Headline from the New York Times: ' Payback Time: Deficit Crisis Threatens Ample Benefits of European Countries '

[Earlybird]

Excerpt:

''Across Western Europe, the ?lifestyle superpower,? the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.

Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism.

Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated higher taxes into a cradle-to-grave safety net. ?The Europe that protects? is a slogan of the European Union.

But all over Europe governments with big budgets, falling tax revenues and aging populations are experiencing rising deficits, with more bad news ahead.

With low growth, low birthrates and longer life expectancies, Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle, at least not without a period of austerity and significant changes. The countries are trying to reassure investors by cutting salaries, raising legal retirement ages, increasing work hours and reducing health benefits and pensions. "

Full story here:

www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/world/europe/23europe.html?hp

Your thoughts?

I agree that Europeans will have to significantly tighten their belts for the next decade. But does the New York Times think it doesn't have to apply the same logic to the USA?

US National Debt Clock

Having just watched the Michael Moore film "Capitalism.." the other night then I don't think the US can hold itself up as a paragon of virtue.

"protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella."

I don't trust the Yanks they wouldn't lift a finger unless there was money/oil involved and since when was the US the sole funder of NATO?.

As for the rest thats a lot of stone throwing from a country with the largest national debt in the world.

I think the writer should look at it from a different view and see how disgusting it looks to the rest of the world when we see massive lines of sick people at charity run clinics hoping for medical treatment in the richest country in the world.