Varieties of the Rat Race: Conspicuous Consumption in the US & Germany

Why are we still in the rat race?

Explore his role at the University of Duisberg-Essen

Popular Publication: Varieties of Capitalism and growth regimes: the role of income distribution

INET Blog Post on the Rate Race and Age of Leisure

Check out his newest publication “Varieties of the rat race: Working hours in the age of abundance”

[druwk]

It only took me a few years (as a teenager) to realize the Reagan Revolution was screwing us all. Grateful for this YouTube channel to deepen the understanding of our economic problems, and welfare.

[carpediem]

The fact that Germans work fewer hours is a massive benefit. Being able to adequately tend children and elders, oversee children's studies, spend time with a partner, complete and monitor household duties, experience LEISURE, SLEEP, PAID VACATIONS, these all make life worth living.

[patrickknight]

This is brilliant. Always had a sense of the role the aspirational class played in our descent into sociopathy in the United States.

[TheJayman]

All this is well and good but sadly never mentions the fact that the biggest income (and wealth) gap arises not from diverging hourly wages or hours worked but simply from the fact that some people make money without working at all, namely through capital returns. Being a a world class engineer, doctor or even athlete or actor is nothing compared to skimming off the work of thousands of employees or collecting hundreds of people's rents.

[himoffthequakeroatbox]

"It is not enough to succeed; somebody else must fail." -- Conservatives everywhere.

[doellison]

This is was great. I been reading about conspicuous consumption in Theory of the Leisure class, and his application helps bring better meaning to it so I can think about the concept more critically.

[celeritasc]

Very insightful video. Though there was an important aspect that was overlooked, at least from the North America perspective and that is related to the middle-middle class (okay living but not status seekers). The middle management of corporations (and probably smaller businesses as well) are salaried and do not make more by working longer hours but are expected to accomplish much more than what is humanly possible in what is considered a normal work week.  

The use of portable laptop computers and remote technology has served to exacerbate this problem since even the home environment is no longer a sanctuary from work. This class of workers are poorly represented by social organization like unions and have little recourse but to work long hours to achieve the demanding performance objectives they are virtually coerced to agree to meet. This helps to facilitate the 1% to get their astronomical remunerations, bonuses and reward the shareholders. The high earners work this unrepresented middle earners wrt hours as in early Industrial Revolution times rather than hiring adequate Human Resources to accomplish what is needed.

[a]

One aspect about the education system in Germany is that school children are tracked into academic and general labor braches as early as 10 years old, depending on the state. There have been reforms, but this can be a factor when it comes to barriers to social mobility.

[Zero_ss]

I think there should be a video about how all of this stuff is really just a gate keeping mechanism by the wealthy. Now that we have more and more people getting college degrees we just by coincidence have stuff coming out about how over valued they are for most jobs and how the degrees have so many classes irrelevant to actually doing the job. We have started seeing a shift towards certification programs which also gatekeep because of the cost of the exams/exam prep - followed up by irrational hiring requirements for those very jobs.

[HaErBeSo]

Good analysis. Might be good to include the fact that the top earners spend part of their income in other countries so the income effects that could result from their spending pattern doesn’t benefit the middleclass/poor in their own country.

[slly]

Germany seems to have a more equitable national educational and health policies, hence a more equitable society .
Fundamental educational and health cares should be every government’s responsibilities.
However US and now Australia have tried to privatise both the educational and health sectors to the detriments of the greatest good for their citizens.. When money is the factor, greed comes in .That’s why the rich gets richer as opportunities open up to them while the lower strata of our society struggles to compete .

[BogdanBocse]

Quite a breath of fresh memetic air this channel is ...

[glike]

This is a breakthrough in economics and social democracy at it's best in Germany. Please export this to USA to end the disgusting American rat race and American humanitarian failure

[jaytso]

Yes, the flaw of globalisation in the past few decades is the inequitable distribution of wealth in societies.

[steve-real]

So true. Getting a job with a union behind the workers is the best thing ever to happen in my life.
The poor brainwashed folk that vote down unions just don’t understand the benefits.

[robertmatetich]

I'm not sure there is a social class just below the top 1% in the U.S. that can strive to emulate the 1% lifestyle. The 1%ers are orders of magnitude richer than their immediate subordinates.

[arnodobler]

As a German for the Algorithsm
yes he is right

[anneobrien]

Here in Ireland, on paper fast becoming one of the richest nations, except it is now creating vast inequality, more and more of our young professionals are emigrating, not to the US, as happened historically but to Berlin. They are all priced out of the housing market. Thus they are priced out of moving out of the parental home and ultimately priced out of starting their own families at a young enough age. Not a good economic model. We are already experiencing teacher, nursing and junior doctor shortages. Architects and engineers are fast on their heels. One would have thought we would have learnt by now what constitutes an essential worker.

[headlessfool]

There are fees for studying at University in Germany . Another thing is, it is well known that social mobility is really low in Germany . Wealth and educational Status of parents/family have a very clear impact on the future prospects of young people in Germany .

[despachellesD]

This is a good video, I will forever be indebted to you Gardner 😇you’ve changed my whole life I’ll continue to preach about your name for the world to hear you’ve saved me from a huge financial debt with just little investment in money market, thanks so much Mrs Rose Gardner