Posted on 07/14/2010 2:55:04 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
The abbreviation "NATO" was not mentioned anywhere in the report, so far as I can tell
No welfare state can survive over the long haul.
TRANSLATION: Europeans discovered some time ago that they were able to vote themselves money from their own Treasuries...
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.
“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.
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.”
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...
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.
Truly Sicko......
You have to admit sickoflibs, that is funny...
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
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.
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!!!
See post #14!!!
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.
“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.
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