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* Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
* Communism a theory or system of social organization in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs.
* Socialism is a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
Doing any single one of these is a possible disaster, I won't get into the theories here, but lets assume extremes are unhealthy.
Now, you're inferring that Europeans are "lax commies" which would mean that the goal is to get everything into the public hands. That's not quite the case, in fact it's not the case at all honestly, so it's not communism.
Secondly, you refer to Europe as one political and economic model, it's not, there are many for instance the Nordic regions have their own model which is often referred to as "Nordic Capitalism" or "Nordic Social Democracy"[0]
Finally, and I know this one is quite hard: Europeans typically are not nationalistic. Given that the rise of nationalism is seen as being very closely followed by facism; nationalism is a dirty word, and if you were to be described as "nationalist" it would be considered an insult in many European countries by the majority of the population. The principle problem here is that "patriotism" is synonymous with "nationalism". And Americans are very "patriotic", meaning any criticism of the country as a complete functioning system is met with hostility because so many people are so sensitive of the subject.
I know it's hard to be objective when you've been drilled that your way of life is objectively "better" or "freer", but its often good to take a step back and look at the system so that - at the very least - you can hold your government to account for "why can't we do healthcare too, since we pay more per person for it in taxes anyway".
US wealth is borrowed wealth ? From whom did they borrow it then ?
And no, that's not by dumping cheap products due to low labor costs. Labor costs in the industrial sector tend to be quite a bit higher in Germany, strong unions and labor protection and all that awful "socialist" stuff.
The surplus is because German products are high quality and are in demand. In fact, most of the top categories of exports are the same for the US and Germany, so it's a pretty direct competition.
Overall, the US trade deficit was $478 billion in 2016. Recently, Germany had a trade surplus with China, despite the much lower Chinese wages.
The US current accounts deficit is very similar in scale, at $462 billion in 2017. That's the difference between the amount that the US (private+public) borrowed from foreign countries and the amount that foreign countries borrowed from the US.
And yes, unlike you, I do know how borrowing money works: the US is currently borrowing half a trillion dollars per year from foreign sources, net.
Please read and follow https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and help take care of this place instead of helping to wreck it. I'm sure you wouldn't fuel flames in a forest or a garden, so please don't fuel them here.
I also don't recall being "warned" about this "repeatedly".
I do try to correct gross misinformation. With facts and figures.
It's true that your most recent history doesn't contain ideological flamewar (not counting this nationalistic spat), which is great. Nonetheless it has noticeably been a problem in the past, and your comments still sometimes contain uncivil swipes that need to be edited out.
Have you seen many American cars on the road lately? Not a rhetorical question, I'm actually expecting an answer.
Seriously picking a car industry which is and always had been different in the US than in Eu is a shitty example to prove a point. If it would not be for your liberal americans throwing billions at your german cars they would be nothing compared to what they are now. Ever been to SK ? How many non korean cars have you seen ?
The entire IT industry dwarfs everything Europe has or will have in the next decades and still it is just a fraction of the US of A produces or trades with the world.
Besides Germany is your China of europe dumping shit to weaker markets en masse. Just looking at the list of largest german companies gives you a hint of how Germany really operates.
I'm not trying to "prove a point". You asked for an example ("Where and how are the german companies beating the US ?") and I gave you one: German car companies are beating american car companies in the us.
So before you change the subject into china, south korea, the IT industry, weaker markets, mass production, and so on and on, can you first acknowledge that you asked for an example of German companies beating american ones, and I gave you exactly one such example?
Would you please (re-)read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and use the site only as intended from now on? The rules are the way they are because we don't want this community to destroy itself. If it's valuable enough for you to participate in, it's valuable enough for you to help preserve it. Helping to wreck it is incongruent, and I'm sure you're not doing that intentionally, but unfortunately the effects are the same, and we have to moderate by effects (not intent, which we don't have direct access to).
And I'm sure that you know that is not true. You can't possibly believe that someone who says "but what can i expect from a german" does not know exactly the effect he will provoke on the other person.
I'd even say that in their trivial way, these internet forum dynamics are connected to the causes of violence and war. If that's true, it has an interesting consequence: internet forums are an opportunity—trivial, yes, but therefore also safe—to work on the sources of violence and war in oneself.
Please try to rebuff his points if you don't agree with them.
I mean, just look at the fantastic discussion your rebuff started.