Kurzarbeit (original) (raw)

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Kurzarbeit

September 2, 2010 2:26 pm September 2, 2010 2:26 pm

I’m not the first to make this point, but when people make Germany-US comparisons, there’s an important contrast between the GDP comparison, in which Germany actually does slightly worse:

Eurostat

and the employment picture, in which Germany does much better:

OECD

What is this telling us? German growth hasn’t been great, one quarter notwithstanding; but it avoided US-style mass layoffs even when it was slumping badly. Part of the explanation is the Kurzarbeit program of work-sharing; also, Germany’s labor laws and its strong unions have led to a situation in which workers aren’t treated as much as variable costs as they are here.

So American conservatives now holding up Germany as a role model are actually praising the virtues of Eurosclerosis, and disparaging American-style capitalism.