When Sarkozy, Monti and other political representatives of European big business praise the “German model,” they are praising the German political establishment’s attack on workers’ living standards and the collaboration of the German trade unions.

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And yet many progressives point to Germany as the ideal model, when it's not Sweden. Mostly the same folks who pine for the glory days of the 'American Middle Class' and indeed many of the same who declare the 'if we had the capitalism of Adam Smith' instead of whatever xxxx-capitalism they are decrying that all would be well. Idealists to the core and quite capable of ignoring any present reality in favor of their preferred delusion.