Angela Merkel, German chancellor, is Time 'Person of the Year
78 replies, posted
this is instantly laughable and discarded when Trump is even on the list let alone 3rd place.
[QUOTE=Zeke129;49281430]She made Germany the most powerful economy in Europe[/QUOTE]
Germany was destined to be the most powerful economy in mainland Europe regardless of Merkel, it's a combination of industry in the Rhine and small but highly urbanized states being united under a centralized nation.
[QUOTE=General J;49282984]this is instantly laughable and discarded when Trump is even on the list let alone 3rd place.[/QUOTE]
Well he's gonna kill the Republican Party. Thats pretty notable.
[QUOTE=Rangergxi;49283034]Well he's gonna kill the Republican Party. Thats pretty notable.[/QUOTE]
Well, not kill it, but rather split it apart. Besides, that's been happening for a while now, as the far right battles with the center-right.
You're stupid if you think you can take a metric like economic strength that and think its in any way representative of someones ability to be a good political leader.
Even if you have absolute power, there are still external influences, and forces set in motion before your election.
You don't know if it could have been better or worse, and what influence she had or could have had.
[QUOTE=mdeceiver79;49281248]American conservative thinking he can talk about politics.
Aside from the arguably poor handling of immigration and pension age shift what has she done wrong?[/QUOTE]
eh
The Energy policies went full populist after fukushima?
[QUOTE=Zeke129;49282106]Of course the 10-year leader of a country is partially responsible for the economy of a country. Her government not only got the country out of a recession in 2009 but turned it around in two years and managed to break old unemployment records.
Germany has done better than ever under Merkel and it's really naive to think that the leader of the country isn't at least partially responsible for that.[/QUOTE]
The unemployment records are at an all-time low because they use all the tricks possible. We used to have 5 million, right now we have roughly 3 million. Add to that 1 million who are constantly doing trainings and re-training. If you're older than 58 you also don't count (now). Everyone who's sick during the time the statistics are made also get removed from it, even if it's only a cold. We have 6 million people that earn less than 10,000€ a year. They roughly make 650€ a month. After social charges. Do you honestly consider it "work" for people who are kept busy for a couple of euros/hour a couple of days/month?
40% of all Germans after 2030 will face old-age poverty.
Germany has roughly 13 million people that we can't offer any job to make a living from.
Vattenfall is currently suing Germany for 6 billion dollars because Merkel decided to take 8 nuclear power plants offline without any legal basis.
Before the elections Merkel said with her there would be no toll and then she changed her mind.
There's a lot of good German politics but Merkel isn't one of them. She does not have an agenda. She doesn't have anything she seemingly cares about. Except one thing. She likes being chancellor.
[QUOTE=Jordax;49281555]So why don't they just ask more skilled youth from Spain and Greece then? I've heard that they have a huge amount of joblessness with their youth, but apparently they don't deserve any help in getting a job for themselves according to Merkel's actions.
Hell, I thought that the European Union was supposed to look out for other European countries first. Or doesn't that seem to be the case anymore as of late?[/QUOTE]
IDK for other countries, but it has been already for a couple of years a programme to send skilled youth from here to Germany, where almost everybody found a decent job (and if luck is on my side, I will be part of the 5th wave being sent up there).
Which it makes me ask here one delicate question: Is true these rumours about Germany prefering to bring skilled workers from other countries rather than form their own ones because is cheaper?
[QUOTE=Maestro Fenix;49285664]IDK for other countries, but it has been already for a couple of years a programme to send skilled youth from here to Germany, where almost everybody found a decent job (and if luck is on my side, I will be part of the 5th wave being sent up there).
Which it makes me ask here one delicate question: Is true these rumours about Germany prefering to bring skilled workers from other countries rather than form their own ones because is cheaper?[/QUOTE]
Absolutely. The word that you'll hear a lot is "Fachkräftemangel", translated "lack of skilled workers". Companies and associations alike like to whine about how they are just not able to find skilled workers.
In reality there is no lack of skilled workers. There is a lack of underpaid cheap labor force. See [URL="https://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neopresse.com%2Fwirtschaft%2Fdie-luege-vom-fachkraeftemangel-2%2F&edit-text="]here[/URL].
[QUOTE=hexpunK;49281256]"Person of the year" isn't "the bestster persons ever!!", it's an award to whoever they think had a big impact, good or bad, that year. Even concepts have won the award due to this ("You", "The Protester", etc.)[/QUOTE]
If it's good [I]OR BAD[/I] then why wasn't Osama person of the year?
[QUOTE=kill3r;49285941]If it's good [I]OR BAD[/I] then why wasn't Osama person of the year?[/QUOTE]
You'll have to write a letter to the magazine and ask them. It really is good or bad - the most influential person. Bit of a misnomer imo. Person of the year sounds like it could only be a good thing.
[QUOTE=Jordax;49281555]So why don't they just ask more skilled youth from Spain and Greece then? I've heard that they have a huge amount of joblessness with their youth, but apparently they don't deserve any help in getting a job for themselves according to Merkel's actions.
Hell, I thought that the European Union was supposed to look out for other European countries first. Or doesn't that seem to be the case anymore as of late?[/QUOTE]
what
why would a massive exodus of skilled workers be a good thing for Greece
think about what you're suggesting for just a second
[QUOTE=Zeke129;49281468]
Perhaps I should have said "presided over the most powerful economy in Europe".
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, kind of a big difference.
Although apart from how she handled Greece and The migrant crisis, she was doing an alright job.
[QUOTE=EdvardSchnitz;49281216]A woman who screwed over Europe and her country..[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=hexpunK;49281234]Fuck me it's like I'm actually reading the BBC comments section again.[/QUOTE]
I actually read the perfect article to debunk that attitude today :v:
[URL="http://www.n24.de/n24/Nachrichten/Politik/d/7742144/wie-die-wutbuerger-lernten--fluechtlinge-zu-lieben.html"]Sumte in Niedersachsen - Wie die Wutbürger lernten, Flüchtlinge zu liebe[/URL][URL="https://archive.is/yl7t9"]n[/URL] / [URL="http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.n24.de%2Fn24%2FNachrichten%2FPolitik%2Fd%2F7742144%2Fwie-die-wutbuerger-lernten--fluechtlinge-zu-lieben.html"]Sumte in Lower Saxony, Germany - How did the anger citizens, refugees to lov[/URL][URL="https://archive.is/VBoNL"]e[/URL] (The actual translation isn't terrible.)
It's about a village where multiple times the number of inhabitants arrived in a shelter and where the citizens panicked over it to some extent (and the NPD appeared too).
Now (two months later), they appear to be really happy about their arrival. The bureaucracy is behind schedule as usual regarding processing applications though, which really needs fixing.
That said, there are definitely issues. A group of refugee children was attacked and two girls among them injured at school by eight-graders, who among other things spit on them and threw stones.
The police is investigating because of dangerous assault now, or whatever that's called in English.
[editline]10th December 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=Zeke129;49282106]Of course the 10-year leader of a country is partially responsible for the economy of a country. Her government not only got the country out of a recession in 2009 but turned it around in two years and managed to break old unemployment records.
Germany has done better than ever under Merkel and it's really naive to think that the leader of the country isn't at least partially responsible for that.[/QUOTE]
It's not really that surprising for this country though, since almost all parties here have a conservative spending policy.
Pretty sure that Germany wasn't hit anywhere close to as hard as many other countries by the recent economic crises either.
That said, her party is indeed one of the parties that pays relatively much attention to the economy.
(I don't like them. They're Christian conservatives, so they're holding back culturally liberal policies somewhat often. I have a higher opinion of Merkel though, even if it's not where I'd say I support her overall. I think she's doing her job decently.)
[editline]10th December 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=uber.;49285794]Absolutely. The word that you'll hear a lot is "Fachkräftemangel", translated "lack of skilled workers". Companies and associations alike like to whine about how they are just not able to find skilled workers.
In reality there is no lack of skilled workers. There is a lack of underpaid cheap labor force. See [URL="https://translate.google.de/translate?sl=de&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=de&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.neopresse.com%2Fwirtschaft%2Fdie-luege-vom-fachkraeftemangel-2%2F&edit-text="]here[/URL].[/QUOTE]
It depends on the kind of skilled work. There are definitely not enough workers in certain areas like IT, which afaik has more or less a job guarantee currently.
I can confirm the lack of unskilled workers though, that's something that kept popping up in the (mainstream) news for a while.
(I wouldn't exactly say underpaid though... Germany has overall minimum wage now if I'm not mistaken, which should apply to all jobs in one or two years. The delays are where unions had agreed to lower wages previously.)
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