Green jobs in Germany

Unbeknownst to almost all Americans, Germany has posted the most exports of any country in the world every year since 2003. That means that, measured in US dollars, Germany exported more of value than any other country -- a figure measured not in per capita terms, but as gross volume. That means that some 80 million Germans export more value than more than 1100 million Chinese (and more than 310 million Americans).

In other words, while Americans are preoccupied with beating China, Germany actually does so.

The world is beating a path to German products because Germans have their eye on what the world market wants. And what does the world want? As Die Zeit recently pointed out,

With a 16 percent share of the global market, Germany is at the top when it comes to control and measurement equipment, recycling facilities, and wind and gas turbines... Germany's greentech sector made up around eight percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2007, and experts believe that that share will increase to 14 percent by 2020... Siemens already posts a quarter of its revenue in this sector.

So if you want to know how to beat the Chinese, don't talk theory; just look at what Germany has been doing over the past six years (the figures for 2009 are obviously not in yet).