Schroeder's "Economic Miracle"

A man on his fourth wife, whose platform consists of the welfare state and anti-Americanism, clearly gives scant thought to the future. He's gone now, but the future is here: Germans emigrate in record numbers.

Germans are leaving their country in record numbers but unlike previous waves of migrants who fled 19th century poverty or 1930s Nazi terror, these modern day refugees are trying to escape a new scourge -- unemployment.

Flocking to places as far away as the United States, Canada and Australia as well as Norway, the Netherlands and Austria more than 150,000 Germans packed their bags and left in 2004 -- the greatest exodus in any single year since the late 1940s.

High unemployment that lingers at levels of more than 20 percent in some parts of Germany and dim prospects for any improvement are the key factors behind the migration.

You mean German 'yoots' aren't out rioting, torching cars, and burning down schools and churches? So much for "root causes."

According to the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden, the 150,667 Germans who left last year went to 200 countries -- the United States was the top destination with 12,976, following by Switzerland (12,818), Austria (8,532) and Britain (7,842).

The numbers leaving Germany are modest considering there are nearly 5 million unemployed, even though the trend seems to be gaining pace. There has been scant economic growth in Germany for years and property prices have barely changed in a decade.

Like other west European countries, Germany has been mass-importing non-skilled Muslim immigrants while exporting increasing numbers of entreprenurial natives. Besides an unemployment rate over 10% -- the highest since WWII -- the unintended (but foreseeable) consequences of this radical demographic shift continue to be ignored. In the former East,

Discontent with this situation is increasingly reflected in the results of local elections. In the most recent elections to the regional parliament in the eastern state of Saxony in September 2004, the PDS [Communist Party] received 23.6% of the votes, with the NPD [Neo-Nazi Party] winning 9.2% of the votes. The mainstream party of German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, SPD [Democratic Party], only received 9.8% of the votes.

Unchecked immigration is a major concern generally ignored by the ruling elite, so people are shopping for other options -- and finding them in extremist political parties. Meanwhile, the same immigration no one will do anything about has produced another growth industry: honor killings in Berlin.