Re:Germany is downgrading
by thomasjames on Monday May 06, 2013 @06:42AM
(#5661704)
Even though a lot of infrastructure (i.e., Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Post, Deutsche Telekom) has been privatized, it is interesting how the former state monopolies are just still de facto monopolies within Germany. They also compete well internationally. I am personally looking forward to the US privatizing some more of its infrastructure and hope the results are positive. Also, I agree about German mechanical engineering... but I am biased. I work for a mechanical engineering consultancy out here. There is a very high level of professionalism among the Diplom-Ingenieur graduates from German universities. It is also nice how there are more jobs for mechanical engineering out here that aren't so tied up in the defense and aerospace industries. It's good for the soul.
German engineering is still of really high quality and there are lots of companies (especially in mechanical engineering) that make use of this knowledge.
But the German gouvernment has missed the information revolution and many powerful companies (Deutsche Telekom, TV companies, etc.) see anything that has to do with the internet as danger for their business models - thus they lobby a lot for laws against anything that endangers their business models and especially internet startups. See for example > http://www.uni-muenster.de/Jura.itm/hoeren/materialien/Skrip... to see how complicated the law has become there - full of legal mines.
For the same reason the idea to found a public corporation that builds a modern fiber network which internet providers can rent on equal terms (an idea that is discussed) will probably never be done.