Europeans fear crisis threatens liberal benefits

by Bob Weeks on May 24, 2010

As the United States moves to a social welfare state emulating many European countries, this cautionary article from the New York Times ought to be read.

PARIS – 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.

Continue reading at the New York Times.

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