Europe on the Brink

The following short documentary is a very good overview of the grave economic situation in Europe.  It was produced by the Wall Street Journal and it points to stark decisions that need to be made very quickly.  I have been reminded for the past twenty five years from my European friends that the USA was a Darwinian society without an adequate safety net for the poor or the proper social welfare benefits for the middle class.  For a long period the European system worked very well making a mockery of my protests in arguments that an entrepreneurial society was a better choice than a welfare state society.  However, to use an old phrase....the chickens have come home to roost throughout the EU.

Well, we were all wrong.  My entrepreneurial society was a mirage...or maybe an ideal.... of what the USA had the potential to become but I ignored the implications of a national security state married to global financial interests.  It is difficult to have a prosperous society where the wealth is spread around when at the same time millions of jobs are being exported to Asia along with substantial wealth.  A couple of decades of criminal financial greed and global martial hubris have destroyed the great potential of the USA at the end of the Cold War.  Our political class has no answers or solutions with the GOP candidates arguing over who will bomb Iran first.......and they are all Christians to boot...except for Mitt Romney who has yet to convince the evangelical voters that he is not a member of a cult.

Unfortunately, we have seen a serious decline in the standard of living on both continents with no end in sight.  The governments lie and say there is no inflation but the average consumer is confronted with sticker shock every time they walk into a supermarket, gas station or department store.  The middle class is being squeezed by powerful interests who are intentionally destroying one of the greatest societies in human history.

Radical solutions are required if there is a chance to escape the abyss but the European politicians cannot obtain quick consensus.  In many ways the current EU is similar to the USA under the Articles of Confederation before the adoption of the US Constitution.  Unfortunately, in the USA, the Constitution has been subverted.  Ron Paul came in third tonight in the Iowa so there is hope that he can rally enough citizens to force change.   I hope he runs as a third party candidate.