Can you guess which option the 0bama gang is siding with?
The European dream? I didn’t know there WAS any such thing as the European dream, other than “to have government spoon food into my mouth, and wipe my butt for me when it comes out.” The only reason I don’t hope Europeans all turn on each other and start a bloody war that leaves the entire continent in shambles is because I’m afraid a lot of cats and dogs would get hurt in the process. And some pretty old churches and museums. But modern-day Europeans are useless creatures as far as I can see. But I’m cranky today, it must be confessed.
anyone who thinks the union is doomed is laboring under the illusion that people have a choice about their government.
Dream? It was a nightmare from the beginning. They just didn’t realize it.
bttt
And, the German People are adamant they will not fund more bailouts. (I say good for them).
The real risk here is not that "Europe" will continue to limp along without the bailouts, even losing a few countries to BK and banishment, but that the internal and external pressures on Germany will cause the German government to saddle the German people with more debt not their own.
Near as I remember, Germany has recently paid all their WWII debts and have been carrying huge debt burden since the end of the war...and since the end of the war before that.
Does ANYONE really think it's a good idea to IMPOSE additional debt on the German people so that Greek and Italian workers can take 6-8 weeks of vacation a year and retire when they are 50?
If "democracy" cannot keep it's promise to the German people, that it will do their will, will democracy survive in Germany?
No, it will not. Rightfully so.
Nothing would unite them so much as a common enemy.
Their Muslim invaders - breeding and agitating their way towards a unified Sharia Law Euro-State - would seem the most logical option, but Europe’s enlightened leaders would then need to jetison even further, even more cherished, sacred cows to get to that point.
Won’t happen. They’ll dither. They’ll fight each other. They’ll become converts, dimmis, or corpses - for which they’ve been practicing all along.
Voegelin spoke of immanentizing the eschaton -- creating Heaven on Earth.
Bad things happen when people try to do this.
Just imagine how bad off Europe would be if they had to pay and provide for their own defense?
It all comes down to who buys the food, shelter, power, and gadgets that keep modern urban life livable. Once people have built tools that replace labor, what labor is there to do other than maintenance, service, and entertainment of those who OWN the means of production? There can only be so many toolmakers and the German middle class is holding much of that role. Yet as anyone who has seen IT go to India knows, that's only temporary.
Hence, once labor-saving tools and processes were exported to a slave army in China, the Western "working class" largely became superfluous. Once the Chinese come up to speed on toolmaking, so will go the middle class jobs as well. That massive government regulations only made domestic production less competitive only accelerated the process.
This is what cuts to heart of the justification for the bureaucratic state. Regulations exist to mitigate risks otherwise born or managed by the insurers of producers. When we export the production to a "come and get me" producer in China, they not only enjoy the margin of slave labor, they avoid all responsibility for the externalities of production, hazards of use, legal, or environmental. The Chinese are quite apparently willing to adsorb those costs, for now.
OTOH the bureaucratic state is inherently less efficient in managing those risks than a competitive insurance industry, never mind more corrupt. So as long as we socialize those risks because of our outrageous legal overhead and the constant temptation of corruption, SOMEBODY will take advantage of that disparity in costs of production.
IMO, the only way to fix this is to return risk management to the marketplace. That means tort reform and insurance deregulation in a big way.
Must read:
http://www.webscription.net/p-748-caliphate.aspx
if you read the free chapters at the link you will go for the rest and be glad you did!
I liked it until “Is it beyond the bounds of imagination that we might see the Muslim minorities become the Jews of the 21st century?”
Spare me.
It looks like, once again, a Balkan nation (Greece) screws it up for the rest of Europe.
Things would be much better if the Balkans, as a group, were run by more responsible nations.
You know, I only first saw a Janet Daly piece here at FR a few weeks ago and I am thoroughly impressed by this woman. She is a terrific thinker and writer. If you have a ping list for her columns, kindly add me to it.
Oops, I misspelled her name - it’s Daley, with an ‘e’.
Anyway, here is a page with links to many of her recent columns, several of which I read and heartily recommend. (especially the August 6th column).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/janetdaley/
I would hope that European and American leaders have read their history...and recognize the utter foolishness of saddling Germany with OTHERS debt. They nearly destroyed the world with their own debts the last time around.