Spain On Course To Elect Conservative As PM...

You do understand that ‘conservative’ in Europe is not the same as ‘conservative’ in the United States, yes?

Actually it is. You're thinking of Republican and Democratic parties in other countries.

Conservatism and Liberalism in the united states is mostly similar to that in Europe. The one exception is that Liberals and conservatives both tend to be more to the right in America than their counterparts in other countries.

Correcting myself. I think when it comes to Spain and Italy, it's different and in a reference to liberal-conservatism. But for most of the European countries, conservatives tend to be right-wing.
 
There has been talk of Spain's Debt vis a vis other countries.

Here is a table to show how they fit. Spain is in better shape than the US. Ratio is 51 vs 63. They are a lot better off than Greece (147%) and Italy (100%)

What this sort of tells me is that there is more to the story than just taxes and debt. 25% unemployment testifies to some really severely stupid regulations involved that need revising. They could build a high speed rail from Valencia to Lisbon and still not move unemployment an inch if it is other than spending, taxes, or debt that is causing them problems.
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The software here automatically resizes pictures. You can download it and look at if off line if you want to read it. Sorry about it being hard to read.
 
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Interesting thing to notice about that chart. Some places have been really packing on, like Korea and Greece. Chile is paying its debt down. But the US has been really packing on. Packing on debt seems to be a universal sin right now.
 
I thought this was pretty interesting. Europe seems to be moving away from the Socialist Nanny State while we continue to move towards it.


Spain on course to elect a conservative as PM. Mariano Rajoy of People's Party is expected to unseat Socialists and make Spain the third Euro country to change leader...


Spain's veteran conservative leader, who appears to be on course to be elected as prime minister at his third attempt on Sunday, has expressed hope that financial markets will relax their pressure on Madrid.

Mariano Rajoy, leader of the People's party (PP), spoke out as the interest on Spanish debt remained above 6% for a fifth day running, ahead of an election being carefully followed across Europe.

"We hope this [pressure] stops and that people realise there's an election here and that the party that wins has the right to a minimum margin," the PP leader told Onda Cero radio in remarks reported by the Associated Press.

Elena Salgado, the Spanish finance minister, said investors were wrong to target Spain because its overall debt-to-GDP ratio of around 70% was manageable. "We are seeing systematic attacks on our sovereign debt," Salgado told Cadena Ser radio. "Today it is Spain, yesterday it was Italy, the day before that it could have been Belgium, and tomorrow it could be any other country."

Rajoy, who first challenged for the premiership in 2004, is expected to unseat the Socialists on Sunday amid widespread unhappiness with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has announced he will stand down after the vote.

Spain on course to elect a conservative as PM | World news | The Guardian

The conservatives will win in Spain. Greece’s socialists where also replaced last week. The only socialist countries left in europe are:Austria,Slovenia,Denmark and Norway.

The rest are conservatives. In fact europe has never been so dominated by the conservatives as no. Europe moves to the right, america moves to the left.

In the link you can see the changing political map of europe.
Left, right, left: the changing face of EU politics - interactive | World news | guardian.co.uk
 
Well, Merkel is on her way out. She is just holding on by the skin of her teeth till the voters start to chill over what happened in Greece. The SPD doesn't want to force an election, as they might wind up the 4th party.
 
Denmark is a place where stoic locals wear sensible shoes and snack on herring sandwiches.

EWWWW far far from all Danes eat herring sandwiches... that is more the Norwegians. Naw we love our pate (leverwurst), smørbrød (smorgsbroed) and of course... BEER!

Sure, they produce the occasional supermodel, but its most famous countryman may be the late entertainer Victor Borge.

Hmm well..depends on where in the world we are. If you are in Europe then places like Spain and Italy have heard of Simonsen, Laudrup and Eljkaer... footballers... heck Laudrup is well know in most of the world if you are a football fan. But Victor Borge.. who?

As for the US.. I would wager that Lars Ulrich (you know.. from Metalica..) is better know than Victor Borg :) Other than that, depends on who and where in the US.. Vitus Bering is very well know (or should be) in Alaska.. since the strait between Russia and Alaska is named after him.. Or Niels Bohr if you are a science geek.. Bjarne Stroustrup if you program C++ (inventor), Tycho Brahe if you like planets, or Jørn Utzon (Sydney Opera House).. the list goes on and on.

Danes do have one potential complaint: high taxes. The happiest people in the world pay some of the highest taxes in the world -- between 50 percent and 70 percent of their incomes.

Not exactly correct. We have a progressive tax system. The highest income tax is 51.5% for anything earned over 70k US dollar a year. The first 7800 dollars are tax free for everyone, and from 7801 dollars to 70k dollars there are different tax brackets.. so in reality the actual tax burden is between 30 and 42% depending on what you earn. On top of that comes of course VAT and other taxes but in no way does that push the tax burden up to 70% for anyone.

In exchange, the government covers all health care and education, and spends more on children and the elderly than any country in the world per capita. With just 5.5 million people, the system is efficient, and people feel "tryghed" -- the Danish word for "tucked in" -- like a snug child.

Denmark: The Happiest Place on Earth - ABC News

This is one of those hmmm moments. Yes the Danes use government to fund healthcare, education and so on, which means high taxes. However spending the most does not mean it is expensive. Our healthcare system for example costs considerable less than the US system... the US nearing 18% of GDP and Denmark is at 11.5% of GDP. Our education system also is far cheaper and provides a better result both education wise but especially income inequality wise. For a Dane there are zero barriers to become whatever you want. There is no financial barrier or social barrier. The only barrier is your grades and intellect.. and that is up to you. This in turn makes it very easy for children to become something more than their parents. My father was born into a steel welder worker family and he because of this system became an engineer, something that would have been impossible for his father who followed his father into the manual labour system.

So instead of being a negative as you state (or ABC), then it is in fact a positive from a cost wise and society wise... and one of the reasons Danes are so happy.

Funny that ABC did not mention the number one complaint... the weather. Guess they visited Denmark in the summer :)
 
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