Kaput: The End of the German Miracle
Recommended
A rather scathing journalistic overview of how Germany went from innovators of the printing press, to a nepotistic, bureaucratic, set of luddites, dependent on Russia for energy, the USA for digital services, and China for manufacturing.
The book travels back and forth throughout history, explaining the reasons why delivering a CD of data via horse is quicker than uploading data via the cloud. It focuses on how policy decisions and lack of competence in high levels of industry, combined with a strong sense of identity related to analogue manufacturing and engineering, German-speaking natives, education, and extremely tight debt control, has led to slow stagnation of the German economy.
The main takeaways for me were:
- Agility and keeping up with modern technology is key
- Trade relationships are always one-sided
- Self-reliance in core functions such as energy and food is fundamental in terms of having economic and ethical independence
- Flexibility attracts the best people to immigrate
- Rigidity and a lack of competition means the best people don't immigrate