Sunday, March 15, 2020

Just Ten Observations About Germany and the Coronavirus

(sarcastically spoken of course)

1.  The odds of you dying (with the current rate of things) are about the same if you were driving on the autobahn and got hit by a van with two Bulgarian clowns (in full attire) and doped-up on meth.

2.  For probably twenty years, the German medical system has been preparing for a full-blown disaster with a shortage of nurses.  Now, finally.....we've arrived at that disaster point.  The nurses who left?  No shocker for them. 

3.  The German Bundeswehr (the Army) has demonstrated massive problems in logistical planning and purchasing over the past decade.  At best, they can fight around one full day of war....before shortages halt their participation.  Yet, they are the ones that the Bundestag put in charge of purchasing and acquiring medical supplies?

4.  If you were a ten-member German family (extremely rare) and go through two full rolls of toilet paper a day....this shortage of toilet paper at the grocery store is going to be a major problem.

5.  If you frequented German bordellos on a weekly basis.....you will be in a tough position now that the red-light districts have been shut-down, until further notice.

6.  If you lived a mile from the French or Czech border, and usually shopped two or three times a week at their establishments.....you are royally screwed for the next month or two, as the border-control gimmicks are underway.  The same is true if you were dating some French or Czech gal.

7.  If this 56-million infected number were reached (the Merkel forecast), with potentially two-million dead?  Most would be over the age of 65 and it would empty out the vast number of retirement homes in Germany.

8.  Shut-down of pools?  Can you imagine the typical German, if you were to close down all pools for spring and summer of 2020?

9.  The massive downfall of European hotels and resorts?  If we reach June, and the pace maintains, then without a vast amount of free-money from the EU, I would imagine tons of hotels and resorts permanently shut-down until new owners and money can be found. 

10.  The supply chain 'bounce' coming?  Once the China  connection fails....European companies will come to the rescue, but the cost of items will go up (probably by 50 percent).  So a Chinese-built router that you were buying last year for 189 Euro....would be made in Europe for probably 289 Euro.  Light bulbs, car parts, cellphones, shoes, etc.  So you would wake up in 2021 with the cost factor hurt by inflation, and people generally shocked that a drug-store item they used to buy for 7 Euro is now 11 Euro.  The marginal hope that 2021 is a better year?  Better stock up on booze to lessen your anxiety. 

3 comments:

Daz said...

I found Jens Spahn rather comical the other day. On a hospital visit he talked about how he's fighting hard for better conditions for nurses, etc. Fighting against who I wonder, given they've been in power for the last decade or two, with rare exception.

Schnitzel_Republic said...

On effective management talents....I would rate Spahn up near a '8' or '9'. You can go back twenty years and say that money issues were plaguing both doctors and nurses....nothing has changed over two decades. They don't have enough beds to handle the mess if the weekly infection rate gets up to around 100,000.

Daz said...

I rate him actually, but this is a problem that his party has on the whole ignored. So I get a bit annoyed by the statements.