Germany, the big neighbor to Austria, is going trough some tough times these days, economically speaking. Germany, or “Kingdom in debts“ as I like to call it, used to be an economic wonder for half a century, raising from the ashes after World War II. But right now its bad news for the Germans, day in day out. Virtually all the big companies want to cut back costs or relocate their factories to Eastern Europe or Asia and thousands of people fear to loose their jobs. Not that Austria, my home country, is doing well, it’s a general problem among western countries right now, but it seems to me that Germany is facing the toughest problems.
Just recently, Opel, owned by General Motors and one of the major car manufactures in Germany announced that it wants to cut back thousands of jobs in their factory in Bochum. Workers have been on strike for a couple of days now to fight for their jobs and a lot of people are supporting these workers. But what if not the workers would go on strike, but all the Germans would refuse to buy cars manufactured by Opel if they cut back those jobs? Germany is a huge market, and I doubt that Opel can afford to loose this key market. Consumers don’t realize that they are the one in charge. If you don’t buy a certain product, the producers will have to rethink the strategy, or disappear….
But to be honest, I think the problem is greed in everyone of us. We want to pay as little for as much quality as possible. If everyone is willing to pay a certain price for a certain product, let’s say a car that is manufactured in Germany, no company will have to cut back jobs or move to another country.