It is truly getting humorous (but not in a good way) how the MSM keeps telling us how bad things are in Europe, and how all their socialist nanny state big government lifestyles are going down the drain, so, they need to cut back, despite all the protestations, yet, never makes the connection to what the Democrats are doing here in America. Weird, huh? European countries feel the pain as cuts keep coming
A retiree at age 59, with a comfortable pension and a generous severance payment as well, Yolanda Hatzi knows she got a good deal when she left the National Bank of Greece three years ago.
She also knows such arrangements have added to the rage that had her college-age daughter “throwing stones” in recent riots. That deep anger threatens to mount across Europe as governments slash at social guarantees considered integral to the continent’s political life but which have become too expensive to sustain.
Some foresee widespread social protest as cuts take place amid high unemployment; others predict a potential shift of sovereign authority to European institutions. But the outcome of efforts to control government debt could rewrite an economic order that has left Hatzi’s generation in relative comfort but world markets nervous about financing it.
Investors speculate that Europe might not have a dynamic enough future to foot the bill, and it has left politicians from Athens to Madrid, and from London to Berlin, scrambling for a response.
“I have so many benefits,” Hatzi said. In contrast, she says her daughter resents the prospect of less certainty and fewer protections. She feels she is inheriting “burnt ground.”
So far, the fire remains largely figurative. But the evolving debate over high government debt in Europe could mark a volatile period as markets demand deficit control, a still-strong trade union movement fights to retain benefits, and protest movements jell on the left and right.
This is part of we the people who support the TEA Party have been talking about: nipping this kind of atmosphere before we do turn into Greece. It really isn’t that far off, either.
Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker spoke this week of the “possible disintegration” of the euro because of the strains between stronger and weaker national economies. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund issued a blunt report on government debt control.
Developed nations have overpromised, the IMF said, particularly on pension and health benefits for an aging population. The choice is to cut spending and raise taxes, or find ways to boost growth.
How about just cutting the massive spending to start with? Obviously, those countries are different from the USA (where we were never meant to have a government that took care of anything but basic services that held the country together), but, common sense is common sense. You keep taxes low, reduce all the crazy “we’ll be mommy and daddy for life” governmental idiocy, let people be responsible for themselves, help those few who do need a helping hand, stimulate private entities, like churches, to get back to being the main ones who provide charity (rather than restricting them), and, basically, do the exact opposite of what these crazy lefties have been doing.
Germany was the first country to have a national healthcare plan. Fortunately Obama’s economic policies have stopped the fall of the dolalr, the fall of the Dow, and unemployment which was steadily rising (1% since the Stimulus was passed !) is no longer out of control. and the best new jobs report in 4 years ! I am not sure what economy you think is doing well now, perhaps Communist China ?
Yo, ‘lil LYING johnnie! did you miss those links I posted about HOW BAD THE GERMAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM HAS GOTTEN?
Or do you just sit there, Waiting to cut-and-past your stupidities into these these sites?