Socialist Democracies of Europe are Dying. Can We Be Far Behind?
Posted by Chuck, on May 23rd, 2010
The left-leaning socialist democracies of Europe are in big trouble. Numerous articles are appearing about the problems faced by their never-ending cycle of debt caused by spiraling cost of their cradle-to-grave welfare systems their aging populations and their declining productivity.
Ever since WWII the US has assumed much of the defense responsibility and protected Europe from most of its costs. In that favorable environment Europe has voted themselves more and more personal benefits with generous pension plans, light work schedules, extensive vacation allowances, free healthcare, and the results of this generosity is now showing up in declining tax coffers and increasing public debt. Today the Euro is tanking while Greece is rioting.
Public expenditures as a percentage of the GNP in Europe have increased dramatically while the population is aging and there are fewer and fewer young people to pay the taxes to perpetuate the system. Today even the NY Times has joined in the fray with an article by Steven Erlanger about the severity of Europe’s economic woes. Certainly it is a true mark of severity when even the Times, that great bastion of liberal thought has to weigh in and point out the failures just at a time when the US is jumping in to follow the European liberal pathway. Of course it also makes us wonder about the security of Mr Erlanger’s tenure at the paper considering how the article diverts from the Old Gray Lady’s leftist editorial policies of recent years.
Europe is experiencing a wide divergence between public sector and private sector pay and benefits. In Greece today when a bankrupt government is forced to make cuts the people are rioting in the streets. Public promises are unfulfilled and there is widespread dissatisfaction among the populace. Surprise surprise! A few famous quotes come to mind, such as: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” and “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Perhaps the best quote illustrating the situation in both Europe and to an only slightly lesser degree in the US is one attributed to an obscure Scottish writer and historian of the late eighteenth century, Alexander Tytler, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
We in the US should be taking note of the folly of the European Socialist model. Instead the current Obama administration is plunging headlong into what is a proven failing system of non-governance. What Europe is facing in the next five to 10 years is our future as well if we continue to follow their path as our Washington leadership is directing.
We have enacted numerous laws for grand sounding goals of environmental responsibility, workplace safety, consumer protection, employee rights, and the like that have the effect of handcuffing private businesses as compared with their foreign competition. Unions have won generous benefits that lower work weeks, reduce performance standards, raise benefits packages, and paint the employer as a opponent to be manipulated at will. Our elected representatives have legislated minimum pay, maximum work hours, required benefits, and numerous other grand sounding goals. The result is a migration of jobs away from our shores. Once upon a time workers took pride in their company. They worked hard to make it succeed because when the company succeeds the employees and their community benefit as well. Unfortunately that is all too often an outdated model in many workplaces in the US today. Today the average worker likely views the employer as the enemy, not as the “team captain”. Can you imagine what would happen if a football team took that view of their team captain? Last placeville comes to mind.
Jobs are leaving our shores to go elsewhere where there is a more business friendly environment. Farmers here are increasingly denied using effective pesticides and cost efficient methods so they are producing less of many of our popular food crops. As a result we are importing those items from countries that do not so regulate their growers. Does that make our food supply more safe? There have been a number of outbreaks of diseases from tainted imported foods have appeared in recent years. Lead contamination in toys from China and similar problems from products from other developing nations have recently surfaced. We regulate our producers out of business, but allow products from unregulated producers in foreign countries to enter our markets and compete unfairly.
Government jobs when I was a kid back in the 40s and 50s paid less than the private sector. However, they compensated by providing more job security and benefits. Today in the age of public employee unions the public jobs in the US are paying over 20% more than comparable jobs in the private sector. They generally require less effort expended by the employee, more fringe benefits and often promise fantastic early retirements. There is little or no threat of layoffs and productivity is often not required. Private companies can simply not compete because when their employees do not produce enough work to justify their pay they can not simply raise taxes to make up the difference. Their only choice is layoffs or shut downs.
What we as a nation have embarked upon is not sustainable and we will find ourselves very soon in the same pot with the failing nations of Europe. Already we do not have the intestinal fortitude to protect our borders. We have allowed political correctness to replace common sense. We will not hold anyone responsible for their own blunders but assess blame to others for our own stupidities. If we spill coffee in our lap and burn ourselves we sue McDonalds, if we drop and break a bottle of soda and slip in the mess breaking a hip we sue WalMart. Where does it end?
Our own government sets the tone. Instead of standing up to their failures and learning from the experience to correct the deficiencies they seek some scapegoat to demonize such as the “rich bankers”, “greedy capitalists”, or the ever popular “George Bush Administration”. There are some very hard decisions to be made in our near future and if we do not stand up to the plate and face them objectively we, as a nation will most certainly go the way of the Dodo.
In the wise words of Pogo Possum, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Read Mr Erlanger’s excellent article in the Times, compare the Europe he describes and the US of today, and then pray for America that God will deliver us from ourselves.
Socialist Democracies of Europe are Dying. Can We Be Far Behind?
The left-leaning socialist democracies of Europe are in big trouble. Numerous articles are appearing about the problems faced by their never-ending cycle of debt caused by spiraling cost of their cradle-to-grave welfare systems their aging populations and their declining productivity.
Ever since WWII the US has assumed much of the defense responsibility and protected Europe from most of its costs. In that favorable environment Europe has voted themselves more and more personal benefits with generous pension plans, light work schedules, extensive vacation allowances, free healthcare, and the results of this generosity is now showing up in declining tax coffers and increasing public debt. Today the Euro is tanking while Greece is rioting.
Public expenditures as a percentage of the GNP in Europe have increased dramatically while the population is aging and there are fewer and fewer young people to pay the taxes to perpetuate the system. Today even the NY Times has joined in the fray with an article by Steven Erlanger about the severity of Europe’s economic woes. Certainly it is a true mark of severity when even the Times, that great bastion of liberal thought has to weigh in and point out the failures just at a time when the US is jumping in to follow the European liberal pathway. Of course it also makes us wonder about the security of Mr Erlanger’s tenure at the paper considering how the article diverts from the Old Gray Lady’s leftist editorial policies of recent years.
Europe is experiencing a wide divergence between public sector and private sector pay and benefits. In Greece today when a bankrupt government is forced to make cuts the people are rioting in the streets. Public promises are unfulfilled and there is widespread dissatisfaction among the populace. Surprise surprise! A few famous quotes come to mind, such as: “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” and “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”
Perhaps the best quote illustrating the situation in both Europe and to an only slightly lesser degree in the US is one attributed to an obscure Scottish writer and historian of the late eighteenth century, Alexander Tytler, “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy.”
We in the US should be taking note of the folly of the European Socialist model. Instead the current Obama administration is plunging headlong into what is a proven failing system of non-governance. What Europe is facing in the next five to 10 years is our future as well if we continue to follow their path as our Washington leadership is directing.
We have enacted numerous laws for grand sounding goals of environmental responsibility, workplace safety, consumer protection, employee rights, and the like that have the effect of handcuffing private businesses as compared with their foreign competition. Unions have won generous benefits that lower work weeks, reduce performance standards, raise benefits packages, and paint the employer as a opponent to be manipulated at will. Our elected representatives have legislated minimum pay, maximum work hours, required benefits, and numerous other grand sounding goals. The result is a migration of jobs away from our shores. Once upon a time workers took pride in their company. They worked hard to make it succeed because when the company succeeds the employees and their community benefit as well. Unfortunately that is all too often an outdated model in many workplaces in the US today. Today the average worker likely views the employer as the enemy, not as the “team captain”. Can you imagine what would happen if a football team took that view of their team captain? Last placeville comes to mind.
Jobs are leaving our shores to go elsewhere where there is a more business friendly environment. Farmers here are increasingly denied using effective pesticides and cost efficient methods so they are producing less of many of our popular food crops. As a result we are importing those items from countries that do not so regulate their growers. Does that make our food supply more safe? There have been a number of outbreaks of diseases from tainted imported foods have appeared in recent years. Lead contamination in toys from China and similar problems from products from other developing nations have recently surfaced. We regulate our producers out of business, but allow products from unregulated producers in foreign countries to enter our markets and compete unfairly.
Government jobs when I was a kid back in the 40s and 50s paid less than the private sector. However, they compensated by providing more job security and benefits. Today in the age of public employee unions the public jobs in the US are paying over 20% more than comparable jobs in the private sector. They generally require less effort expended by the employee, more fringe benefits and often promise fantastic early retirements. There is little or no threat of layoffs and productivity is often not required. Private companies can simply not compete because when their employees do not produce enough work to justify their pay they can not simply raise taxes to make up the difference. Their only choice is layoffs or shut downs.
What we as a nation have embarked upon is not sustainable and we will find ourselves very soon in the same pot with the failing nations of Europe. Already we do not have the intestinal fortitude to protect our borders. We have allowed political correctness to replace common sense. We will not hold anyone responsible for their own blunders but assess blame to others for our own stupidities. If we spill coffee in our lap and burn ourselves we sue McDonalds, if we drop and break a bottle of soda and slip in the mess breaking a hip we sue WalMart. Where does it end?
Our own government sets the tone. Instead of standing up to their failures and learning from the experience to correct the deficiencies they seek some scapegoat to demonize such as the “rich bankers”, “greedy capitalists”, or the ever popular “George Bush Administration”. There are some very hard decisions to be made in our near future and if we do not stand up to the plate and face them objectively we, as a nation will most certainly go the way of the Dodo.
In the wise words of Pogo Possum, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Read Mr Erlanger’s excellent article in the Times, compare the Europe he describes and the US of today, and then pray for America that God will deliver us from ourselves.