Posted on 01/16/2005 8:38:31 AM PST by Pikamax
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Interestingly, though, it too will have a demographic bubble to deal with, thanks to its one-child policy.
That will be the end of them. No modern free society can survive that. If this forecast proves true, and there are that many Muslims(a good portion WILL be radical), there will be mass murder and chaos. Their PC view of the world will leave them paralyzed and they will doing nothing to resist it.
Anticipating what the world will look like next year, in ten years, in 20 years, even 50 years is a fundamantal part of our ability to survive that world. How different would the world have been if we had properly predicted the current role of Islamic fundamentalism during Jimmy Carter's days, and had reacted to the revolution in Iran accordingly?
The CIA should be working many priorities, but I agree that anticipating the political situations in Europe, Africa, and South America are certainly among them.
Disagree. But do try to back up your claim that Jews are the cause of most of the world's problems.
Well, I did a typo.
I should have said "Old Europe" would include the original 6
I guess it always depends on the timing in a fast changing world?
Baloney.
Could Europe Become A Superpower?
According to the regional experts we consulted, Europe’s future international role depends greatly on whether it undertakes major structural economic and social reforms to deal with its aging work-force problem. The demographic picture will require a concerted, multidimensional approach including:
• More legal immigration and better integration of workers likely to be coming mainly from North Africa and the Middle East. Even if more guest workers are not allowed in, Western Europe will have to integrate a growing Muslim population. Barring increased legal entry may only lead to more illegal migrants who will be harder to integrate, posing a longterm problem. It is possible to imagine European nations successfully adapting their work forces and social welfare systems to these new realities; it is harder to see a country— Germany, for example—successfully assimilating millions of new Muslim migrant workers in a short period of time.
• Increased flexibility in the workplace, such as encouraging young women to take a few years off to start families in return for guarantees of reentry. Encouraging the “younger elderly” (50-65 year olds) to work longer or return to the work force also would help ease labor shortages. The experts felt that the current welfare state is unsustainable and the lack of any economic revitalization could lead to the splintering or, at worst, disintegration of the European Union, undermining its ambitions to play a heavyweight international role.
The experts believe that the EU’s economic growth rate is dragged down by Germany and its restrictive labor laws. Structural reforms there—and in France and Italy to lesser extents— remain key to whether the EU as a whole can break out of its slow-growth pattern. A total break from the post-World War II welfare state model may not be necessary, as shown in Sweden’s successful example of providing more flexibility for businesses while conserving many worker rights. Experts are dubious that the present political leadership is prepared to make even this partial break, believing a looming budgetary crisis in the next five years would be the more likely trigger for reform.
If no changes were implemented Europe could experience a further overall slowdown, and individual countries might go their own way, particularly on foreign policy, even if they remained nominal members. In such a scenario, enlargement is likely to stop with current members, making accession unlikely for Turkey and the Balkan countries, not to mention long-term possibilities such as Russia or Ukraine. Doing just enough to keep growth rates at one or two percent may result in some expansion, but Europe probably would not be able to play a major international role commensurate with its size. In addition to the need for increased economic growth and social and welfare reform, many experts believe the EU has to continue streamlining the complicated decision-making process that hinders collective action. A federal Europe—unlikely in the 2020 timeframe—is not necessary to enable it to play a weightier international role so long as it can begin to mobilize resources and fuse divergent views into collective policy goals. Experts believe an economic “leap forward”—stirring renewed confidence and enthusiasm in the European project—could trigger such enhanced international action.
You missed the post above from Sweden showing how the various European countries are worse off economically than most of the 50 United States. So, the poster who made the redneck statement was joking, obviously, but with an undercurrent of truth, based on the Swedish report.
It is not ignorance of Europe that led to the statement, rather a report by a European.
Schroeder is also courting a VW / China deal, which may actually have gone through, I'm not really sure. If americanbychoce 2 is reading this, he'll probably know.
The dropping of the weapons embargo to China is an EU goal at this time, not just Germany, although Schroeder did make that goal an issue in his latest China visit, I believe.
I think the EU sees China as a remedy to their current economic doldrums. The weapons part worries me, however.
Bush will meet Schroeder in February, I think, Chirac will visit the White House in the spring according to another report I saw in the European media. The US can't afford to have NATO countries sell weapons (and possibly the technology) to China. Perhaps the upcoming meetings will address this.
longjack
who said anything about camels?
Europe will become Eurabia even without the Turks.
The Netherlands is only be a generation away from having difficulties.
Either that or another Hilter will arise and this time it be Muslims in the crosshairs.
Actually, the reports of rising Muslim immigration and birthrate to/in European countries (certainly not Turks in their native country) are well documented. Muslims account for 12 percent of all the French, and are the fastest growing demographic group in that country by far. Similar Mulsim growth is taking place in the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, and Germany. Even Italy is concerned.
VW has been in China for a while.
The exporting of Arms to china by the EU, dropping the embargo, could lead to enormeous strains with the US.
Maybe, (I hope) it could lead to America leaving Nato and develop new Alliances? That may isolate the EU and cause more economic problems?
We'll see..............
I remember reading similar things 20 years ago that predicted the collapse of the Mexican Governments within 10 years. They used the same fusion of dramatic and startling language, backed up by impressive sounding statistics detailing the inevitable causes and cataclysmic results.
It’s not just because of their classification that CIA estimates are burned when superseded.
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