Social Model Is Europe’s Solution, Not Its Problem

[marmar]

(Bloomberg) In the wake of the financial crisis, Europe’s leaders are calling the continent’s social model into question -- it is “done,” according to European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. That’s a travesty.

The crisis is, above all, financial. Yet governments aren’t addressing the malfunctions that caused this problem. Instead, they are forcing ordinary people to pay and attacking the social systems that support them.

Take the example of Greece. The country is being pushed to accept an austerity plan of unprecedented severity, predicated on reducing public spending and slashing salaries, pensions and social systems in the most brutal way. This has forced the country into an economic, social and political crisis that will last for many years.

These policies are initiated not by Greeks but by European Union officials in Brussels, at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, or in London, where the U.K. government continues to block proposed measures to fund a recovery, such as a Europe- wide tax on financial transactions. These ideas are modeled on the austerity plans that were imposed on the countries of Latin America in the 1970s and ’80s, and they are suicidal. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-22/social-model-is-europe-s-solution-not-its-problem.html

[Zax2me]

1. Not from the footage I've seen...

But, spin away.

[marmar]

2. Umm, the footage you've seen wasn't caused by the social model, but attempts to rip it apart.

So spew ill-informed BS, anyway.

[DirkGently]

3. Sure. Unfettered capitalism blows up the world economy. Socialism naturally is to blame.

(sarcasm)