Back in 1990 when germany was reunited we had a conservative government in charge. Only thanks to them the reunion worked out as well as it did politically.
Economically they messed it up entirely, putting too much faith in the strength of western germany's economy and the positive effects of capitalism.
Consequently east germany lost the vast majority of it's industrial capabilities since nothing over there was even barely able to withstand the pressures of competition that were forced upon them all of a sudden. That meant unemployment for ten thousands of people who hadn't known this for 40 years.
To counter the ongoing trend the government hastily created tools to transfer money from the west to the east, hoping it would spark the creation of new industries. In the last 15 years 1250 billion euro($1600 billion) have been transferred that way.
Obviously, it didn't help that much. Differences between east and west are still enormous. Due to the amount of money transfered and vanishing western germany has been living off it's very substance for over a decade. Economic growth doesn't make up for the lost amounts.
That coupled with the pressures of globalization, an oversized welfare system and a partly antiquated set of industrial laws with way too high taxes are paralysing the german economy. It doesn't seem to be able to partake in the current global upward economic trend, it stagnates.
The current government of course is attempting to do something about it and began reforms of a scale that so far are unmatched in germany's younger history. Unfortunately it still doesn't seem enough to turn the trend around so far.
One of the things they did recently was reform the welfare system. Until january 1st everyone who lost his job was eligible for years of unemployment payments. They reduced that, which was a good thing. Technically the reform also meant that a large amount of people who weren't included in the unemployment figures suddenly had to be integrated into those.
That's why unemployment rates rose significantly after january 1st. It's more a statistical than actual rise.
Still, it's a depressing trend. I'm not defending it or trying to downsize it's significance, even though I do think (and hope) that nobody seriously thinks of this as a possible repetition of history. Aside from all problems this country may have, I do think that the vast majority of people here are appreciating our democratic freedoms and would never trade them in. Learning from history does work. Creating a working democracy after WW2 did actually succeed here, which is why I can't stand idiots stating that this would never work in other regions of the world (read, the middle east). It did work before, so why not again and why not attempt it?
But well, I'm just babbling. Given the fact that this bbs is so full of people constantly bashing the US I think the reactions here are quite understandable (and some are actually funny indeed
)
I just wanted to add my perspective and maybe some background info. I like my country, believe in our democracy and try to keep my optimism and hopes up for the future.
