China Looks to Germany While America Blames China

Is China not the world’s largest exporter? Yes, it is; but until last year, it was number two; Germany was number one – and Germany has slipped now to number two. So Germany with its high wages and generous social benefits was able to outdo both the U.S. and China in exports until recently. How did Germany do this? By exporting high quality, high tech and well-branded goods. (Germany has not outsourced production to other countries as has the US.) In fact as China came into the number one exporter spot, its leaders proclaimed that they were not really number one but number one only in quantity. They said China’s goal was to follow in Germany’s path to become an exporter of “high tech, high quality, well-branded goods.” Why cannot the U.S. do this instead of blaming China for its unemployment.

So writes John V. Walsh — An Anti-Interventionist Looks at China. "With its Jimmy Stewart localism, Germany is running rings around America," wrote Harold Meyerson a while back, noting that a "key to Germany's miracle is the mittelstand, as the family-owned small and mid-size manufacturing firms that dominate the economy are known" — Roepke Lives.