The European Union has finally suffered severe indigestion because of the welfare state diet on which it has been living. The old fashioned virtues of diligent work
for reasonable pay, and benefits commensurate with an individual's contribution
to the social well being were abolished during the recovery years following WWII--
a recovery greatly assisted by our generosity under the Marshall Plan.
Social subsidies such as a 35 hour work week, monetary benefits and lengthy paid
leaves for childbirth, six weeks paid yearly vacations, numerous paid holidays,
retirement with generous pensions at relatively early ages, government provided
health care, free college tuition, all cost mucho dinero, requiring high personal
taxes. Workplace productivity due to short work weeks, leaves, holidays and vacations is low, increasing prices and reducing exports. So some of the smaller
nations are building debt. Servicing debt, as we in the U.S. know, drains resources which could go into development and infrastructure.
The E.U. has just bitten the bullet and established a massive trillion Euro
stabilization (bail out) fund. The first beneficiary is Greece. The severe austerity
program which Greece must implement to stabilize its economy and repay the loans
has aroused fury among the working class which must bear the impact. The survival of
Greece as a democracy is under serious threat.
There is a lesson in this situation for the U. S. and Great Britain. We cannot continue to wage two wars, and to maintain troops and bases all over the world, and a bloated military establishment to support them, unless we are willing to pay for them, NOW, by means of Taxes and austerity. If we continue our profligate ways, living on borrowings and spending multi billions for imported oil the dollar will
collapse and the nation's power with it.
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2 comments:
Reading Marty's Blogs always seem to be interesting and exact agreements with my own thoughts. If only our President could read these blogs he would know there are people respecting him as our President. I consider the tea parties a threat to our Nation. Our country is not going to H... by our leaders so much as it is greed and lazy people who have nothing better to do then to pull down all the good that our forefathers accomplished.
Right now we contemplate a cost increase in government entitlement of $2 trillions in the next ten years; a number so incredibly huge that it would take tens of thousand of years to count each dollar verbally one by one.
Deficits nowadays are no longer considered problems by the electorate. Governments and Wall Street no longer fall due to their profligacy. Money problems are routinely handled by bankruptcy, bailouts, loans, restructuring, special levies and innovative taxes like VAT (next to come) from our Government.
The words million, billion, trillion have lost significance to a complacent public. After all, look at South American countries, Greece, and many African nations . If necessary our country too could get relief from the IMF.
Worse comes to worse our economy is taken over by China and Walmart stockholders become the new wealthy class.
Let us not worry about our trillions of dollars deficits. Actually, in addition to Obamacare, let our Government spend a few more trillions on a mandatory four-week subsidized vacation, a thirty five hour week and other goodies like in many European countries.
Let us not worry about our deficit.
As they say over there “ Après moi le déluge “
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