Response to an Op-Ed on Germany's Economic Optimism

In the Washington Post, Harold Meyerson wrote an opinion editorial on Germany's economic optimism. An international poll took place asking a wide range of people from 44 countries how confident they were in their nation's economy. The results were as follows:

"In Tory Britain, 55 percent said the economy was bad; in the Obama-led United States, 58 percent said the same. In nationalist-Keynesian Japan, the figure was 63 percent; in Socialist France, 88 percent; in conservative Spain, 93 percent. The gloomiest continent (including both its advanced economies and such emerging economies as Poland and Ukraine) was Europe, where 88 percent said their economies weren’t doing well.
Except for Germany. Fully 85 percent of Germans said their homeland’s economic situation was good. How do we account for this German exceptionalism?"

Meyerson then continues to explain why the German economy is ultimately superior to that of the US and others. The main reason is that most of Germany's large companies are privately owned. Although this fact seems negligible, it directly impacts the formation and prosperity of the economy as a whole. Companies are not pressured to reward large shareholders which usually entails slashing of wages, cutting back on worker training and research and development and buying back stock. This allows companies to increase the minimum wage and to find ways to benefit their workers collectively. 

Ironically, in the 80's and 90's, the US discouraged Germany from using systems such as these. They simply continued on in their fashion and eventually surpassed the US. Now, the US is facing large economic obstacles which wouldn't have formed if we had simply followed their example.