King, Jr was a threat to the establishment more for his emphasis on unifying workers than for breaking down racial barriers:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&amp;#x2F;entertainment&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;all-labor-has-dignity-martin-luther-king-jrs-fight-for-economic-justice&amp;#x2F;71423&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theatlantic.com&amp;#x2F;entertainment&amp;#x2F;archive&amp;#x2F;2011&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;al...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The labor movements between WWII and Ronald Reagan’s election led to the US becoming the largest industrial superpower in the world, with some of the highest per capita incomes.  The loss of unions and the decline of worker’s rights in the US (and accompanying stagnation of wages post-2000) coincide exactly with the loss of civil rights as we’ve moved to a more authoritarian society.&lt;p&gt;Things like the loss of habeas corpus under GW Bush and Obama just blow my mind, and I think if the electorate knew what was really going on they would not elect the people they do.  But they don’t, that’s why capitalists have traditionally pushed for the privatization of public schools and funding propaganda (infotainment) to preserve the echo chamber.  The more striated, divided and polarized a society is, the more wealth can be concentrated in fewer hands.  Older nations like Germany have a better handle on this because they’ve seen it repeated in history so many times and are more aware of the dangers of unilateral thinking and monarchy.  Inclusivity has paid off handsomely for them.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Germany Still Has So Many Middle-Class Manufacturing Jobs</title><url>https://flipboard.com/@HBR/-why-germany-still-has-so-many-middle-cl/f-d472ddd580%2Fhbr.org</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>polmuz</author><text>&amp;gt; Tax advantages are another reason. The high taxes on assets in France and the inheritance tax in the U.S. prevent the accumulation of capital necessary for the formation of a strong mid-sized sector.&lt;p&gt;Really? How?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pm90</author><text>Yeah this sounds like a bunch of baloney. Inheritance continues to be the most likely way for people to get rich in both the US and France, and the tax is nowhere near the amount that would cause a serious dent in the assets being inherited.</text></comment>