Quote from KINGOFSHORTS:
Even with Germany's higher taxes, bigger social programs they still have a lower unemployment rate than the US.
What are the Germans doing right?
The U.S. also grew more and had greater employment and more job creation when it had much higher tax rates. High tax rates are not desirable, but they don't have much to do with job creation one way or the other. The politician's claim that high rates on the wealthy harm job creation is not in agreement with reality. Jobs are related to the strength of an economy, not its tax rates -- up to a point at least. Nor, apparently do strong environmental and industrial safety laws seem to be a hindrance to a strong economy, as Germans are in general highly safety conscious and show great concern for the environment. This again is completely contrary to what some politician's are claiming as they attempt to dismantle the U.S. environmental protection laws. In these respects, the U.S. seems to be moving backwards in comparison with other highly developed and scientifically advanced countries. Witness the push to curtail stem cell research in the U.S., for example.
Germany has:
a. A better educational system with tracking, as the U.S. once had, where the burden to perform is on the students, rather the teachers and schools.
b. more engineers graduated than in the US.
c. better engineered products, and greater commitment to quality.
d. stronger middle class.
e. higher wages.
f. less income discrepancy.
g. no military industrial complex that dictates policy.
and also,
h. Germans no longer waste their assets on war. They spend ~$300/ capita per year on "defense" U.S. spends $4000/capita per year (That figure include vet benefits and interest.)
i. Germany spends far less on medical care for a better outcome, whereas U.S. medical system is structured like a for profit cartel.
j. Germany was bombed into dust and started over. The U.S. is still laboring under an obsolescent 200+ year-old constitution with several irresolvable defects.
k. Germans elected a physicist to lead their country; Americans elected a poorly educated, barely literate, millionaire playboy.
l. Germany has more enlightened drug laws and thus wastes far less prosecuting minor drug crimes. As a result, Germany has a far lower prison population per capita, with a consequent lower tax payer burden for this purpose.
J. Germany has a somewhat functional government, whereas the U.S. government is dysfunctional.
I don't want to suggest that Germany doesn't have problems of their own, or that Germans are any brighter or more capable than anyone else, but nevertheless the U.S. could profit from observing how other countries do things.