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Comment by eru | Hacker News Reader

So much whining. Just have a look at how, say, Germany copes with globalization. It's a rich country that exports to China.

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germany had an anemic gdp growth in the last two decades, significantly worse than most countries of comparitive size (population and gdp-wise). Look at gdp growth of other big european countries, or worse USA, it is quite striking

Which just goes to show that GDP growth rate taken in isolation might not be such a great measure of the overall health of an economy.

So what's your measure of Germany's economic health ?

Part of that slow GDP growth can be attributed to having to absorb an entire communist country (East Germany) into a capitalistic society (West Germany).

This is indeed no small accomplishment - but I doubt that that's what people have in mind when they say Germany's economy is an example to follow. It seems to have become a popular meme in the US (has been for a long time in Europe media), but it has little rationale. Generally, it goes around Germany exports a lot, and Germany has not followed the model of shareholding as much as the US (or UK).

Those ideas are extremely popular in general, and even more so in Europe, I think partly because it can reinforce anti-americanism (the US became a symbol of companies owned by shareholders instead of families, supposedly more geared toward long term).

You might be right. But keep in mind that the US population has been growing. Do you have data on the GDP per capita?

There, precisely, is the problem. Not every nation can be like Germany. It's not possible for every nation to have an overall trade surplus. Being like Germany is not a solution.

Germany is also a one citizenship state, which provides a disinsentive to immigration.

Perhaps a one-and-a-half citizenship state. There are ways to keep your old citizenship. But I don't see how that matters too much?

And how they cope with immigration.

German law states that people who help, instigate, prolong or support the stay of an illegal immigrant can be penalized. That means that doctors, nurses and other hospital staff is required to report people to the authorities when the illegal status of an immigrant seeking medical help. The medical profession opposes this rule that is a lot stricter than in many other european countries, where help can be given to aliens without revealing their identity.

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