“Le cose sono andate notevolmente in discesa”: un Dublino in 30 anni che vivono in Germania
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/2025/07/13/things-have-gone-noticeably-downhill-a-dubliner-on-30-years-living-in-germany/
di octofishdream
“Le cose sono andate notevolmente in discesa”: un Dublino in 30 anni che vivono in Germania
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/work/2025/07/13/things-have-gone-noticeably-downhill-a-dubliner-on-30-years-living-in-germany/
di octofishdream
10 commenti
>When he moved to Germany, Hurley was impressed with the infrastructure and apparent efficiency compared with Ireland at the time, but the years since have altered this perspective. Long years of austerity policies and underinvestment have seen infrastructure standards decline alongside a decline in education.
>Ireland is now more advanced than Germany in many ways, he says.
>“Germany now has a very poor telephone infrastructure. Most of the bridges crossing the Rhine here are in a state of disrepair. The train service has developed a poor level of punctuality, bureaucracy has exploded and everything is incredibly slow. Things have gone noticeably downhill.”
Germany is the powerhouse of Europe.
As Germany goes down so does Europe.
The outlook for the EU is very bleak.
Still very affordable to live there relative to Ireland. I bought a few items in a Lidl in Berlin and they were a good bit cheaper than here. Rents are also cheaper.
Well….they spend over two Trillions(!) between 1990 and 2014 prepping up East Germany. Money that is now missing everywhere else…….
It depends on that part of Germany. I’ve lived in Berlin for a while now and while there’s been a downturn the biggest difference with in peoples’ social lives an mental health and that was caused by covid.
Deutsche Bahn is much direded, but the fact that you can get around the country easily (albeit a bit late at times!) is still a point to be made. Prices are still generally a bit cheaper (considerably cheaper than Ireland – especially for renting flats!).
Never had a problem with phones and beuasracracy is a little easier than when I first arrived.
A pint is only €5 in Berlin city centre. Was there last week.
The people trying to dispute one man’s subjective opinion really need to ask themselves why this story hurts their feelings.
I lived in Munich 7 years ago and was genuinely blown away with how everything worked so well. From health care to transport to amenities.
Everyone got a health card where all you need to do is put it into a card reader at a gp or hospital and all your info would come up.
It is the way German people are too, or have been historically. They are genuinely efficient in everything they do and you can see it in the city. When they tell you they will do something, they do it, no excuses or faffing about.
We are not like that (for better or worse) and you can see it in our country
Genocide denial probably knocks the rose tinted glasses off
Germany is noticeably standing out more and more, especially when you compare it to France on infrastructure, or the Netherlands, Denmark etc on most things, and increasingly to eastern neighbours like Poland, which are developing and advancing very fast.
Years of Merkel era fiscal conservatism seemed to have turned into a philosophy, which maybe they’re snapping out of now. Austerity wasn’t just policy, it looked like it was ideology. The books balanced, but underinvestment became the norm – you’re seeing a worryingly similar pattern developing in the UK. Pain and cutbacks being seen as “necessary medicine” and as being righteous, but the economic realities of that don’t necessarily add up and you risk death spirals.
German reunification costs were also probably also very downplayed, while the positives were understandably celebrated. However, former East Germany didn’t magically turn into the West overnight – it’s a long term project and one that will highlight gaps for a long time. Rebuilding its infrastructure was a huge and expensive job, and the political fallout of gaps between expectations and the reality of delivery are obvious, as they didn’t just smoothly close, and just look at where the AfD draws most of its support…. The political map largely follows the old border.
Hopefully they can turn a corner and loosen the purse strings and funding the technical dynamism they definitely had. The balance between risk aversion and risk taking has tilted too far towards the former and what’s worrying me is that’s also trickling into EU policy making more and more too with over the top levels of regulation that’s actually stiffing. There’s a balance to be struck and it’s not necessarily the current German one.
What’s worrying me is that Germany is highly dependent on a goods exports — things like cars and advanced machinery and a lot of the global demand for that is drying up due to evolving competition and also now Trump’s tarrifs potentially cutting off the U.S. market and more so just causing chaos economically.