Can the EUropean Welfare State Survive? (barf alert?)

NPR ^ | Bastille Day, 2010 | Eleanor Beardsley

[ash-housewares]

Third of five parts

One of the defining ideals of the European Union has been its social support system, often referred to as the European welfare state. The shared belief among EU nations that the state has a responsibility to care for its citizens has become a kind of common culture, unifying 27 different nationalities.

But the European welfare system — largely put in place during the high-growth years following World War II — is under economic and demographic pressure. And the recent debt crisis is shaking the foundations of the European Union's shared social vision.

[ash-housewares]

Beardsley's report is mostly OK. The quoted subjects speak for themselves. I note she seems to have emphatically deserted South Carolina (where she was once a Senatorial aide) in favor of Kosovo? Sounds unfortunate but the heart wants what it wants. I enjoyed my visit to Paris five years ago, and hope to see it again some day.

The abbreviation "NATO" was not mentioned anywhere in the report, so far as I can tell

[Psalm 144]

No welfare state can survive over the long haul.

[Haiku Guy]

One of the defining ideals of the European Union has been its social support system, often referred to as the European welfare state. The shared belief among EU nations that the state has a responsibility to care for its citizens has become a kind of common culture, unifying 27 different nationalities.

TRANSLATION: Europeans discovered some time ago that they were able to vote themselves money from their own Treasuries...

[Mere Survival]

The state has “a” responsibility to care for its citizens. There’s the rub. That “a.” A Dad and Mom have THE ultimate responsibility to care for a child, shared only with God. The State claims “a” responsability. That’s why libs are so prone to let a criminal off from consequences of his crime if the criminal had a poor childhood. The State has “a” responsibility for the criminal. If the criminal is responsible for his own actions (and the State is responsible for national defense and other enumerated powers) the State is not responsible for the criminals actions.

Meanwhile the parents if he’s not a minor — they did their job as best they could — and he’s now responsible for himself and his kids as an adult.

I wouldn’t count on the State if I was starving or I couldn’t feed my child . . . they’ll probably be broke from being “responsible” for everyone else and would require so much paperwork from me that I’ll faint on it before I get any food.

[DrC]

“When David finally got her residency, it came with automatic coverage under France’s extensive health care system. David says that has been a blessing because of her chronic asthma.

“Mostly every summer I have to go to the emergency room because I can’t breathe in the summer. They look after you until you’re OK. For me, everything is free — for medicine, doctors, hospital. It’s nice to live here,” she says.”

When asthma patients end up in the ER, that is a marker of POOR QUALITY care. Well-managed asthma patients don’t end up in the ER or hospitalized, but this entitlement junkie is completely oblivious (and indifferent to) the costs since she doesn’t pay a nickel for her care.

A patient paying out-of-pocket for at least some portion of their care would have the motivation to get educated about asthma and switch doctors upon the realization that the care being provided was of such abysmal quality.

[griswold3]

Welfare states leading to the ‘tragedy of the commons’ throughout history has failed.

Aristotle (384 B.C.-322 B.C.) similarly argued against common goods of the polis of Athens: “That all persons call the same thing mine in the sense in which each does so may be a fine thing, but it is impracticable; or if the words are taken in the other sense, such a unity in no way conduces to harmony. And there is another objection to the proposal. For that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual. For besides other considerations, everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill; as in families many attendants are often less useful than a few.”

[mo]

Its already dead..the stink isn’t quite strong enough for everyone to flee...and still attracts the Mid-Easterners who think they know a good thing when they see it...

[sickoflibs]

Anders Dalsager and Margit Larsen are graduate students at the University of Copenhagen. Like all Danish students, they study for free and receive a monthly stipend equivalent to about $900 per person from the government. On a recent day, the married couple walked to pick up their 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Astrid, from the campus kindergarten. Dalsager and Larsen say they were able to afford having a child, even though they don't yet have jobs, because the government also gives them a child care subsidy. “As a regular student, you get five years of support, and then if you have a child, you get extra support from the government — 12 months if it's the mother and six months if it's the father,” Dalsager says.......
.Under the European Union's generous social welfare system, the model and level of benefits vary from country to country. As a general rule, Europeans enjoy free health care, long-term unemployment support, liberal vacation time and solid maternity and child care benefits.....But without major reforms, Doze says the European Union will not be able to maintain its vision of a kinder, gentler way of life....
“Our social system in France alone has accumulated more than 100 billion euros in debt, and it just isn't viable anymore,” he says. “Today it survives thanks to one thing: France's AAA credit rating and our ability to keep borrowing to pay for the social programs.”
Another problem for the EU, says Adema, is the rigidity of its labor market ; it is difficult to fire workers, making it difficult to hire new ones. Adema says that has inhibited the economic growth necessary to sustain the welfare state. Growth in the eurozone is only expected to reach 1 percent in 2010, compared to 3 percent in the U.S. ....
...Indeed, governments from Germany to Spain are enacting austerity plans and spending cuts to try to reduce national debts and rein in public spending. But these reforms are being met with resistance; and not just in Greece.....
...The French government says workers must stay on the job longer to keep the state pension system afloat. But protesters say there is plenty of money if you tax the bankers and stockbrokers instead of bailing them out.

Reminds me of Michael Moore's movie Sicko preaching to us that we must demand our government benefits like Europeans in France and England did. I like this one comment at the end. He wants to get the money to keep his benefits by taxing banks after they go bankrupt. That shows how much those dependent on the welfare state understand.

[sickoflibs]

ping to comment #8

[stephenjohnbanker]

Truly Sicko......

[GOPJ]

I like this one comment at the end. He wants to get the money to keep his benefits by taxing banks after they go bankrupt. That shows how much those dependent on the welfare state understand.

You have to admit sickoflibs, that is funny...

[ash-housewares]

The unemployed protesters are going to make a flash-mob using their mobile phones and, I dunno, make a run on the bank or something

[MBB1984]

It can last a while if there is a strong cultural identity, a homogeneous population with a strong work ethic and a very tight immigration policy.

America has none of those aspects.

[danamco]

Why Denmark especially is doing pretty well is because they don’t tell you that the tax man takes out more for “himself” than every worker are able to keep as spending money from his/her paycheck in their own pockets,= 50+%, hello!!!

[danamco]

See post #14!!!

[reformedliberal]

Perhaps they do not automatically prescribe personal inhalers in Europe? I have read that blood sugar monitors are available, but not prescribed to diabetic individuals unless they specifically request them. Otherwise, all care is administered in a clinic.

[DrC]

“I have read that blood sugar monitors are available, but not prescribed to diabetic individuals unless they specifically request them.”

A classic example of the pennywise-pound-foolish mentality endemic in government run health systems.