It's been a while...
Anyway, the NYT has an article about how fundamentally unsustainable the welfare state model of democracy is.
Payback Time - Deficit Crisis Threatens Ample Benefits of European Life - NYTimes.com
The article hits a few interesting themes, but the most important are how pensions and healthcare are such large drags on the public purse, and that the ratio of employed workers (who pay for those benefits) to retirees (who receive the benefits) will fall from 8-10 in many EU countries (and the US) to something like 1.3.
Didn't we just pass a small healthcare measure aimed at helping the poor, while we have a minor demographic bubble growing in the US? Just like Europe? Oh.
I'll leave the last word on this post to the Greek bookstore worker interviewed in the article about the crisis...
In Athens, Mr. Iordanidis, the graduate who makes 800 euros a month in a bookstore, said he saw one possible upside. “It could be a chance to overhaul the whole rancid system,” he said, “and create a state that actually works."
Guess we'll have to wait a bit more to reform our own rancid system.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
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