USA TODAY International Edition
TRUMP IS RIGHT, WE’RE TRADE LOSERS
How can coddled U. S. CEOs compete if Germany won’t throw away its advantages?
President Trump is right. We aren’t doing well in trade. In 2016, with Germany alone, we had a trade deficit of $ 65 billion. But, as I have said before, to Make America Great Again, we need to tell it like it is. In that spirit, let me mention some “unfair” advantages Germany has over us.
Germany is more of a meritocracy than America. According to the Brookings Institution, the success of parents has more impact on the success of their children here than in Germany. Those sneaky Germans, promoting competent people, no matter what their family background. Why didn’t we think of that?
Germans also spend far less on health care ( 11% of gross domestic product compared with 17% for the U. S.), while getting better health outcomes than we do ( for instance, longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality). All of that reduces their cost of doing business. The Germans accomplish this through a governmentmandated health system with universal coverage.
Obamacare was a step in that direction. Most reports suggest that any new GOP health care plan will likely worsen coverage and outcomes without reducing health care’s share of our GDP.
IDIOTIC PROMISE
Infrastructure is important for economic growth and development. According to the World Bank, in 2016, Germany had the best infrastructure in the world ( America’s ranked only 8th), and German infrastructure spending is heavily state- supported.
Further, the Germans tax themselves to actually pay for the programs they want. In 2016, the German government had a budget surplus of about .7% of GDP, while the U. S. had a budget deficit of about 3% of GDP.
The United States does not always trail Germany. Bloomberg News reports that America is the best place to be a CEO. And according to a World Bank survey, it’s easier to do business here than in more regulated and unionized Germany. In the U. S., it’s easier to shortchange your workers, easier to not pay people a living wage.
All this “unfair” competition from Germany must end. To level the playing field, the Germans need to adopt our free market policies — such as massive tax cuts designed to benefit the wealthiest — while claiming that lower taxes will magically cause massive economic growth.
Also, German politicians need to sign some idiotic promise ( like the Grover Norquist pledge almost all Republicans have signed) to never raise taxes. When tax revenues decline, German politicians will be forced to destroy their public sector to try to balance the budget.
Next, the bargaining power of labor will have to be gutted, and any controls on rapacious and incompetent CEOs removed. The Germans must abandon their commitment to meritocracy and opportunity, and instead embrace kleptocracy and nepotism.
WITHDRAW FROM EU
Also, the Germans need to stop electing competent leaders with compelling life stories. Germany’s leader, Angela Merkel, is a former research scientist with a Ph. D. in chemistry and her father was a church pastor. She didn’t come from money and influential connections, or appoint any of her family members to government positions.
Trump is a reality TV star from a very rich family who managed to drive six major businesses into bankruptcy and rapidly appointed inexperienced family members to prominent positions in his administration.
Finally, to make things easier for us, the Germans need to withdraw from the European Union and spend more on their military.
If they won’t throw away all of their advantages, how can America’s coddled CEOs be expected to compete?
Jokes aside, we should fix our own problems. and not hesitate to adopt what Germany ( and other countries) do well.
We could continue with the GOP, its fanatical belief that tax cuts cure everything and its march to destroy the U. S. government and our social fabric under the guise of “Freedom!”
Or we can have infrastructure that’s as good as the best in the world, a health care system that learns from other countries’ best practices, and jobs that provide dignity. As a first step, though, we need to elect competent and honest leaders we can be proud of, and to realize that our government isn’t the enemy.
A well- funded, well- functioning government is necessary for capitalism’s success. Just look at Germany and the way it’s clobbering us in trade.