Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Is Europe driving itself off the socialist cliff?

From the Washington Post:
ATHENS -- The massive emergency fund assembled to defend the value of the euro is backed by a political gamble with an uncertain outcome: that European governments will rewrite a post-World War II social contract that has been generous to workers and retirees but has become increasingly unaffordable for an aging population.

The trillion-dollar program, to be underwritten largely by the 16 nations that use the euro and by the International Monetary Fund, represents a virtual discarding of Europe's rule book.
In other words, socialism in Europe may be failing. Hey, I've got a great idea: now that Europe is about to go financially belly-up because of socialism, let's try it here and see if we can get it to work!

Oh. Wait. Somebody has already thought of that.

Nevermind.

HT: Gene Edward Vieth

1 comment:

Lee said...

The Bank of London says we're next.

Incentives win again. The incentive of a politician is to pander and promise more and better and "free" everything. The incentive of the individual recipient of the largesse is to get his. The country, like a gaffed shark snapping at his own entrails, consumes itself.

The free market always was an accident of history. It required sober statesmen who understood the limits of human wisdom, who respected God and his fellow man, and believed that a government can intervene too much and too often. Try doing that without a Christian ethos. The President proclaimed, "We are not a Christian nation," almost gleefully. It's amazing that one can be content to decree that one's nation has decided to join the ranks of the cursed nations, but that's what we did.

It somehow reminds me of the end of Mozart's Don Giovanni, where the statue of Il Commendatore comes to life and drags Don toward the fiery pit where Hell awaits. "Repent!" demands the statue, making it clear what are the consequences of not repenting. "Never!" shouts Don, though petrified with fear and dread.

We know what lies waiting for us in the endgame, but are powerless to control our urges.