Interesting to see how, after Germany was defeated in WW 2, West Germany resorted to free market Capitalism in effort to build strength in the short term. Germany is still living off of the prosperity they created. (East Germany, by contrast, employed more of the Bernie-Sanders-type of thinking and, well, it didn't go as well there).

@Trancecoach
lol...whaaaat?
are you living in an alternate reality?
west germany=social market economy,which later became to be called democratic socialism (which is what sanders is promoting).
east germany=stalinism style communism,which did end badly.

and you are right there was a short term plan but that was EAST germany,dictated by soviet union.

jesus trance...read a book.

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by enoch.

Moving this video to bobknight33's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

I'm grateful every single day that I'm not living in anything you think of as "reality." I'm not going to "teach" you history. Learners find out for themselves (from someone, in this case, with firsthand experience).

@Trancecoach

nice article.
explains much in regards to the evolution of germanys social market economy,the reasons and motivations.was a rather enjoyable read.

it still does not excuse your own hackery,but it does explain how germanys more marxist socialism was failing and needed to be adapted to a more free market enterprise.that by itself,did not create a free market capitalism though,it changed the dynamic of a marxist socialist economy that was failing to meet the needs of a country that imported way more than it exported.

in the end it was still a social market economy with the market expanded.

we all need to evolve and adapt ,and elements of free market capitalism is well equipped to do just that.so bravo for germany.

The article linked above mentions Röpke and Eucken as champions of free market capitalism, so to speak. Ironically, Bernie Sanders is quite in line with many of Walter Eucken's core ideas. For instance, Eucken declared legal responsibility to be an absolute necessity for competition within a market economy. Meaning that under Eucken's notion of capitalism, US prisons would be filled to the brim with white collar criminals from Wall Street and just about every multinational corporation, including Volkswagen.

Ludwig Erhard, credited by many to be the main figure behind the German "Wirtschaftswunder" (nothing wonderous about it), postulated real wage growth in line with productivity and target inflation as an imperative for a working social market economy. Again, very much in line with Bernie Sanders. Maybe even to the left of Sanders. A 5% increase in productivity and a target inflation of 2% requires a wage increase of 7%, otherwise your economy will starve itself of the demand it requires to absorb its increased production. You can steal it from foreign countries, like Germany's been doing for more than a decade now, but that kind of parasitic behaviour is generally frowned upon. Minimum wage in the US according to Erhard would be what now, $25-$30? So much for Sanders' $15...

Sennholz further mentions the CDU as a counterweight to the SPD. Well, the CDU's "Ahlener Programm" in 1947 declared that both marxism and capitalism failed the German people. In fact, it put significant blame for Germany's descent into fascism at the feet of the capitalistic system and called for a complete restart with focus NOT on the pursuit of profit and power, but the well-being of the people. They called for socialism with Christian responsibility, later watered down and known as social market economy or Rhine capitalism.

As for the economic policies conducted by the occupation forces: German industry, and large corporations in particular, were shackled for the role they played during the war. If you work tens of thousands of slaves to their death, you lose your right to... well, anything. If they had stripped IG Farben, Krupp and the likes down to the very bone, nobody could have complained. No economic liberties for the suppliers behind a genocide.

Next in line, the comparison with Germany's European neighbours. Sennholz wrote that piece in '55, so you can't really blame him for it. Italy had more growth from '58 onwards, France had more growth than its devastated neighbour from '62 onwards. The third Axis power, Japan, had significantly more growth from '58 onwards.

Why did some European and Asian countries grew much more rapidly than the US? Fair Deal? Nope, Bretton-Woods. Semi-fixed exchange rates caused the Deutsche Mark and the Yen to be ridiculously undervalued compared to the Dollar, thus increasing German and Japanese competitiveness at the cost of the US. Stable trade relations created by the semi-fixed exchange rates plus the highly expansive monetary policy in the US – that's what boosted Germany's economy most of all. Sort of like China over the last two decades, except we were needed as a bulwark against the evil, evil Commies, so the US kept going full throttle.

Our glorious policians tried the same policies (Adenauer/Erhard) in East Germany after reunification, even though global conditions were vastly different, and the result is the mess we now have over there. The entire industry was burned to the ground when they set the exchange rate too high, thus completely destroying what little competitiveness remained. Two trillion DM later, still no improvement. A job well done, truly.

Anyway, if anything, Bernie Sanders' program is closer to post-war German social market economic principles than to the East-German bastard of socialism, state capitalism and planned economy imposed by an autocratic system. However, even that messed up system produced significantly less poverty, both in quality and quantity, than the current US corporatocracy. No homelessness, no starvation, proper healthcare for everyone – reality in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). And despite the fact that they were used as cheap labour for western corporations, no less. My first Ikea shelf was produced by our oppressed brothers and sisters in the East. The Wall "protected" the West from cheap labour while letting goods pass right through – splendid membrane, that one.

PS: Since that article was written in '55, I have to mention one of my city's most famous citizens: Otto Brenner. He was elected head of the IG Metal, this country's most influential trade union, in 1956 after having shared the office since 1952. The policies he fought for, and pushed through, during his 16 years in charge of the union are very much in line with what Sanders is campaigning for.

AWWW SHIT, SON! SOMEONE JUST GOT THEIR SHIT SLAPPED DOWN, PAUL-KRUGMAN STYLE!

It's interesting to note the initial class action lawsuit against VW and Audi failed because the lawyer for the plaintiffs mentioned VW's founder in his opening arguments and the judge ruled against him under Godwin's Law.

*wheels

Adding video to channels (Wheels) - requested by ant.