For most of this century, Germany racked up one economic success after another, dominating global markets for high-end products like luxury cars and industrial machinery, selling so much to the rest of the world that half the economy ran on exports.
Jobs were plentiful, the government’s financial coffers grew as other European countries drowned in debt, and books were written about what other countries could learn from Germany.
No longer. Now, Germany is the world’s worst-performing major developed economy, with both the International Monetary Fund and European Union expecting it to shrink this year.
I don’t feel persecuted, I just want to point out how stupid it is to portrait even the slightest economic hiccup as a major failure, especially after facing two crises in short succession (with the climate crisis not even counted).
In fact, what you pointed out is among the reasons for that: All things considered, Germany is doing pretty OK. And I think economic growth is a much easier to solve problem than becoming a more sustainable economy/society (i.e. having social stability, fixing the education system, becoming less polluting and more independent from the global superpowers).