Germany exposed as a nation of slackers

BBC News: Full Article

I get forty hours of work done in ten. Now that is efficient!

Is it the home of a toothless media and an inept government. YES!

It's an OPINION piece, not objective news.

Look also at the problems that Britain has that are mentioned in the article: housing and transport are just the 2 I saw in a brief skim.

And oh looky looky Thomas Kielinger the writer used to be the boss of the CDU mouthpiece "Rheinischer Merkur". There are things wrong with the current federal government, but the opposition are just offering more of the same with the added benefit of the taste of the inside of Bush's arsecheeks.

Remember, it was Kohl that got Germany into this mess!!!

Well said Grtho,

At least here you have 5 million OFFICIAL unemployed. Back in the UK they massage the figures until only when you have been out of work for six months, have ginger hair, can ride a unicycle and whistle Ave Maria in Latvian, whilst standing in a bowl of custard... do you actually qualify to be "Registered" as unemployed.

I like it here for the flat(ter) playing field of business. Less old school tie and more "what can you bring to the economy?"

Nowhere is perfect. Utopia don't appear on any map I have seen... sadly, but come on, look who wrote the piece...

...the phrase "Axe to grind" springs directly to mind.

This place seems to be getting there...

Actually, I'd love to visit New Zealand. It has always fascinated me ever since my Dad turned down a job in the 60's to be a tug skipper in Wellington.

Problem with NZ though is... a meteor could wipe it out...

...and the rest of the world wouldn't find out for three weeks

@ Kza

Thats because you exported all your dole bludgers to australia!

...peddles standard aussie cliche and returns to work...

...or one hell of a tough slave driving boss!!


Does it sound different in other languages, even if whistling?

@Sin

that sounds like an advantage to me. coz it also means that if meteors wiped out the rest of the world, NZ would be:

- untouched
- a world cricket superpower

but all this german hardworkingness is rubbish isn't it? i mean their systems work pretty well, but the actual individual people are hardly killing themselves. tis all going to end in tears, i reckon, when the demographics kick in.

I agree with grtho, Kohl is also responsible! And don't forget about the reunification I wonder where France, or Britain would be had they been "united" with the former GDR/Eastern Germany.

@latecomer

Stop it! You're scaring me It is bad enough worrying about the neo-Nazis and the football hooligans, without the demographics also coming to kick us in.

I get scared about those secular Hungarian groups.

Was I dreaming, I thought 'they' estimate the official unemployment figures around 10 MILLION ... ??

Dreaming Willy.

The actual number of people who are unemployed for more than a few short weeks and are actually seeking work is probably under 3 million in reality.

Unemployment is not a Grmqny wide problem but applies to certain industries and regions and demographic sections of society in particular.

Looks like the situation might be short lived...

Helen Clark says New Zealand should emulate Sweden

Crazy stuff... Just as we have a healthy economy and the lowest employment in the develop world, they want to enlarge the social welfare system???

What the hell! This could be a perfect opportunity to tame the welfare monster, trim it down to minimal inneficiancy, free families from the opressive cycle of welfare dependance, and reduce the tax burdens across the board, but instead she wants to increase it to a system of scandanavian proportians!

Cant see the logic myself...