It never ceases to astound people in other nations how Americans have a tendency to ‘keep on keeping on’ regardless of the crisis or the difficulty. Writing for Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on the collapse of General Motors, Carsten Knop highlights a few things about Americans that Europeans might benefit from.
For Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,Knop writes in part:
“The Americans, who have a better understanding of the effectiveness of market forces than most Europeans, know that GM is ruined; their sympathy, therefore, has its limits. Because their government is helping them even less than those in Europe. He who has failed must pay the price – and he who succeeds reaps the reward. From the American point of view, both go together – and, therefore, many Americans aren’t getting hysterical that the sclerotic General Motors Corporation is now collapsing. … even in the city of Detroit, home of GM, there are voices that from a German perspective, are dumbfounding.
By Carsten Knop
Translated By Helene Grinsted
May 27, 2009
Germany – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung – Original Article (German)
The impending insolvency of General Motors is leaving Americans rather cold. GM is the largest automobile group in the world. And whereas for German politicians, the mere insolvency of GM’s Opal subsidiary isn’t even considered a serious option, in the United States things are dealt with in a completely different way.
The Americans, who have a better understanding of the effectiveness of market forces than most Europeans, know that GM is ruined; their sympathy, therefore, has its limits. Because their governments are helping them even than those in European nations. He who has failed must pay the price – and he who succeeds reaps the reward. From the American point of view, both go together – and, therefore, many Americans aren’t getting hysterical that the sclerotic General Motors Corporation is now collapsing.
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