I am talking about average/median salaries (everyday worker) - high end salaries don't matter much at a country's scale, I think. If neither gdp growth (below other European countries in the same category as Germany) nor median income growth is a good metric, what do you suggest instead to measure German success ?
Your comment made me realize I may have not been very clear - the issue is that Germany's success is measured in terms of exportation as is, which is known to be a common fallacy in economics. If it were because German's products became better at a cheaper price, then it would have been a good thing, but I am arguing it has been mostly through artificial deflation (income stagnation instead of money deflation as this is impossible in the eurozone).
Your comment made me realize I may have not been very clear - the issue is that Germany's success is measured in terms of exportation as is, which is known to be a common fallacy in economics. If it were because German's products became better at a cheaper price, then it would have been a good thing, but I am arguing it has been mostly through artificial deflation (income stagnation instead of money deflation as this is impossible in the eurozone).
This is not very polemic, btw, and is pretty much agreed upon by quite a few people, independently of their political inclination (see e.g. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/03/martin-wolf-china-ger... for one reference)