Well. Maybe some time we should elect someone who fixes the structural problems. And not just make it worse every year.
this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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The problem is that those who make it worse every year also claim that they'll fix it.
I mean, I can tell the difference, but can your average Michael & Sabine tell it?
Based on Merz's approval ratings, I'd say Sabine and Michael know.
Dunno why politics always has to be like that. Even before electing him, we already knew he has a certain kind of personality. And he was going to take away money from the families and working class. Don't invest in a brighter future, just some right-wing populism. And maybe build a dozen or so new power plants of the stupidest and most expensive sort to deal with energy. Came a bit of a surprise to me, they also actively sabotage the healthcare system... But I mean everyone is invited to board a train, visit the doctor's and see how it's like. Or have a look at their energy bill. All of this isn't really a secret.
Based on the C*U only losing a few percent and massive amounts changing to the "the same insanity, but even more corrupt, more radical and with screaming more absurd lies"-alternative... No, they definitely can't. Quite the contrary actually. Not only can they not see the difference, they actively believe destroying the country even harder will somehow magically fix it.
Considering the USA is way ahead of us, I'd say it's just a long long way until a country reaches rock bottom as desired. There's some ideas on how to expedite doom. But it'll also take some more time to get Skynet up and running.
There is no rock bottom. Or, to be more precise, the only rock bottom there is is the complete annihilation of the human race. Things can always get worse*, and believing that you can make things better by first making them worse is christian doomerism or something like that.
I know a lot of our fellow Americans believe in this these days, but that's their very understandable frustration and existential fear speaking.
* they can also get better though. I'm not a doomer.
You're right. I meant more the point of system collapse. When we get an uprising. I think it's a bit of an unholy combination with what the Americans call Christians and the fascists.
By the way, Christianity also teaches us about the 7 good years which will be followed by 7 bad years. And vice versa. Way back then, the Israelites needed some words of encouragement. Maybe we need, too? But I'm super annoyed. Cutting investment into a brighter future and instead investing nearly every third β¬ of taxpayer money into war is unlikely to fix society and infrastructure. We need to do better than that, because some time soon, I'd like to see some turning point and things start to improve again. For some time it looked like we were going to do something about energy and climate change. They promised to fix a few old laws about families and sexuality. Be less stingy and finally try to fix the run down parts of infrastructure. But then geopolitics happened, also Merz's hyperfocus on appeasing the lunatics. And now improving Germany in any way got demoted to some backlog item. Yet, in reality it's more important than ever.
But I'm more or less just annoyed because we're not even that bad off. We had a lot of technological advancements and the energy situation seems fixable. I bet the industry would like some cheaper energy as well. Our society isn't as broken as in other places. 84% of my neighbours don't vote for any extremists. We even started to point out a few long-term issues. I think we're still in a comfortable position to do something about it. We just need to do the right thing.
Sorry, I'm still no friend of the system collapse narrative. Though I see the urgency.
And the biblical 7 good/bad years can also be interpreted in far less extreme ways.
Hmmh. Yeah some people add it to the mix. I mean we've had revolution happen. It's not like it is just a theory. I guess people just need to pay attention in history class. Learn what reform and revolution is... Consequences thereof... And it's not like we're close to anything like that. At least not here.
I think that bible tale mostly showcases how people already knew thousands of years ago, how life is a constant up and down. And you have to find ways to deal with it. It's probably not exactly about that. As far as I remember they also had weather patterns back then and effects on agriculture. Plus it's an old story about God's supposed favorite tribe, their hardship and how they were able to prevail. It's not the same thing as the doomerism baked into Christianity, due to early days and those teachings.
Probabably also doesn't matter unless we invite Peter Thiel over. CDU isn't really Christian in any way. At least not on a federal level.
Since you keep harping on the bible: Jesus was not a (political) revolutionary.
And although I don't subscribe to it, I prefer to look at a saner interpretation of Christianity than the US American grifter FUD.
Maybe they know now, but the PR dptmnt is working hard during election time, and Sabine & Michael do not read newsarticles the way we do.
Seems to be a common thing nowadays, politicians winning elections and then becoming really unpopular.
I also hate the pesonality cult; maybe Sabine & Michael think it's Merz' fault, not the CDU's?
BTW, pulling Die Bahn into this is not really fair because that's been fucked up for decades. An epic tragedy about how not to privatize institutions.
Yes.
I think Deutsche Bahn is exemplary for stinginess. We need to invest money. And that's been an issue for a long, long time. But it's the same story with other infrastructure, the power grid, schools... Digital infrastructure... It pays off later. But we keep being stingy, and the situation with the trains is a good example for that.
Who are "we"? The majority is brain-dead and does elect the same corrupt morons again and again because obsolete industry clinging to their dying business model, the fossil fuel industry (same, same...) and billionaires making money off the people's stupidity tell them to do it.
Hehe, yeah we, the people who are legible to vote in Germany and/or the people who have to face the consequences π Idk every time I look around in my neighbourhood, there's a lot of really nice people. The well-off ones seem to be able to do the maths on the heat-pump thing and they don't even need any stupid laws about heating. We also have some nice things. Especially on a local level. Not only where I live. But there's definitely some brain-dead people as well. A lot of morons who can't operate their car, bicycle... I'm a bit split on the general intelligence level of the population. I personally think there's (still) a broad majority of people with functional brains. But it's complicated...
It's not that complicated
Obviously some will do that and it is normal to do so. Foreign companies are also moving things to Germany as well. It is also really important to just be honest with where the German economy stands right now. Probably the biggest story is that the baby boomers are starting to retire about now. At the same time a lot of infrastructure needs a lot of investment and some industries like the car industry have serious issues. Add to that a massive market in the US closing down, which obviously hits the German export oriented business model badly.
There are solutions to all of this and honestly the situation is not that horrible. Some industries do quite well and founding of new companies is at an all time high as well. So there is clearly adaption. Higher infrastructure spending and a positive vision for the future is really badly needed though.
It is also really important to just be honest with where the German economy stands right now
Exactly where most of it stands for decades. It's based on constant lobbying of "We want back to the 1980 at the very latest. Give public money so we can refuse any innovation and adapt legislation to stifle any competition for us. Thx, here are some board meberships in exchange."
So the whole already shitty narrative of saving the "Standort Doitschland" is a sham anyhow. Who'd'a thunk it.
...and you think that 2% in 2 years are significant?
Anectdotical, my comp, 1000+ employees is saving 5% p.a. in germany (reducing personnel) and creating a new HQ in poland.
I think political insecurity is a driving factor. Politicians left and right are making more extreme claims every week and there is no middle anymore.
Also german law/guidelines and enforcements. The GDPR authority eyes german companies very closely. Its easy to hold you accountable if your assets are in the same country, same city as the authority office even. Harder to do if they are in another country. Poland is known to ignore eu law even. i feel like my comp is eyed more closely than meta and google just because of this. This is the same with Antitrust laws, consumer protection and their whole cease-and-desist industry. I get these are good laws but i feel like they are only applied to german companies. Noone cares about Amazon, Temu.. but as a german comp you have the ever tangling sword of damocles above your head.
I don't see left-wing politicians making more extreme claims. Theirs are reasonable.
Fascists however, are always without exception extreme, and their allies making fabrications more and more extreme, is planned. When capitalism becomes threatened, it will attempt to establish fascism.
Anti-trusts are great, what we need is to enforce them on foreign companies as well. If they don't want that, the fines will increase and if they don't pay nor change behaviour (and aren't broken up to be independent nor nationalised), then bye bye, we establish our own.
You are talking to someone that seems to think ignoring the GDPR is ok because others do it as well, so don't expect them to have a reasonable idea about industry regulation π€·
Leaving an EU country for another EU country to avoid EU-wide legislation is a very good idea anywway...
I donβt see left-wing politicians making more extreme claims
That's because you still live in reality. Most don't. And their perception of left-wing is 100% based on what the right-wing mainstream media tells them.
If your perception of reality is created by the brain-numbing propaganda most are eating up 24/7 there are no actual left-wing policies anyway, just insane identity politics and in-fighting.
Poland is known to ignore eu law even.
And that makes it more stable somehow? Sheesh, what a brainfart of a comment.