August 16, 2011
The Poisoned Fruit of Social Democracy
By Steve McCann
It is difficult not to notice that most of the financial, economic and societal problems making headlines in the world today are centered in Europe and the United States. The reality is that the "West" has finally reached the point of saturation wherein its economies and societies can no longer afford to guarantee a certain standard of living for the citizens of these countries in exchange for votes.
These nations have two factors in common: 1) they are all either confirmed to be or determined (as in the case of the United States) to become socialist democracies; and 2) they have evolved into overwhelmingly consumption-based societies, greatly diminishing their goods-producing sector (which generates the real wealth of a nation), thus eroding their job-creation ability as well as the nation's wealth and tax base. Yet the governments of all these countries continue to deficit spend, over-tax (chasing wealth and job-creation off-shore) and borrow in an effort to meet the expectations of the people.
This never ending downward cycle is about to crash as the central banks in Europe and the United States cannot continue to, in essence, print money and guarantee the balance sheets of the banks and government debts of the various nations caught up in this maelstrom.
It is the exception that a country in this sphere is not facing long or short-term insolvency. A cursory review of the American Thinker National Insolvency Index (10 being the benchmark with the index above 10 for three or more years indicating a severe potential of insolvency and near intractable societal problems) is a follows for a variety of countries in the West including some that are recently in the headlines. (
http://americanthinker.com/articles/2011/08/the_bitter_fruit_of_insolvency.html)
2009 Index
2010 Index
2011 Index
Spain
26.1
29.7
24.3
Greece
24.8
20.2
24.3
Ireland
24.4
45.7
24.6
Portugal
19.8
20.2
21.7
United States
19.1
18.5
19.7
United Kingdom
16.7
18.6
17.2
France
16.6
17.6
17.5
Italy
13.6
13.8
17.2
The higher the Index above 10, the greater the problems that country is experiencing and viable solutions to solve these dilemmas will be increasingly difficult to enact. This has been proven out in the budget fights in Washington D.C. and the failed attempts to pass austerity packages in the various capitals of Europe.
http://www.americanthinker.com/prin...8/the_poisoned_fruit_of_social_democracy.html
