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At Large
Europe’s Not-So-Revolutionary Youth
Going nowhere fast, indignantly and in denial.
As the European Union’s financial crisis continues to unfold across the old continent, many young Europeans are belatedly realizing their economic future looks rather bleak. Unfortunately, the tens of thousands of young Europeans who have taken to the streets of cities such as Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Athens, and Paris in recent months to express their disgust aren’t really interested in radical change. Instead, they tend to be that most conventional of creatures — diehard backers of an unsustainable status quo.
Called the “indignant ones,” Europe’s angry young men and women derive their name from a best-selling pamphlet, Indignez-vous! (2010), written by, paradoxically-enough, someone at the opposite end of the age-spectrum: a 93-year-old former French Resistance member named Stéphane Hessel.
Everything you need to know about the pamphlet’s contents is revealed by the fact that its first English translation was published in March this year by the Nation — the self-identified flagship of America’s left. Full of tirades against the “current international dictatorship of the financial markets” and exhortations to “get angry,”; Hessel’s text also denounces reforms of those very same welfare states which have helped drive much of Europe to the brink of financial catastrophe.
For good historical reasons, Europe’s political classes get nervous whenever people, young or old, take to the streets. After all, mass protests against the status quo in 1789, 1848, 1918, and 1968 helped facilitate significant political upheavals, not to mention looting, violence, and, occasionally, temporary seizures of power by terroristic regimes.
This time, however, things are different. With barely-disguised reluctance, governments across Western Europe are proceeding with relatively minor reforms aimed at reducing the European welfare state’s costs. But les indignés are protesting not only the pain of change — they also clearly resent the changes themselves.
Of course there’s an anarchist fringe to these youth protests — the ski-masked individuals who routinely join any demonstration to exult in the joy of physical violence against police and random destruction of private property. But by and large, the indignant ones want exactly what their parents and grandparents regard as their birthright: not-too-exacting jobs-for-life, free health-care, state-guaranteed minimal-incomes, six weeks paid annual vacation, early-retirement, and generous state-provided pensions.
In other words, they want Social Europe. Los indignados don’t, however, apparently comprehend just how much this economic system has contributed to their present plight.
Take labor-market regulation. For decades, many Western European governments have — in the name of solidarity — made it very difficult for employers to fire anyone. Consequently, European businesses have to think twice about hiring anyone because they know that once they have done so, it’s very difficult to remove them, even for gross incompetency.
Many young Europeans consequently find themselves unable to find jobs or condemned to a half-life of cobbling together part-time short-term contracts, much of which involves work for which they are highly over-qualified. The fact that their straightened financial circumstances often makes it necessary to live with their parents (who, presumably, are often among those benefiting from almost-impossible-to-fire arrangements) doesn’t make their situation any easier.
But do we hear the indignant ones clamoring for labor market reform? Not at all. They’re protesting against such changes in Portugal, France, Spain, and Greece. In that sense, they’re no different from those French students whose street protests helped dilute an already rather-mild liberalization of France’s labor laws back in 2006.
Many young Europeans are also remarkably unaware that Europe’s demographic trends are further tilting the scales against them. The below-replacement birth-rates prevailing in almost every European nation will result in the proportion of active workers to retirees across the EU shifting over the next twenty-five years from a 2:1 ratio to a 1:1 ratio.
This makes it unlikely that even present reforms, such as raising retirement ages, can forestall an eventual implosion of Europe’s welfare states — a process that, at present rates, will be underway long before les indignés come even close to receiving their first state-pension check.
Nor do los indignados appear to realize that any chance they might have to force through liberalizing economic reforms via democratic means is weakening by the day.
The same demographic developments that will severely compromise their financial prospects are also reducing young Europeans to the status of a minority in the world’s most rapidly aging continent. This progressively diminishes their ability to out-vote Europe’s millions-strong (and growing) gerontocracy who, AARP-like, appear quietly content to live off their children’s future.
None of this means that young Europeans shouldn’t be angry about the continent’s present financial mess. They have every right to be fed up with their perilous economic situation. Europe’s political classes fully merit their contempt.
About the Author
Samuel Gregg is Research Director at the Acton Institute. He has authored several books including On Ordered Liberty, his prize-winning The Commercial Society, Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy, and, most recently, Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and America’s Future.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (90) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 6.22.11 @ 6:35AM
In racing, we greet such tantrums with *Call the WHAAAAAAAmbulance!*
Alan Brooks| 6.22.11 @ 7:49AM
No problem: sell Europe to the Chinese. the Eiffel Tower is worth millions of francs, Notre Dame, too.
Redstateboy| 6.22.11 @ 8:44AM
so Alan... you're a good socialist - what do you think? Europe is going to imploade and yet Here, we have Das Messiah accompanied by his Slave Party, doing everything they can to impliment the exact same policies here that are all to evidently destroying Europe - you think that's wise? Stupid or Criminal?
DC| 6.22.11 @ 8:57AM
Redstateboy, to clarify, my reference to the "idiot" above was to the socialist troll, not to you.
Anyone familiar with how Mussolini restructured the Italian economy in the 1920s ought to be having deja vu pangs today, reading the NLRB's "new" rulemaking proposal. It's pretty simple, really: private industry will exist, but on the conditions that they do what the central government tells them to do. And the primary condition is that these industries not only accept, but subsidize and empower unions that answer directly or indirectly to the central government. You could call it Peronism (Argentina, 1950s--which turned that country from first to third world in a generation), but its more historically accurate to cite the original, Il Duce himself. Il Duce Nero is but an opaque, though equally dangerous, imitation.
Pecos Pete| 6.22.11 @ 9:22AM
Agreed. We are well into a fascist economy. King O is the new Il Duce.
ZAK KLEMMER | 6.23.11 @ 3:08PM
I doubt that McCain has ever read von Mises or Hayek. Pity we Americans who know the score - TEA anyone? ;)
Anthony| 6.22.11 @ 9:59AM
DC, Victor Davis Hansen made a similar point about the left and Obozo, using the analogy that they are parasites who will feed off of, rather than destroy, the capitalistic system to finance their social redistributive policies.
The problem for Obozo is, unlike Europe, U.S. private industry doesn't have to play the game, just yet, if they take a stand, however, thus far, most CEOs are acting like mini John Boehners, or worse , the whore of G.E., Immelt. And even if forced to do so, the host will eventually die and chaos will ensue.
Not that TAS readers need reminding, but the weenie, "Obozo loves America the same as us ", Huntsman, ain't the answer, unless you want to please Harry Reid and finish off America at the same time.
DC| 6.22.11 @ 8:46AM
Idiot, the Chinese, or Russians, or Islamofascists won't buy what they can simply take. The Eurosclerotics are waiting to be conquered, it's just a matter of which global power strikes first. And Americans won't be interested or able, financially, industrially, or militarily, to pull their fat out of the fire this time. It will be sad to see all of the historical icons of Western civilization torn down by the new barbarian hordes, but frankly the Euros richly deserve what they're about to get. As historian Walter McDougall has said (paraphrasing): no arms, no faith, and no children. So they die. What's worse is that this is the vision of our own Ruling Class and their fascist messiah, Il Duce Nero, for America itself. That's the real battle, barely started in 2010 and about to ramp up in 2012. As one commenter on this site wisely said yesterday, if not by the ballot box, then by the cartridge box.
Alan Brooks| 6.22.11 @ 8:55AM
"but frankly the Euros richly deserve what they're about to get."
So it's payback time for Whitey, eh?
DC| 6.22.11 @ 9:04AM
Precisely the incisive, carefully thought through response I would have expected from an empty, morally and intellectually bankrupt clown.
The Euroqueers' race(s) have nothing to do with their suicidal policies. Their conquerors may be white (Russians), Asian of various shades, or Muslim, again of various shades (go ahead, call an Iranian an "Arab," or a Turk a "colored person," and see how fast you get a dagger at your throat). Race has zero to do with any of this. I understand why leftist trolls like you think it does, because your entire life is spent apologizing for the sins you invent and project onto others whom you've never known or understood--but no, sorry, in this case Europe's impending doom is a well-studied, slow-motion train wreck entirely of their own making (enabled by the U.S.'s now-shredded military umbrella, to some degree, but that level of discussion is way beyond you).
Alan Brooks| 6.22.11 @ 9:09AM
"but frankly the Euros richly deserve what they're about to get."
YOU wrote the above, DC, not me (doesn't matter how you try to spin it).
Skippy| 6.22.11 @ 12:52PM
They do deserve it.
They may be nice folks with some great paintings in the basement, but they are the willing architects of their own doom.
Centuries of survival and growth were destroyed in decades by the cancer of socialism.
There is a lesson here for America, if we care to learn it.
I LOVE that line; "no arms, no faith, no children".
It sums up the problem in six easy to spell words.
Mutch Moore| 6.22.11 @ 4:45PM
Liked your post Skippy: ". . . they are the willing architects of their own doom." Yikes! An unfathomable prospect, yet bearing true. Even in Munich, large sections of the city are overrun with Turks. How/why did they get there? ... To do jobs ordinary Germans were unwilling to do. Sound familiar? France seems barely able to stave off Sharia Law. Destruction of the Western world happening before our eyes. Michael Savage got this one right: "Liberalism is a mental disorder." Now, the IMF appears poised to make a loan to Greece since Germany's bail out did not quite have the intended result. How nice it would be to live in a country that at least has a stable, safe, secure currency.
Occam's Tool| 6.22.11 @ 5:31PM
Europe is going to die, to be replaced by Dar-Es-Islam, sometime between 2030 and 2050. It is inevitable. Also inevitable is that the US will have to fight the Caliphate or die. They are aggressive, and non-intervention will get us nowhere. This doesn't mean nationbuilding, by the way, which is also pointless.
Stan Redmond| 6.22.11 @ 9:09AM
According to our President....
Alan Brooks| 6.22.11 @ 9:34AM
"but frankly the Euros richly deserve what they're about to get."
Now comes the what-DC-meant-to-write weaseling out.
Alan Brooks| 6.22.11 @ 9:42AM
... remember: you could have written: "their mistakes brought on what is happening now"-
but you are too tactless for such, DC.
DC| 6.22.11 @ 10:03AM
Brooks, you pathetic little puke, you would have failed (probably did fail) reading comprehension in junior high...I meant what I wrote, and nothing I wrote subsequently attempts to "weasel" out of what I wrote.
The Euros are bringing their doom upon themselves and therefore do deserve what's about to happen. It won't be pretty or bloodless, and it's a shame for Western civilization. Following suicidal policies for several generations is not without cost--how high the cost, and which group of barbarians will name that price, is yet to be determined.
Exactly what is unclear about that, only half-baked, self-titillating morons like you can figure out on your own time.
Needless to say, you do not and cannot refute the substance of anything I've said. Nor do you deny that Europe's impending fate is one you and your modern Il Duce Nero fervently wish to implement for this country. As such, you're a mortal enemy to most Americans (especially our military--I note your snide, disrespectful comment below), and in due time, will be dealt with accordingly. Hopefully I'll be there to take part personally, if not, I'm sure that any 85+ year old WW2 veteran could happily beat you to death without any help.
Alan Brooks| 6.22.11 @ 10:24AM
You are that bloody-minded and you call Obama Il Duce Nero? maybe you aren't, though; you might be reacting to being called on your writing quote the Euros RICHLY DESERVE what they are about to get unquote.
And you want to spend millions in govt funds to move all those WWI and WWII remains to America?
Seek| 6.22.11 @ 12:13PM
DC:
There's nothing like "love" when it comes from people like you. If you can't win the debate, club your opponent to death -- that's the spirit. By the way, making a death threat is a felony.
Skippy| 6.22.11 @ 1:04PM
The righteously indignant leftist doth suddenly remember the Atty Genl's phone #.
Yawn....
DC| 6.22.11 @ 1:16PM
I won't bother to wait for either of those assclowns to explain how, exactly, I lost the "debate." A debate implies at least two opposing parties intelligently adducing facts and issues as counterpoints to the others'--as any non-troll could see, that didn't happen above.
"Seek" has tried before to scare me with his pseudo-legalese, last time he said federal agents would be breaking down my door to keep him and his little pecker safe from my terrible "threats." Oddly, that didn't happen.
Real life goes on despite the willful ignorance of the would-be totalitarians; I suppose until they have all the guns and are busy instituting Pol Pot-style mass murder across America in the service of their Dear Leader, they'll continue to deny what they truly, desperately want: the old millenialist dream of exterminating the impure and iron rule by the revolutionary elite.
CJ| 6.22.11 @ 6:44PM
DC, don't waste your time responding to Brooks. He craves attention, and will say the most idiotic to get a reply.
jomo2009| 6.22.11 @ 4:40PM
How about this: Decline is a choice. The Europeans made that choice decades ago.
Redstateboy| 6.22.11 @ 2:47PM
Brooks.... for those of us who enjoy learning from the information posted here on TAS on a regular basis.. We know you to be a Liber-ul bomb thrower - but you're poor at it. You give yourself way too much credit for intelligence.
William| 6.22.11 @ 5:01PM
I think you guys let yourselves get baited by Brooks.
He makes a ridiculous assertion that saying that Western Europeans (who happen to be predominately white) are about to have their social/economic system overwhelmed by other peoples and nations is racist. You respond in an overly vigorous fashion so he believes he has (successfully) hit a sore spot. He ignores your refutation, blithely asserts you have failed to respond, and repeats his unfounded claim together with others. This of course is maddening and elicits further emotional responses from you. And so it goes.
I've been pulled into such exchanges on other sites and learned it is a hopeless waste of time. I don't know whether liberals like Brooks are immune to hearing anything with which they don't agree, are just plain stupid, or are just having fun, but whatever it is, you cannot have a reasonable discourse with them.
Alan Brooks| 6.22.11 @ 5:24PM
...it is just fun-- you take it all too seriously-- lighten up and drink a brewski , ferchrissakes.
European GI graves are not likely to be desecrated by muslims! you can sleep at night knowing so.
Occam's Tool| 6.22.11 @ 5:33PM
Alan, the graves will be desecrated in 2070.
Redstateboy| 6.22.11 @ 5:28PM
Oh!! William.... I've given up long ago trying to have reasonable and measured debate with Liberals. How can you have a debate with someone when - employing example after example - of the failures of their political beliefs only to have a retort like: "it's Bush's fault."
William| 6.23.11 @ 12:04AM
See above: it's all a joke! I agree with Brooks that the retrograde forces within Islam are no threat to the West in the long run. But he ought to make a more serious attempt to defend the policies he supports, or acknowledge they are not defensible.
lydia | 6.23.11 @ 10:32AM
There's nothing like "love" when it comes from people like you. If you can't win the debate, club your opponent to death -- that's the spirit. By the way, making a death threat is a felony.
I am a 28 years old doctor, mature and beautiful.and now I am seeking a good man who can give me real love , so i got a username Andromeda2002 on--s'e'ek'c'ou'ga'r.c óm--.it is the first and best club for y'ounger women and old'er men, or older women and y'ounger men,to int'eract with each other. Maybe you wanna ch'eck 'it out or tell your friends!
Pelligrino| 6.22.11 @ 7:20AM
Sadly, don't look for the under 40 year olds self-centered focus to end or even morph.
Entrepreneurship is dead there.
And a candid vision of the future is not discussed.
I've also come to realize that their focus on two big vacations a year (usually cheap flights to some warmer spot in Europe or on Europe's periphery) means they don't want to create kids -- have babies. The traditional Europeans see babies as a serious drag on their bar on the corner 2 nights/week, going out, disco partying, and 2x/ year beach bash year-long cycle.
The ones with the babies come from Turkey, Nigeria, Tunisia, Iran, Egypt, Pakistan, and Morocco.
Occam's Tool| 6.22.11 @ 5:34PM
Indeed. Hence, Eurabia and the new Caliphate.
Patrick| 6.23.11 @ 6:34AM
Well, perhaps they will nuke each other trying to be the next Caliph.
gearjammer| 6.22.11 @ 7:40AM
They'll be seeling all their art,vineyards,and whatever they have of value pretty soon. We may have to repatriate the remains of our WW1 and WW2 fallen at some point as well. We do not want the future Muslim majority desecrating those graves. Pretty sad but it will all happen. Decline is decline.
Alan Brooks| 6.22.11 @ 9:37AM
"We may have to repatriate the remains of our WW1 and WW2 fallen at some point as well."
Paid for by the US government, naturally. You guys like to spend taxpayers funds on corpses, don't you?
Skippy| 6.22.11 @ 1:21PM
Only on rescuing ours, and creating more of theirs.
Drunken Sailor| 6.22.11 @ 4:02PM
Considering they died in the defense of our country? Your damn straight!
Occam's Tool| 6.22.11 @ 10:03PM
They died for your freedom. Their remains are beyond treasure, Brooks.
Patrick| 6.23.11 @ 6:37AM
That is, of course, presuming that the US as we know it even exists at that time, which is actually greatly in doubt.
martin j smith| 6.22.11 @ 7:44AM
In Europe and in the US the major preocupations of youth is how to get money for sex toys and electronics and computer stuff. They take too much for granted and figure their parents will "work it out".
They in many cases do not want to see the reality of our polcies that have led us to this point. They need a pin in the ass.
Petronius| 6.22.11 @ 9:30AM
Bowling or safety?
Mike D.| 6.22.11 @ 7:44AM
Reliance on a state given life is as addicting as crack cocaine and like crack cocaine it leads to a bad end and destruction. Taking from the creators of wealth and giving to the undeserved is something thats going to take a generation and a disaster to cure. It will end up in the streets here sooner or later. Marxism and Socialism is a mental disease for the elites who use it for attainment of power and for the recepients who become addicted to it. Its become no different than a pusher selling his wares to the addict, just in this case its somebody elses wealth thats the drug. Unfortunately, that wealth has its finite limitations and its nearly gone and then the addicts revolt.
JP| 6.22.11 @ 8:28AM
I lived in Europe during its last period of real economic growth (late 80s- early 90s). Germany, Italy, and Sweden were export giants (think Mercedes, BASF, Volvo, Fiat). Protected by the might of the US military, as well as benefiting from Reagan's economic policies, Europe had so much work that severe labor shortages drove up wages. Unions all across Europe demanded shorter work weeks, more vacations, and more generous benefit packages.
European friends of mine took 4 week vacations to New Zealand and the US; they bought more expensive homes, autos, and vacation homes. And these were middle class people - not the wealthy. I can still remember 50 mile long traffic jams going into Austria, as vacationers traveled to winter chalets during the ski season. The MSM was impressed by all of this wealth. They lectured the US about how "market socialism" was superior to captialism.
But, by 1993 it all came crashing down. The Germans suffered especially hard, in the aftermath of unification. They poured hundreds of billions of dollars into the former DDR and Berlin. The mild 1991 recession in the US spelled an end to the European export boom. And heavy industries in Belgium, Germany, and France took advantage of cheap Polish and Russian labor - the infamous "Ruhr Gebiet" moved its steel mills East. Volkswagen did the same. But Euro labor just piled on more and more demands. Conservative governments fell, as Big Labor took over. And thus began an entire generation of under-employed. There are many Europeans between 28 and 41 who never had a full time job. It isn't unsual to run into a Dutch or German with an MBA working at a cafe, or a Frenchman with a Masters in Engineering running a cash register at a book store.
It's a totally different mindset over there. Even during good times, all eyes turn to the government to keep things going. Few Europeans have an independent mindset. Those that do, emigrate to North America or New Zealand (if they are lucky).
jd| 6.22.11 @ 8:58AM
Your comments mirror my own experiences with Europe.
I married a European whose parents emigrated here from Belgium in the early '80s. Most of their family still live there and I can tell you that most if not all of my husband's family there are one word: complacent. They want their exotic vacations twice or three times a year to Jordan or South Africa. My husband's cousin did not think twice about the effect on her employer of her taking a NINE MONTH PAID MATERNITY leave, because hey, it's her right. Yet, they live in a highly regulated society where every tree or shrub on your property better be cut exactly to government mandated norm, and don't think about protesting or taking to the streets when the government bans certain political parties because they are not PC. The government controls the press to the extent that true freedom of speech and thought are banned. I blame all of this on a government that controls all aspects of ones life from cradle to grave. They have crushd the human spirit of 2 generations of Europeans and the people don't even know it.
The Big E| 6.22.11 @ 9:54AM
This is no different from any other period of European history, though. Why do you think the US exists in the first place? Where did we originate but with disgruntled Europeans unwilling to let their (then) Monarchical governments control every aspect of their lives. Some Europeans fled to the New World to seek a life free from that control, while those that remained just traded in the old form of Monarchs for the new form. The only thing that is different this time around is that they will not be able to hold the Muslim hordes off at Tours this time around because they've already invited them all in.
Senior Chief| 6.22.11 @ 11:46AM
I guess it boils down to the fact that there are only really two kinds of 'Europeans': The smart ones... and those that stayed.
Bob Vogler| 6.22.11 @ 12:13PM
Good point--and many of those smart "Europeans" you refer to are now called "Americans." Despite the immature, economically illiterate little snotball temporarily infesting the White House, we're still the magnet for the rest of the world, at least for now.
Occam's Tool| 6.22.11 @ 5:35PM
NZ is not particularly a good place to build a business. Taxes and COL are SKY-HIGH!
Jack Olson| 6.22.11 @ 8:19AM
The phrase is "straitened circumstances", not "straightened". Straight means direct or unbent, strait means tight. No one is ever straight-laced and there is no such place as the Straights of Magellan.
As the European welfare states fail under unbearable deficits, look for intensified competition among pressure groups for the shrinking resources. The most likely winners in this fiscal musical chairs will be the government employees instead of their clients. In the heat wave of 2003, fifteen thousand French pensioners died but all the civil servants still got their vacations.
Redstateboy| 6.22.11 @ 8:51AM
I see No difference between what is happening in Europe and here.. unless we begin electing thousands of Scott Walkers - our future is a foregone conclusion - we will become just another jerk-water socialist republic - thanks to Liber-uls.
Handy| 6.22.11 @ 10:20AM
We are already there. All of the pieces are in place. There is no wealth creation anymore. As we ship jobs and dollars overseas, the US will become a nation of shopkeepers. Even that scenario may be too rosy. With the internet, who needs brick and mortar stores?
Eventually all of our capital will be consumed. (If state, local and federal unfunded liabilities are counted, it is already gone.) When that happens, we will be relegated to a subsistence-level existence. No more new houses. No more new cars. No more large screen TVs. People will abandon the cold, cold northern states to seek balmier climes. Many will become migrant farmers working the fields for a share of the crop and a blanket on the floor. All of this can happen rather quickly, too.
Among the first casualties will be financial services and insurance firms. Because people will withdraw their money, banks will have none to lend. And, it is not necessary to insure things you don't own. Without available credit, large manufacturing companies will begin to topple. The domino effect will continue all the way down the line.
All will not be lost, however. Maintenance services will be in high demand as older equipment needs to be fixed. Also, pawn shops and antique stores will flourish briefly. Moonshining may make a big comeback as well. Whiskey could replace dollars for trading purposes. Horses and buggies will become popular once again and the village smithy will be busy making shoes. There will be plenty of chickens, ducks and geese running around. Maybe even a few goats, but cattle will dwindle. Too expensive to feed and house them.
Unthinkable? Just take a look at Cuba, North Korea, Zimbabwe or Detroit.
Pecos Pete| 6.22.11 @ 10:43AM
Exactly, and don't forget South Africa is the next Zimbabwe if it isn't already there.
Handy| 6.22.11 @ 1:54PM
The South African government is above reproach by the MSM.
Steve A| 6.22.11 @ 8:53AM
This entire article could be summarized in one sentence:
Socialism fails miserably every single time it is tried regardless of the so called genius of those executing the plan.
Old Soldier| 6.22.11 @ 9:36AM
It doesn't just fail economically. It corrupts the population until they are no longer capable of acting like adults. Permanent state dependency follows a couple generations of socialism. It's the opposite of the "Rugged Individuality" that Teddy Roosevelt used to celebrate.
When the Islamists take over, the Euro-trash will be howling. Not for lost liberties but for lost benefits.
grethel| 6.22.11 @ 4:41PM
That's right. Sadly, it destroys people as it is failing miserably.
G.S. Patton| 6.22.11 @ 9:49AM
Having grown up around Detroit, one only needs to take a quick tour through what is left, of a once great city. It is the epitome of what corruption, unions, centralized power and the entitlement culture leave behind. This is the legacy, that awaits our great country and Western culture as a whole. The irony is, Detroit was destroyed by the same root ideology and bankrupt philosophy it worked so hard to defeat for 30-60 years..... we have accomplished what Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan, and the Soviet Union could not. We have destroyed ourselves.
Handy| 6.22.11 @ 12:01PM
Urban renewal in Detroit consists of tearing down once elegant homes, planting sweet corn, cucumbers and tomatoes.
As late as the 1970s, Detroit was still one of the richest cities in America; if not the richest. Today, Detroit looks worse than Dresden. See how fast things can turn to garbage?
G.S. Patton| 6.22.11 @ 12:47PM
Truly "swords into plow shears" in the literal sense ? You are correct Handy... the beautiful theaters, elegant homes, history of the automobile and innovation, and unrivaled manufacturing muscle.... all destroyed; and in not much time. Heartbreaking and scary. Even the shadow, of Detroit's past is gone.
Handy| 6.22.11 @ 2:01PM
Dear General,
Take a tour through Gary, IN sometime. Not that it was ever as grand as Detroit, but there were neatly trimmed lawns and modest, but well kempt homes. It used to hum with activity.
Now, the only sounds you hear are the cooing of the pigeons who have taken over the train station.
G.S. Patton| 6.22.11 @ 7:06PM
Yes, Gary was in fact, a serious player when it came to manufacturing and steel..... and from the pics I have seen, much like Detroit. Rusting, and rotting from the inside out.
Redstateboy| 6.22.11 @ 2:21PM
Or Buffalo, NY. - G.S. and the bizarre thing???
They keep voting Slave Party!! Almost like the Jews who deluded themselves that they were indeed going to recieve a shower.
Handy| 6.22.11 @ 4:38PM
The Jews still vote for the Slave Party here. Otherwise, I like them.
Occam's Tool| 6.22.11 @ 5:37PM
I don't. Thanks, Handy. Sometimes, with Red Phiilips and (much, much, worse) Clint, we can feel under attack.
Clint| 6.22.11 @ 6:48PM
Israel Firster Fanatic Screwball Tool Job is all upset & crybabyin' because Many of We Tea Party Patriots & Our Tea Party Senator Dr.Rand Paul & Our Tea Party Co-Favorite 7 Presidential Candidate, Dr. Ron Paul Don't Asskiss Tool Job's Personal Israel Firster Agenda.
Occam's Tool| 6.22.11 @ 10:05PM
Did you mean to prove my point, Clint?
Let's talk about why the Jews don't have an abundance of Nebel Prize winners again, Clint. I loved your logic on that one.
Occam's Tool| 6.22.11 @ 10:07PM
Sorry, "Nobel Prize Winners." I'm not one, you see. But it your discussion about that that first proved to me what an antisemitic swine you are, like Jesse Jackson and Mel Gibson.
By the way, a statement of fact is not "playing a card." I think Red Phillips, through indifference, is going to get a lot of my relatives killed. But you, like Jack in Wi., are the genuwine jackbooted article.
Stan Redmond| 6.22.11 @ 9:58AM
I have worked with many Europeans. They are fascinated when they visit my manufacturing shop (not big by any means). They don't understand how I can wire up a new lathe, pull some metal off a bin, turn on the machine, and build a part without any drawings. Something that takes me 1 hour alone would take a month. "American's aren't scared to do everything like we are." I thought was a compliment. Of course to the liberal socialist elites liek Obama, I'm taking jobs. I should have hired a crew of 15 union electricians to wire in my machinery, I should have had a union teamster unload the metal from my bin, I should have had 3 union machinist journeymen and 8 machinist apprectices, 5 inspecting engineers, 12 union engineers each with 2 draughftsmen to give me drawigns. We can't forget an army of lawyers to make sure I followed every single regulation and EPA mandates.
Libs have no clue. Old Europe has doomed herself. What is scary, everytime they take this path, they start another war amongst themselves.
Pelligrino| 6.22.11 @ 10:05AM
DC said it above. There is no faith in Europe. Oh sure, a few active churches the size of house churches.
Christianity and the Bible are openly mocked. And this mockery is loudest from the government elites, party bosses, ultra business class, and university dons.
If Europeans had their butts in pews on Sunday morning instead of sleeping off their hangovers and 'til 4 a.m. disco adventures, well, they just might be applying things like useful life wisdom from the book of Proverbs.
There is lots of pearls of wisdom (God's wisdom) in Proverbs to help avert the Eurozone dead end.
Ever notice how terribly old the disco crowd can be in places throughout Italy, Greece, and Spain? Dudes with gray and wrinkles shakin' it. And it's hip to do U-40 (means over 40) retro disco jams throughout Germany, Switzerland, and Austria now. So the 55 year old hip replacement crowd is out on the dance floor at 2 a.m. and dead asleep Sunday at 10 a.m. when they should be hearing God's Word preached in church sanctuaries.
Hedonism has its consequences. Ignore and reject God at one's individual and collective peril.
(Are we gaining any what-not-to-do lessons from Europe?)
This is why we must oppose the Obamskies. He mocked me, Christian faith, and God when he said, "Those clinging to their God...."
USSAlabama| 6.22.11 @ 10:14AM
The keyword in this article is "Unaware". Telling.
Petronius| 6.22.11 @ 10:17AM
Our traditional concept of Freedom, consisting of achieving economic independence through accomplishment, has been displaced. Today, freedom is not having to do anything for one's self. People want the baby life without any responsibility. And politicians revel in their cultivation of it. Now that the break point is almost here, the ones who launched the last wave of welfare programs are jumping ship. Europe does have a viable industrial base, as do we. But there is only one route to salvation which our populations are loathe to take: Grow Up! Get out of the sandbox, and get the sandbox out of your minds. Prosperity is possible only if the majority seeks excellence and takes risks instead of equality and the overweening authority required to maintain it. Oddly enough, Europe still has some life in it. Want the finest stereo? Buy Electrocompaniet from Norway. Want the best shotgun? Get a Perazzi o/u. Care to set the most luxurious table? Royal Doulton and Edinburgh Chrystal are still here. I won't get into after dinner tipples. Single Malt Whiskies are for another thread.
Handy| 6.22.11 @ 10:27AM
But I want my whiskey now!!! Could you put in this baby bottle, please?
Gary| 6.22.11 @ 10:30AM
Spoiled, lazy brats one and all, and decadent to boot.
cicero| 6.22.11 @ 11:50AM
What Sen Paul decries as the European desease - entitlements to death - bears a remarkable similarity to the malady of our government workers. They are guaranteed employment at high wages, with excessive time off, and early retirement with pension programs that make it foolish to continue to work. Productivity is never an issue, and whether anyone wants them to do what they are doing never enters the picture. Add to that the fact that they are growing e xponentially in number, and we have Greece in the making. Staring at the debt limit is keeping our eye off the apple. We have to starve the beast, and cut the size of government - at all levels.
PolishKnight| 6.22.11 @ 1:14PM
During commie times in the former USSR, there was a term for "government workers": Party members. Everyone worked for the state, of course, but if you wanted one of the good jobs you had to be a party member.
This is largely the case in the USA where most government workers are socialists who favor fantastic benefits for themselves. Even as they talk about equality and protecting "workers", they really mean themselves. Those who aren't in their clubs are second class citizens by law.
This almost sounds like a Yakov Smirnoff routine, but in the former USSR being one of the privileged government workers/party members meant having a whole list of perks not available to the common schmoe: You got to go to state stores such as GUM populated with fantastic goods at great prices. You got to stay at fancy hotels. Think about the comparison of the USSR to say, Obamacare with it's two tiered service. If you're one of the proles, you basically get a government controlled HMO. If you're in a government union, however, you get the "cadillac" plan and go to whichever doctor you desire and probably on your own schedule.
Even as the left says that the current western European socialist system is far superior to all that, keep in mind that they are competing with the USA in a kind of cold war. They can't openly shut down unPC newspapers or save money by cutting all benefits to the their second class citizens and political dissidents because then the journalists in the USA, namely Foxnews, would turn them in (while the NYT/ABC/CBS would ignore such human rights abuses until "fauxnews" broke a "worthless story.")
The left is now in a huge rush to take down the USA before their utopia shows it's cracks.
Renaissance Nerd | 6.22.11 @ 2:36PM
Greedy young things, eh? I can't imagine taking to the street saying 'I want mine, and damn everyone else!' We saw that in Madison just recently too. Oh, they use other phrases, and spout nonsensical platitudes, but it all boils down to a very disgusting form of greed. They make pre-ghost Scrooge look generous.
Sardonikus| 6.22.11 @ 3:02PM
On a personal level, I have had nothing but positive, meaningful, and friendly relationships with every European I have ever encountered. I even counted an old DDR communist as a friend, with whom I could discuss (European) football and philosophy over dinner at the local Greek restaurant outside of Mainz.
Yet, as a whole, the Europeans, especially the younger set, seem firmly gripped by a general rejection of every idea that has emerged from Western society throughout history (save Marxism, the most ineffective and malevolent idea to come out of ANY society). In a collective sense, they are acting like modern-day flagellants: masochistically bemoaning the perceived sins and inequities wrought by liberal Western thought, but all the while spreading the diseases of nihilism, socialism, and street violence, just as their medieval counterparts helped to spread the Plague.
Mistral| 6.22.11 @ 3:46PM
"...not-too-exacting jobs-for-life, free health-care, state-guaranteed minimal-incomes, six weeks paid annual vacation, early-retirement, and generous state-provided pensions...."
= LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
Mistral| 6.22.11 @ 3:57PM
I have spent most of my professional career overseas away from the still welfare-ridden but no longer union-dominated UK. I have performed contract to contract and made a good living without being rich. I have been back in France for 6 months and I am leaving soon for a job overseas once again in my late fifties. I have definitely had it with Europe for good. The EU is destroying Europe forever and the individual state welfare systems are now being bankrupted by millions of outsiders who have never contributed to them in the first place, including the usual gamut of immigrants.
Good-bye EU and Europe - you are in terminal decline. Those of us who are ready to risk-take, are creative in our work and who actually labour industriously have been too heavily penalised by your learned helplessness system of welfarism and ever-swelling numbers of "professional" layabouts who sponge off this inegalitarian system. It is the hard workers and generators of wealth who have always paid for this tyranny of the socially resentful and the bone-idle.
Handy| 6.22.11 @ 4:42PM
Best of luck to you. Let us know where you land.
Occam's Tool| 6.22.11 @ 6:05PM
Go to the US, Mistral, and good luck!
YeloStalyn| 6.22.11 @ 5:24PM
This article, and one the other day about SS here in America, both point to the youth being lazy and not willing to fix the problem. That may be true enough... but isn't that nothing more than kicking the can down the road?
The youth, if they understood the problem, would rightly say, "Screw you" and end the government handouts despite how much somone may have "paid into the system their whole life." After all, it's the kids money that's getting stolen. The only real answer is for them to essentially "take it back" by no longer giving it up in the first place and not letting anyone take it for any longer.
Why aren't these articles about how those in power (the baby boomer generation, here and abroad) should take the onus and fix the problem now by giving up on taking what isn't theirs to take? It's because it's nothing more than kicking the can down the road to a group of people that have such a dark and bleak future ahead of them that they've already given up. Can you blame them? Any time anyone wants to "fix" these problems, they are marginalized and labled "extremist." And the kids grew up hearing that... who's to blame? The student for learning what he was taught or the teacher for teaching it?
When grandparents say, "I love my grandchildren enough to STOP stealing from them," then we can hope to see change. Until that happens... the powerless (the youth... the only real power they have right now is revolt... and when that's your only power you feel fairly helpless because revolt is not a natural inclination and man would rather suffer than die unless motivated by some other, greater "ideal" that has to be shared by enough people that "hope" can be found and make the risk seem worth while) will continue to follow the example they have in front of them... vote for handouts at someone else's expense.
I'm not saying that's right... or that I agree. Just saying that it's not hard to understand WHY they are the way they are. And failure to see that means we're not going to have a snowball's chance.
Slingshot| 6.22.11 @ 7:06PM
Did the author really mean to write about European youths' "straightened financial circumstances?"
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Did the author really mean to write about European youths' "straightened financial circumstances?"
Laine| 6.24.11 @ 2:14PM
Socialism appears to "work" only as long as there is a large enough non-socialist entity to suck on to pay socialism's ever growing list of dependents. Internationally, impoverished socialist nations are fed by countries with significant free markets remaining. Nationally, as in the example of Canada the socialist province of Quebec (where the French majority have followed France's ruinous policies) is allowed to buy socialist Welfare candy it cannot afford with billions sucked out of less socialist provinces under a federal government "equalization" program. Less formally in the USA federal taxes from less socialist states go disproportionately to the failing socialist states and socialist vehicles like unions. The problem in all these scenarios is that socialists inevitably drain and over regulate the golden goose of free markets to death and therefore run out of other people's money to distribute as Maggie Thatcher so memorably put it. Socialists have no idea how to make money, only how to seize it and redistribute it to people they have taught to be dependent. Eventually their gargantuan needs overwhelm the source of money that has subsidized their fantasy world.
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