Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Conversation with a German resident

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Conversation with a German resident

I had a conversation with a Malaysian who married a German and had raised two children in Germany. She told me the following:

a) Germany now has a 35 hour week.
b) Her boys had to do compulsory military service or community service, but the duration is less than one year.
c) They are paid above minimum wage for the compulsory service. They enjoy it, as they have the chance to learn and travel.

I have not verified the facts. I hope that someone who is familiar with the situation can provide an update.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: Pending for verification, I guess it is probably true. We can more or less understand the rationale behind the schemes in Germany. Unfortunately it will never happen in Singapore.....it is simply not in our genes and we will never rationalize the way they do (we are only profit oriented!). Personally I would not mind SG men doing 1 year NS and SG woman doing 1 year of community service. This offers the chance for folks to come out from their normal lifestyles and be exposed to the 'other sides' of the society. Hopefully this will allow people to have a more complete perspective towards life matters. As for the compensation, we all know the state does not believe in paying fair value (or even above minimum wage) for the services…..unless of course you are a foreign talent. We can moan and groan but it is the truth.; October 14, 2009 9:35 AM
Anonymous said...: I have a friend who served in the Swiss land armed forces, he was an officer who had a chance to get into SG's equivalent of SOF, but declined because of uni studies. I can get information from him if u want?; October 14, 2009 10:03 AM
Anonymous said...: I have a relative in Germany as well. If my memory is correct, the compulsory military service is true, not only for boys, but girls too, not in the sense of military, but other forms of community service like nurse.; October 14, 2009 2:59 PM
Anonymous said...: Europe may change their pratice on 35 hrs work week soon.; October 14, 2009 3:06 PM
A Singaporean said...: Between their two options, the military service has a shorter duration. But most people will choose community service.; October 14, 2009 3:18 PM
Lucky Tan said...: Tan Kin Lian,

Germany having minimum wages + 35 hours work week may be desirable from a human development standpoint but there is another side. The problem is other countries like China Vietnam provides hundreds millions in skilled labor - china produces millions of graduates every year.

Unless they have natural resources like Norway (oil) or Australia, they will have large deficits like US and have to borrow to maintain their standard of living.

The whole situation is worsened because China keeps its currency artificially low and it is communist and centrally controlled so the workers living stds/wages did not advanced as fast as say when Japan in the 50-70s.

Look at what happened to USA, they saw a suddden worsening of their living standards in 2007 partially due to the huge debt. Now their currency is being debased to rescue the banks....they end up taking a big hit.

Countries cannot maintain the good life indefinitely if China + Vietnam continues to supply cheap labor...the trade imbalances and huge debt incurred will eventually weigh on these countries.

I'll write something about this in my blog soon.; October 14, 2009 5:36 PM
bw said...: You can read about it here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Germany

Note this bit:
The post-cold war downsizing of the Bundeswehr has led to a considerable decrease in demand for young conscripts. Of all men reaching draftable age, currently less than one half actually serve.

I think Germany is carrying on with the draft only because its just too sensitive for them to have a professional army given its militaristic past.

Milton Friedman made the most eloquent critique of the draft here.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/10324490/11-Friedman-Why-Not-a-Volunteer-Army-1967

He considered the elimination of the draft in the US as his most important accomplishment.; October 14, 2009 10:41 PM
Anonymous said...: Nice. But they also have a double-digit unemployment rate, one that hits the underclass youths the most.; October 16, 2009 4:12 PM