The sick man is Europe

[DesertFox]

The Australian
13 Apr 06


Events in France and Italy point to a dismal future

CONTINENTAL Europe is at a crossroads. No, scratch that. Continental Europe was at a crossroads a few years ago. This week, it appears to have chosen its path. Taken together, the results of Italy's general election (which turfed out an economic reformer in favour of a former EU president) and the French Government's cave-in to rioters protesting against employment law reform suggest that the strongest forces in Europe today are those of appeasement, stasis and socialism. ...

...this is a part of the world where no one is capable of facing reality. It also suggests a broader lack of cultural confidence. Europeans are not having children at replacement rates any more; birth rates are supported largely by Muslim immigrants. And that community's more radical members are increasingly flexing their political muscle in the face of a timorous host culture. An example is the fallout of the Danish cartoon controversy. In what was essentially a battle between theocratic and Enlightenment values, the theocrats largely won. Yes, there are some hopeful signs, such as Chancellor Andrea Merkel's reform-oriented leadership in Germany. But economic reforms can only go so far towards curing the deadening malaise at the heart of European society.

More (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18800084-7583,00.html)

[PaulRevere]

In what was essentially a battle between theocratic and Enlightenment values, the theocrats largely won
1. The Marxist values already defeated the Enlightenment values.

2. Markel's first reform was to raise the value-added tax. Some reform.

3. People are voting with their feet. For instance, young Germans graduating from professional schools are leaving their dead economy and moving to places like the US, the UK, and Australia which have market economies. Skilled workers are likewise going to these places and places like Norway and Iceland, whose economies are booming thanks to the price of oil for the former and Russian mafia money for the latter.

[ThomasMore]

Marxism is spiritual and political crack cocaine.

Those who take it in get addicted to it. It sucks up all their energies, renders them useless and eventually destroys them. Marxists produce nothing but a dying society.

[PaulRevere]

Marxism is spiritual and political crack cocaine.

Those who take it in get addicted to it. It sucks up all their energies, renders them useless and eventually destroys them. Marxists produce nothing but a dying society.
That's what I always said: Socialism = suicide. They tax the crap out of themselves, punishing risk takers and producers; they render their economies stagnant and unable to produce jobs for their youth; their youth can't afford to marry and have children; they are all for abortion; they are all against the death penalty and for letting murders out of prison after a few years; they are willingly letting themselves being replaced by Moslems who opening despise them. One day their Moslem successors will pull the plug on they old, dying bodies.

Germany is a dysfunctional nation. My fiance's friends include an alarming number who live with their parents and just plain can't afford to get married.

Anecdotal stories I've heard suggest that most German women want to get married and have children, but just don't mostly because, IMO, what socialism has done to their society. Tragic, really. But for me, meeting a beautiful German girl who loves me to pieces was surprisingly easy compared to the US.

[Popperite]

Germany is troubled by some of these things more so than some of its neighbours. Even other Europeans working in Germany complain about the fact that you can't get anything usefull done there. It has something to do with taking in the old GDR perhaps. That has been a dismal faillure for Germany. The unemployment rates are at its worse in that part of the country. They also need to lose a lot of silly rules.
I think Italy is better of for losing Berlusconi however.

[Lazarus]

That's what I always said: Socialism = suicide...And thus we can expect more suicide not only from Europe but from South and Central America, which it appears, to be enamoured with the Chavez model of government...

I see hard times coming form many regions of the world... One wonders how all these currents will eventually affect us here in the US... If we play our cards right (and if we put our own Marxists in a box in the basement for a few years), this could all play out to be advantageous for the American economy... Assuming we can get our industry back to work again...

Time to start watching the US dollar against other foreign currencies...

[ThomasMore]

And thus we can expect more suicide not only from Europe but from South and Central America, which it appears, to be enamoured with the Chavez model of government...

I see hard times coming form many regions of the world... One wonders how all these currents will eventually affect us here in the US... If we play our cards right (and if we put our own Marxists in a box in the basement for a few years), this could all play out to be advantageous for the American economy... Assuming we can get our industry back to work again...

Time to start watching the US dollar against other foreign currencies...

I propose a trade. We will trade our socialists, two to one, with capitalists from Canada. Mebbe we can just take Alberta and the few scattered Canadian conservatives, and empty our universities, Hollywood and the media centers over our northern border.

Of course, we won't have to put up a wall. The new Canadians will happily sneer and turn up their noses at their southern neighbors. The Americans will be too busy working.

[CzechPrince]

I praise the Danish government though when controversy erupted. They did not back down. Not only that, Denmark has all but shut down it's borders. Sounds like they know what's going to happen.