In an opinion piece for Euronews, Dr Nikolas Stihl, chairman of world-leading chainsaw maker STIHL, calls for reforms including a 40-hour working week without extra pay to safeguard Germany's prosperity and welfare state.View on euronews
Yeah, that’s the fairy tale they try to tell us because it sounds logical if you don’t look closer.
In reality those high energy prices are just a narrative (at least for Germany). Heavy industry pays average amounts in European comparison. It’s the private end consumer who’s getting poor from all the taxes and fees to subsidize cheap energy for the industry. Those are the same people whose real wages increased by ~25% in the last few decades while their real economic output in the same time frame increased by ~250%. And all that money is funneled off to a few ultra rich while pensions, social benefits and health care are linked to the stagnating wages.
The actual problem of Germany’s economy is that they systematically fucked over Germans for decades to optimise their trade output. So now when global demand is shifting there is no domestic demand to compensate because they are all fucking poor (compare: average wealth with median wealth) and squeezed by constantly increasing costs that in many cases just increase the profit margins of the very same companies they already subsidize with their taxes.
Added some charts for comparison (data from 2024-2025):
The fairy tale German politicians and the media tell 24/7 of how high energy costs for the industry and much too high wages are the problem. And this is after all about a German CEO calling for lower wages “to safeguard Germany’s prosperity and welfare state”.
When in reality Germany, so the other 99,999999% but him, are struggling because of low wages that in no way represent their economic output, high and rising energy costs –exactly so the industry gets lower costs– and with the pension, social and health system not looking sustainable, but again not because of the delusions this guy and his other rich friends are spreading, but because they are linked to stagnating wages. Suggesting more less and lower pay so his profit margins go up and the country is more fucked is simply insane… or just shameless. Yeah, probably the latter.
Wasn’t meant personally in any way. As I said, it sounds logical without a closer look. So I told how it looks from the inside.
Both can be true at the same time, we have all those same issues too, the gov enabled the rich (and the elected officials themselves) to loot the country. But also uncontrolled rising costs destroyed a lot of businesses which the country needed to function
Yeah, that’s the fairy tale they try to tell us because it sounds logical if you don’t look closer.
In reality those high energy prices are just a narrative (at least for Germany). Heavy industry pays average amounts in European comparison. It’s the private end consumer who’s getting poor from all the taxes and fees to subsidize cheap energy for the industry. Those are the same people whose real wages increased by ~25% in the last few decades while their real economic output in the same time frame increased by ~250%. And all that money is funneled off to a few ultra rich while pensions, social benefits and health care are linked to the stagnating wages.
The actual problem of Germany’s economy is that they systematically fucked over Germans for decades to optimise their trade output. So now when global demand is shifting there is no domestic demand to compensate because they are all fucking poor (compare: average wealth with median wealth) and squeezed by constantly increasing costs that in many cases just increase the profit margins of the very same companies they already subsidize with their taxes.
Added some charts for comparison (data from 2024-2025):
What fairy tale? I was making an assumption based on watching the industry die in the UK for the reasons backed up by your graph.
Looks like Germany is different from what I assumed
The fairy tale German politicians and the media tell 24/7 of how high energy costs for the industry and much too high wages are the problem. And this is after all about a German CEO calling for lower wages “to safeguard Germany’s prosperity and welfare state”.
When in reality Germany, so the other 99,999999% but him, are struggling because of low wages that in no way represent their economic output, high and rising energy costs –exactly so the industry gets lower costs– and with the pension, social and health system not looking sustainable, but again not because of the delusions this guy and his other rich friends are spreading, but because they are linked to stagnating wages. Suggesting more less and lower pay so his profit margins go up and the country is more fucked is simply insane… or just shameless. Yeah, probably the latter.
Wasn’t meant personally in any way. As I said, it sounds logical without a closer look. So I told how it looks from the inside.
Both can be true at the same time, we have all those same issues too, the gov enabled the rich (and the elected officials themselves) to loot the country. But also uncontrolled rising costs destroyed a lot of businesses which the country needed to function