> There are bunch of things that are only manufactured in Germany. You don’t hear those companies that much because they are not public but they are well known by the people who work in specific industries.

There is small town of 35,000 inhabitants around the corner from where I live. It produces 50% of the world's surgical equipment, from a base of around 600 companies.

There are good reasons why "made in Germany" is not as dead as some people want us to believe.

certain people want the rest of the world to become like china and india, top down sweatshops so they can squeeze just a little more dollar out of people

I know many of these companies and I have even been invited to some of them.

I am not some American desperate to insult Europeans. I am a German, I work in the German industry, my livelihood depends on this economy.

>When you combine them, they are way bigger than the German companies you hear everyday which are laying off people or closing factories.

This plainly is not true. Even the "small champions" are struggling, because they are mostly suppliers to the large companies. A very significant part of the "Mittelstand" exists as specialized suppliers to the German car, Aerospace and Railway companies. If those are struggling, then the suppliers feel the pain just as much.

GDP is a leading indicator. You can't fund European-style transit and social services forever if there's less money coming in.

Even those companies are struggling nowadays with quality of goods made in China improving extremely fast.

> For some reason, every time Europe is mentioned, there is always a comment about how Europe is struggling but when you look at the quality of life, happiness or life expectancy, all those numbers are higher than the US.

But quality of life in Europe is decreasing fast. Pension is becoming unsustainable. Govts are going bankrupt. Infrastructure is collapsing. People correctly see that Europe as a whole will fall behind in some years unless things change