High employment in manufacturing doesn't seem like any proof of innovation to me. OK, so they make their own stuff and Americans outsource to China. Maybe that's a smarter way to go. But it has little to do with actually inventing and developing a product.
This report covers the entire globe.
I'm not german, but I have lived around 8 years in Germany, I studied at a technical university there and worked at one of the Fraunhofer Institutes, which are mentioned in the article I have to say - they are definitely doing it right. I mean... just comparing how affordable universities are there. I am always amazed when I read stories about students in the US who graduate with $50.000 or more in debt. What I paid in Germany was around $300 per semester (for which I received also a travelling ticket for the entire transport system in the entire province... just the value of this ticket exceeds the $300) and that was about it. Later they introduced semester fees and I had to pay around 700$ per semester. And that was really high. I mean ... people were protesting and the province's government removed the fees. And it's really easy to find a part-time job in your field of studies in a high-tech cluster. In the case of my university the government spent like 2.5$ billion to extend the existing high-tech cluster so it can acommodate another 10.000 highly skilled researchers. This is all happeneing in a small city with 250k people. In areas like Stuttgart and Muenchen it's even crazier what they are doing.
The only thing I am not fond about Germany right now is the high taxes. But AFAIK the government are planning in reducing the tax burden on companies to keep the economy competative.
I don't know... is it easy to find a part time job in your field of studies in the US?
> What I paid in Germany was around $300 per semester
> In the case of my university the government spent like 2.5$ billion to extend the existing high-tech cluster
> The only thing I am not fond about Germany right now is the high taxes
Ever think those might be related?
> I don't know... is it easy to find a part time job in your field of studies in the US?
In the U.S., like the rest of the world, this is entirely dependent on what your field of study is.
> Ever think those might be related? I never said that. But there are a lot of different possible scenarios here, where to put the higher tax burden - on the companies or on the employees. Check for example Denmark and Sweden as they follow different paths in that matter.
The US has a higher % of people with higher education degrees than Germany. If anything, your argument needs to be that crippling student debt inhibits the capacity of a nation to innovate.