Crisis Imperils Liberal Benefits Long Expected by Europeans

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RockX

Banned
PARIS — Across Western Europe, the “lifestyle superpower,” the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.

Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism.

Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated higher taxes into a cradle-to-grave safety net. “The Europe that protects” is a slogan of the European Union.

But all over Europe governments with big budgets, falling tax revenues and aging populations are experiencing rising deficits, with more bad news ahead.

With low growth, low birthrates and longer life expectancies, Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle, at least not without a period of austerity and significant changes. The countries are trying to reassure investors by cutting salaries, raising legal retirement ages, increasing work hours and reducing health benefits and pensions.

“We’re now in rescue mode,” said Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister. “But we need to transition to the reform mode very soon. The ‘reform deficit’ is the real problem,” he said, pointing to the need for structural change.

The reaction so far to government efforts to cut spending has been pessimism and anger, with an understanding that the current system is unsustainable.

Changes have now become urgent. Europe’s population is aging quickly as birthrates decline. Unemployment has risen as traditional industries have shifted to Asia. And the region lacks competitiveness in world markets.

According to the European Commission, by 2050 the percentage of Europeans older than 65 will nearly double. In the 1950s there were seven workers for every retiree in advanced economies. By 2050, the ratio in the European Union will drop to 1.3 to 1.

Figures show the severity of the problem. Gross public social expenditures in the European Union increased from 16 percent of gross domestic product in 1980 to 21 percent in 2005, compared with 15.9 percent in the United States. In France, the figure now is 31 percent, the highest in Europe, with state pensions making up more than 44 percent of the total and health care, 30 percent.

With the retirement of the baby boomers, the number of pensioners will rise 47 percent in France between now and 2050, while the number under 60 will remain stagnant. The French call it “du baby boom au papy boom,” and the costs, if unchanged, are unsustainable. The French state pension system today is running a deficit of 11 billion euros, or about $13.8 billion; by 2050, it will be 103 billion euros, or $129.5 billion, about 2.6 percent of projected economic output.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to pass major pension reform this year. There have been two contentious overhauls, in 2003 and 2008; the government, afraid to lower pensions, wants to increase taxes on high salaries and increase the years of work.

But the unions are unhappy, and the Socialist Party opposes raising the retirement age. Polls show that while most French see a pension overhaul as necessary, up to 60 percent say working past 60 is not the answer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/world/europe/23europe.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

:( America's future.
 
That this comes as surprise to European's is fucking outrageous! This is what intelligent people could see off into the future. We have similar idgits i.e. progressive liberals who want to do the same kind of entitlement now policies here in the US....

Let's throw our idgits out of office in November and again in 2012!!! Let's reverse the HC monstrocity and secure our borders. Hope is with the action of citizens saying enough is enough.
 
And businesses have falling revenues. The clear solution is to hysterically eliminate business, rather than rationally conclude that a short term slump shouldn't decide long term policy.
 
PARIS — Across Western Europe, the “lifestyle superpower,” the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt.
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I've been hearing the worshippers of Saint Ronald Reagan proclaim those commie Europeans are on the verge of collapse for my entire lifetime. At least for the past 30 years. Somehow, these predictions of imminent collapse never seem to come true.

from the article:

The legal retirement age in France is 60, while Germany recently raised it to 67 for those born after 1963.

France will ultimately have to follow Sweden and Germany in raising the pension age, he argues. “This will have to be harmonized, Europeanized, or it won’t work — you can’t have a pension at 67 here and 55 in Greece,” Mr. Fischer said.

Under threat of default, Greece has frozen pensions for three years and drafted a bill to raise the legal retirement age to 65.
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Oh, the horror!

They're going to have to raise the retirement age from 55 or 60 to something higher?

Getting a government pension at 55 or 60 is indeed ridiculous. I had no idea our communist european friends were that generous. Who knew?

No doubt, they should raise the age for pensions above 55 years old. Getting a government pension at 55 years is ridiculous and unsustainable. Those retirement rules were probably put in place half a century ago. These days, people routinely live well into their late 70s and 80s.

So, while I clicked on this link expecting to see victorious evidence of the efficacy and superiority of Tea Bag Party economics, what I found instead was that the liberal New Deal/European Social welfare state simply needs to be tweaked to reflect modern current demographics and modern lifespans. I see no evidence of a victorious return to a pre-1930s Tea Bag world of people pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, and a magical nirvana of free markets and rudimentary, smallish-libertarian governments.

Liberalism, translated and tweaked to reflect actual modern demographic realities. Makes sense. It’s ridiculous to get a government pension at age 55, when modern medicine allows people to live to 80 and beyond.

Webbway, get back to me when Europeans are screeching for a union-free, no government pensions Tea Bag economy.
 
Cypress said:
I've been hearing the worshippers of Saint Ronald Reagan proclaim those commie Europeans are on the verge of collapse for my entire lifetime. At least for the past 30 years. Somehow, these predictions of imminent collapse never seem to come true.

from the article:




Oh, the horror!

They're going to have to raise the retirement age from 55 or 60 to something higher?

Getting a government pension at 55 or 60 is indeed ridiculous. I had no idea our communist european friends were that generous. Who knew?

No doubt, they should raise the age for pensions above 55 years old. Getting a government pension at 55 years is ridiculous and unsustainable. Those retirement rules were probably put in place half a century ago. These days, people routinely live well into their late 70s and 80s.

So, while I clicked on this link expecting to see victorious evidence of the efficacy and superiority of Tea Bag Party economics, what I found instead was that the liberal New Deal/European Social welfare state simply needs to be tweaked to reflect modern current demographics and modern lifespans. I see no evidence of a victorious return to a pre-1930s Tea Bag world of people pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, and a magical nirvana of free markets and rudimentary, smallish-libertarian governments.

Liberalism, translated and tweaked to reflect actual modern demographic realities. Makes sense. It’s ridiculous to get a government pension at age 55, when modern medicine allows people to live to 80 and beyond.

Webbway, get back to me when Europeans are screeching for a union-free, no government pensions Tea Bag economy.
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I suggest you go buy some Greek government treasury notes.....
 
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