Not only Germans but whole EU. The way EU works is by letting monopolies in a few west European countries expand their market to east and capture more value from everywhere.
Yes, East European companies can also do that but usually, there is first mover advantage and other policies at local level which influence the ability to form monopoly through investment and expansion.
I'd love to know why downvoters disagree, if you start a competition between companies where some companies have better technology, state help or finance and put them against companies who don't have all that, yes big companies are more likely to become bigger if you combine the market where all these companies operate.
Perhaps because the claim "The way EU works is by letting monopolies in a few west European countries expand their market to east" is clearly ludicrous as a summary of how the EU works?
I mean, the EU - ignoring the name changes over the years - had existed for over 30 years before the fall of the Iron curtain and nearly 50 years before admitting new members from the the East. The idea that the whole thing was set-up and run based on the goal of economically exploiting recent entrants from the East decades in the future is simply silly.
The following countries all grew by MORE than Germany: Poland (8.5%), Romania (6.9%), Lithuania (6.9%), Slovakia (6.7%), Czech Republic (6.6%), Estonia (6.4%), Ireland (6.2%), Latvia (5.8%), Hungary (5.5%), Malta (5.1%), Bulgaria (4.7%), Luxembourg (4.6%), Norway (3.9%), Portugal (3.6%), Slovenia (3.3%), Croatia (3.1%), United Kingdom (3.1%) and the Netherlands (3.0%).
Germany's rate for the same period was 2.9%.
So you're theory that Germany has benefited the most from the EU - at least for this period - is clearly false.
"So you want to argue Poland with 8.5% growth has higher living standards than Germany" - why would I want to argue that?
I mean I've said absolutely nothing about living standards and neither did you? Why not simply read what I've written instead of inventing arguments for me to make?
I've provided some basic numbers and references which directly contradict your claim that Germany benefitted most from the structures of the EU.
I give up. I tried to explain some reasons why you might be getting downvoted but it's been a waste of time.
The link is a rambling mess. What exact are we supposed to learn from it?
Germany was against monetary union in Europe, they saw it as giving away their ability to be fiscally conservative. This is of course what happened with the ECB finally printing their way out of the Euro debt crisis.
The fact that Germany retained their manufacturing capacity and still takes pride in it is the reason they are an export economy. The economics of the Euro are just working for them rather than against them.
Other countries threw away their manufacturing capacity for a service sector, most notably Britain which centralised their economy in London.
I remember seeing an interesting talk on the Target2 system, which suggests a part of those intra-EU German export achievements may just amount to risky credit anyway :
Yes, East European companies can also do that but usually, there is first mover advantage and other policies at local level which influence the ability to form monopoly through investment and expansion.