> But so is German industry - every day in the news either insolvency or workforce reduction and moving production to Eastern Europe - main reason often stated "expensive Energy". I wonder what are the stats for industrial production in 2025 or total energy consumption in Germany?

Every First World country seems to be following the path from industrialisation, through deindustrialisation (which, when I was at school, was still called ‘structural change’), to a service-based society. It seems to be the price we pay for economic prosperity and cheap goods - and it is not the first time in Germany this happens.

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marcosdumay 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

People don't like factory work. Given options, they will choose to do some less physically wearing work that pays more, and pay somebody else to do it.

Robots are the answer to reindustrialize the developed world, but that necessarily keeps industry smaller than services.

	▲	themaninthedark 16 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I don't think you have set foot in a factory recently. Factory work isn't generally physically demanding, more tedious & repetitive than anything. It's air conditioned, generally pays a lot more than minimum wage and has benefits.

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inigyou an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Producing nothing only works as long as there's someone else to produce things for you who wants to produce things for you. It's been China, but only by accident. China is not far away from deindustrializing and then we all suffer.

It's a political choice by our own politicians.

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plastic-enjoyer an hour ago | parent [-]

> China is not far away from deindustrializing and then we all suffer.

How? China is actively moving up the value chain, into EVs, batteries, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, etc. China is not abandoning industry.

> It's a political choice by our own politicians.

No, it's mostly how our economic system, how capitalism works. Production goes where production is cheap. You’ll never be able to produce goods in Germany at such low costs as in China or other third-world countries without eroding workers’ rights and thereby creating a new lower class.

	▲	themaninthedark 8 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Or you know, you could demand that the goods being imported are made to the same quality, environmental, health & safety standards as your home country. But that would turn off the spigot of cheap goods.....
	▲	inigyou 41 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Economic system choice is a political choice...

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bluGill 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> Every First World country seems to be following the path from industrialisation, through deindustrialisation

Are you sure? Jobs are no longer in industrial companies, and that isn't where the growth is. However when I look at the numbers I see heavy industry output is still growing.