Germany is losing between 300 and 500 jobs every single day

Germany is losing between 300 and 500 jobs every single day. The government's response is to promise competitiveness, debate taxing minijobs and send military recruitment letters to hundreds of thousands of teenagers. The results speak for themselves - out of 298,200 eighteen-year-olds contacted by the Bundeswehr, just 530 volunteered. It is a referendum on confidence in the country's future - a government that struggles to create attractive jobs, competitive businesses or affordable living should not be surprised when it also struggles to recruit the next generation.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen is preparing what could become the largest restructuring in its history: 100,000 jobs on the chopping block, four German plants potentially closing, investment slashed, while Chinese automakers steadily capture the industry's future with cheaper and faster electric vehicles. Germany spent decades convincing itself that its industrial leadership was permanent. It now finds itself defending yesterday's champions against tomorrow's competitors.

Instead of asking why Europe's largest economy is becoming less attractive for investment, politicians are discussing whether even minijobs should become more heavily taxed. For millions of students, pensioners and low-income workers, these are the difference between paying rent and falling behind. When an economy loses hundreds of jobs every day while simultaneously looking for new ways to tax the people still willing to work, something has gone fundamentally wrong.

Germany increasingly resembles a country trying to optimize the distribution of decline instead of reversing it. It is asking companies to stay, workers to pay more, young people to enlist and taxpayers to believe that prosperity is just around the corner. At some point, the question is why so many of its own citizens appear to have already concluded that the future is worth leaving rather than rebuilding.