Monday, October 4, 2010
Germany's Reunification
I thought this was interesting because we talked about it in class a little. Article states that even more than 20 years have gone by, there is still resentment as well as economic differences between east and west Germany. East Germany suffers from greater unemployment and lower living standards than its Western half and many people still view the reunification as colonization. Westerners, however, are often bitter for having to foot the bill for reunification but the article states that westerners have benefited more than they realize from Eastern migrants labor productivity and the increase in competition which has led to more profitable businesses. The article also says that younger Germans are tired of the east-west feud and that tensions will soon be phased out.
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3 comments:
The government rushed the reunification without considering consequences so now they need to take active steps to build up the productivity of the east. Maybe through tax incentives for firms to open branches in East Germany. These branches should include education and training facilities to improve the skill level of the workers.
I think that time is all Germany needs to rid of reunification resentments. To say simply, the reunification had been more economically good than bad.
Migration to the west boosts western GDP and provides more sources for income tax, bringing eastern Germany closer to its reconstruction goals more quickly. I definitely agree that in time more benefits of the unification and solidarity tax will be seen and feuds with be phased-out.
This is a little unrelated, but I was watching a documentary about North Korea and during an interview a North Korean official said that it wasn't ready for reunification with the south based on the German experience, blaming many of the failures of reunification on the "hasty-ness" of it. If it had been slower, would it have been more successful?
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