German job auction website attacked as ‘vulture capitalism’:
The 31-year-old student took the most basic of economic concepts – supply and demand – and set up jobdumping.de, a website where Germans can compete against each other to bid for jobs, and where the winner is the person who is willing to work for the lowest wage.Angry politicians and trades union chiefs have called it a “slave market”, “vulture capitalism” and a “grave threat” to Germany’s pampered social model. Mr Löw has been likened to a pimp.
Prompted by the alarming unemployment figures of 12 per cent or 5.2 million, the highest since the war, Mr Löw said his venture was a “deliberate provocation, an invitation to Germans to stop moaning – the thing they are best at – and start working longer hours and for a price that pays”. He insisted that he was merely delivering the shock therapy they needed.
These workaphobes probably would not like scriptlance or e-lance either.
{ 12 comments }
Obviously politicians and union chiefs call it “vulture capitalism”, “slave market” and other silly epithets because if people actually started finding jobs and lowering the market price for labor, they will start to realize that maybe market forces are really at work and not politics, and once that happens, people may realize: who needs them?
Oh, my gods! The humanity! Whatever will become of such good souls if people started to see reality!
Weak.
I’d say it in German if I knew how.
I wonder whether anybody knows who pays Mr. Löw’s
expenses and who his paymasters are. Does he work under strictly competitive conditions? Does anybody know? It is always good to know whether someone practices what he preaches.
Nor would they like RentACoder.com.
Mr. Rohringer, that would be an ad hominem.
In response to Al E.:
Why would the implication that a large portion of the German workforce is “workaphobic” not qualify as an ad homines statement?
Mr. Rohringer, I can see how my label could be construed as an adhominem, however I am curious to know how you would describe the behavior of labor leaders and politicians that continue to restrict and regulate the labor force. Not only are they not creating jobs, but they are preventing individuals who are willing and able to work, from working.
Also, what other conditions do you think Mr. Low could possibly work under? Do you think he’s being subsidized by a nefarious capitalist?
To answer your two questions in a satisfactory manner would require more space than is allowed for this blog. It would also lead me to make PIC statements and experience chastisement as a consequence.
I will however briefly outline some answers. The German worker is the one who reconstructed Germany after WWII. He has shown resilience and workaholic behavior unseen and unheard of in history. The result of all his efforts was an economy in which huge amounts of money were paid out to various interest groups. These payments continue to this day. Not only was cash given away, goods were also delivered to foreign groups free of charge. As you may know Marshall plan money was repaid with interest; German industries were purchased by foreign entities with the help of artificial exchange rates which put Germany at a disadvantage. The Hartz treaties have devalued unemployment and pension compensation, but inflated managerial compensations and unethical management practices make daily headlines. I therefore understand that the worker has become
restive and is reluctant to support such harmful schemes with his hard work and the offer of ever decreasing material and emotional compensation.
Mr. Löw’s website is very short on information about Mr. Löw himself or the company he represents. His website is very detailed on the fees owed to this corporation in case of a contract between an employee and an employer. It also has many pages of legal text stating all the rights of the corporation which are of such length and complexity that the average worker would not be able to follow and understand the implications. If Mr. Löw is indeed a 31 year old
student, he must have had considerable backing to start and conduct this enterprise and it would be interesting to know who else is involved. I have been a student as well and I am therefore familiar with the limitations, financial and
otherwise, which arise at that station of life. For these reasons I was eager to complete my studies and I did so at the age of 24.
This is as far as I am prepared to respond to your questions. Thank you for your article which has touched upon a most important and timely problem in modern labor relations in Germany and elsewhere.
Vanmind, the word is “schwach.”
The reconstruction of Germany was done by 1970. The great German workers who did it have been retired for 20 years. When I was there in the early ’80′s collectivism was experiencing a revival in German culture. I was disturbed by this, and ceased being a Germanophile as a result of it.
FDP all the way!
I’ve been told by both Germans and people who’ve lived in Germany that the Germans are very hard, productive workers during their 8-hour workdays, but also very eager to relax and enjoy their off-hours and 6 weeks’ annual vacations.
What’s clear, though, is that the priorities of the German government are very different; more interested in controlling and limiting the workforce than in promoting free commerce.
Nothing new under the sun. This is the system that was in place at the start of the industrial revolution and continued until the trade unions got some power but it was a shooting war.
I find it funny that you ask for intelligent and civil comments when the blog itself is neither.
Comments on this entry are closed.