German Chancellor Friedrich Merz learned the wrong lesson on his recent trip to China. Advanced economies expand and remain competitive not through additional labor inputs but through capital deepening, technological progress, and total factor productivity growth.
BIRMINGHAM – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz returned from his recent visit to China visibly rattled. After touring Unitree Robotics in Hangzhou, where quadruped robots performed martial arts, he conceded that Germany is “simply no longer productive enough,” and warned that prosperity cannot be maintained with “work-life balance and a four-day week.” Germans, he declared, “will simply have to do a little more.”
BIRMINGHAM – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz returned from his recent visit to China visibly rattled. After touring Unitree Robotics in Hangzhou, where quadruped robots performed martial arts, he conceded that Germany is “simply no longer productive enough,” and warned that prosperity cannot be maintained with “work-life balance and a four-day week.” Germans, he declared, “will simply have to do a little more.”