Question:
Germany's coal mining industry is a good example of just how
badly even the western Germans do when trying to make socialism
work.
Today German coal miners produce about 50 million tons of coal
a year. (America produces that amount of coal in less than
2 1/2 weeks.) The German coal costs DM 280 ($164) a ton. USA
coal costs DM 80 ($47) a ton (delivered to Germany). Each German
coal mining job (all 85,000 of them) costs DM 130,000 ($76,000) a
year in subsidies.
Germany would like to cut these subsidies in half by 2005. (No
joke, only in half.) And increase per miner subsidies to
DM 184,000 ($108,000) per miner. (Drop in mining employment
from 85,000 to 30,000.)
Why? Look at productivity. In 1957 German coal miners produced
about 213 tons per miner a year. (I'll not convert to per day or
per hour, as Germans take a lot of time off.) Today the German
miners have raised productivity to 294 tons a year. And coal
mining employment in Germany has dropped from 600,000 to 85,000.
Answer:
While I think that the coal subsidies are simply too high and have been
paid for far too long, before you compare the mines output you should
compare the physical outlay of these mines. German mines in the Ruhr
are really deep down these days, some of them in fact several thousant
meters.
Of course it takes subsidies to make such a scheme work, and the reasons
for renewng them are much more political than economical.
The machinery used in these mines is among the most modern in the world,
but given the small size of the coal layers combined with the derp
shafts more is hardly possible.
But we are not the only ones who subsidise industries who don`t make
so much sense at the place they are. I remember rice farming in
california or the interesting prices of some prodi#ucts of the defence
industry in the US.
But your "facts" are inaccurate. In the USA we have deep mines,
as far down as 7,000 feet. And we mine seams as thin as 24" (60
cm) using fully automated digging machinery. (The miner lies
prone in the [dust free] cab.)
Yes, the USA has some very stupid subsidies. California rice is
aided because it can not compete with Louisiana rice. Sugar cane
because it can not compete with beet and corn sugar.
I would love to see them removed. But the abuse is not on the
scale of the german coal industry.
