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PAGE 8
PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY
24, 1984
revolution based on information technology. Meanwhile, our main
export has been to spread the British disease, not across the
Atlantic, but across the Channel:
everything that was said to
cause Britain's economic decline
20
years ago is now true for
most of Western Europe, including France, West Germany and
Scandinavia....
Are there
economies?
sunset continents as well as sunset industries
If there are, Western Europe is one....
or
America's problem is that it saves too little: Japan's that it
saves too much. Put them together as one unit--"Jamerican"--as
their growing trade ties increasingly do, and their problems
largely disappear.
That's Europe's problem. The Pacific has
hogged 84 per cent of the growth in exports to the United States
since 1980.•..
Britain and the rest of Western Europe's problems [primarily] lie
in our ossified institutions.... It is not only our overblown
governments, widespread nationalisation, high taxes, generous
social security systems and numerous poverty traps which are to
blar..e for our dismal performance, but also our unions, [and]
inflexible pay systems.
It might be good to reflect back on the February 3 edition of "On the World
Scene" in which were presented excerpts of the WALL STREET JOURNAL/Europe
report revealing "stark evidence'' of the decline of Europe as a source of
technological leadership. Regarding the West German economy, the present
short-term prospects are quite optimistic.
After years of virtually no
growth, forecasters predict a 3.5 percent overall increase in GNP this
year. Yet, long-term prospects are not so rosy. A recent article from the
LOS ANGELES TIMES ( February 1) focused specifically on West Germany's
rather surprising fade in the field of science and technology.
The label "Made in Germany" had risen from the ruins of World War
I I to become synonymous with qua!ity and top technology. But
then, virtually unnoticed at first, West Germany's technical
leadership began to fade.
As the windfall of knowledge from the U.S. space program spurred
American industry and the Japanese challenge gathered force, many
of West Germany's most prestigious companies seemed to be para
lyzed....
Agonized
the
nation's
leading economic
daily
Handlesblatt...
11
A rare disease has spread through the Federal
Republic of Germany: 'technology pessimism.
111 • • •
Management and long-term planning failures by many smaller
companies, cultural inflexibility and a reluctance to take risks
in an era of rapidly accelerating change, a perceptTbI'e""eros1on
of the famous German work ethic--all have -undoubtedly played a
parr:- But so have government tax policies, which for years have
discouraged investment and left German industry desperately short
of cash....
German quality remains, but in too many cases so do the same old
products. Industries famous for innovation have slipped from the