Why Germans Are Angry With The EU Bailouts

Check out this table from SocGen comparing hourly wages across the Eurozone.



As you can see, the French are the second-highest paid people (on an hourly basis) in the Eurozone (after the Belgians). The French get paid way more per hour than the Germans.

But it wasn't always like that. In 2000, Germans actually made more per hour than the French.

From the German standpoint, then, the last 10 year looks like this: Workers swallowed poor wage gains (relatively) but remained competitive, and that's why unemployment is low and exports are strong.

On the other hand, everyone else around them saw wages go up, and competitiveness get reduced, and now they're looking for German money.

The actual story probably isn't quite that neat, but it's not hard to see the conundrum facing German politicians trying to sell its citizens on bailouts and firewalls.