Europeans Fear Crisis Threatens Liberal Benefits

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/world/europe/23europe.html?pagewanted=1&ref=europe ^ | May 22, 2010 | S. Erlanger

[Leisler]

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....

[Deagle]

Well, of course... As it is beginning to affect us.

[paristwelve]

The red tape, social protections, union rules and regulations are insane in Europe, especially France. Example; you want to leave a job you have to give three months notice, when you start a job you have a six month trial period, if you get fired during the trial period you get no unemployment benefits because you quit your first job and haven’t worked the required 6 months. Clearly, it’s safer to just keep the same old job.
I meet a couple wine producers who decided to paint pretty flowers and vines on their bottles by hand, but the local union of wine producers showed up and told them to stop, or else big trouble.
I could go on for hours, there are tons of examples.
Sadly, it sounds like the same thing is happening in the States.