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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: Elsewhere who wrote (103076)3/3/2005 7:28:00 AM
From: unclewest  Read Replies (1) of 793838
 
JJ,
I know the unemployment rate in the former E Germany was reported very high (25+%) when the wall came down. Is that where most of the problem still exists or has it spread into the entire country?

And is it white or blue collar jobs? I ask because I wondered just how badly the Bonn area would get hurt by moving the federal government back to Berlin and how far the damage would spread. And during my two post-wall visits (as a consultant) I was surprised at how fast (for example) the Potsdam inner city was being restored but driving around the countryside nobody seemed to be working and there was no sign of industrial development in the so-called new frontier. In other words, the only employment seemed to be small shopkeepers and those working on government funded projects. During the second trip, I was on the Ku-Damm twice at night. The deterioration was shocking. My thoughts then were that the heart of Berlin is succumbing to the drug and prostitution culture.

If the industrial base is losing jobs too, there is a lesson to be learned from the German experience for America. We continue to lose industrial production. In discussions on SI a coupla years ago, we talked about what happens to a town when the local production plant shuts down. Everyone knows the answer to that, but few can extrapolate that concept to national level.

We have Germany setting record unemployment figures while German lawmakers are being quoted in the German press as planning to half the federal deficit by next year. Empty promises for sure. Durn, you might think an election is coming up.
uw
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