Posted on 11/04/2004 11:26:04 AM PST by Ahriman
Europe's efforts to become the world's most competitive economy have failed, and the European social model faces collapse unless the Continent's governments stimulate growth and create more jobs, according to a report published Wednesday. The initiative, drawn up by Wim Kok, former Dutch prime minister, measures progress on the so-called Lisbon Agenda, which European Union countries introduced in 2000 with a goal of making Europe the world's most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010. But since then "the growth gap with North America and Asia has widened," the report says. The gloomy assessment blames national governments for the failure, and it calls on each of the 25 EU countries to publish new national targets for reform, and a timetable for meeting them. The European Commission would be given the role of naming and shaming countries that failed to meet the targets. "If we don't focus strongly on growth, productivity and employment, we will not provide the means to keep the social model," Kok said in an interview following the publication of the report.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
But, but, our governments raised taxes many times and injected money into the economy! How could that be wrong?
Couldn't be that slow growth rate due to over taxation! Maybe taxes are too low... Raise them again!
Socialism does not "stimulate growth and create more jobs..."
Mikey, we were separated at birth! :)
"the growth gap with North America"
Stay on the porch if you can't run with THE big dog.
They aren't going to change their ways...just lower their goals! That's the Euros we all love.
Sounds like the new alternative to the Soviets' infamous five year plan.
Get my point, commrade?
I think you are right! LOL
Yet more proof that nationalized healthcare and massive entitlement programs coupled with high taxes yields a third tier economy.
Thank God Kerry did not win.
The French and Germans can fix this easily!! All they have to do is vote themselves waivers, fudge the numbers so they meet objectives, maybe, boost employment by cutting the work week to 25-30 hours and, easy-peasy, the problem is cured!!
Which, in turn, is due to their extensive technocratic states.
In democrat-speak that's "investing" in the economy. Too bad their method of "investing" causes the "economy stock" to plummet.
Europe has as much a chance of becoming an economic powerhouse as the Democratic Party has of becoming honest.
Europe's time is over. Its European demographics are all down hill while Moslems and other third worlders breed like rabbits in their countries.
They could get 'em from Turkey. And Syria, and Saudi Arabia...
I can't get 4 of my friends to agree on what to put on a pizza and they are going to get 25 countries to agree on how to stimulate growth and employment? Please...
Could it be that the social model prevents these things?
Gee. Who would have seen THIS coming?
Northwestern Europe is not so much "socialist" as it is "technocratic."
The Command Economy strikes again!
Hey Euros, just ask your comrades in the USSR.
Ripe for Islamic radicals to slither into power.
Unless they figure out a way to have more - or kill fewer - babies, they are doomed no matter what else they may try.
Well, isn't the same thing happening here with all the illegal immigration and the billions we spend to support them and the businesses that employ them for minimal dollars? Our budget deficits continue to climb into hundreds of billions per year and we have over 50 Trillion in "unfunded liabilities' neither party has the guts to talk about which is just a time bomb waiting to happen......so we have very little to crow about.
... which they are unlikely to do through public-sector strategies such as higher taxes and creeping socialism. Their only salvation is capitalism, which means hanging their heads and admitting that they've been wrong all along.
That's why they need Commissars in Brussels to tell them what to do.
i.e. The latest "5 year plan" of the Commisariat has not fullfilled its goals!
It was beginning to be over when the Civil War ended. It was over by 1895.
I fail to see the difference. Perhaps you could elucidate.
Socialism is a political theory; technocracy is a pseudoscience.
(Maybe there isn't a difference.)
Do I smell... troll?
time will tell
An alternate view has just come out in book form, pimped by NPR: The United States Of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremecy
by T. R. Reid.
Look at it's review at Amazon, and you will have instant cognitive dissonance. Europeans love their welfare state and think the US is barbaric for not having one. Europeans devote substantially less of their GNP to the military, because the US protects them, so they sneer at military solutions to anything.
Conclude that this thinking is erroneous, but at least be aware of it.
LOL! Don't expect the lemmings on this thread to understand what you said.
I'm always hopeful that at some point folks will begin to understand the reality of our situation vs. the fluff, swill and the smoke & mirrors crap spewed by these POLI(many)- TIC(blood sucker) -IANS and their useful mediots.
That my friend is the quote of the day...lol.
I think you missed the point of the story. Unless they stimulate growth and employment the social welfare system will collapse.
Don't think those countries will have much of a choice because it's becoming more apparent that when they signed on to the EU they relinquished some of their sovereignty to the newly formed commissions. From some of the reading I've done, there are severe penalties for any country that doesn't fall in line with the wishes of the different governing EU commissions. I think there's a pretty good battle going on over there regarding acceptance of a new EU constitution also. Something to watch because the new FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) will probably be fashioned after the EU.
If Europe is going to achieve their economic goals they need to get serious about taxing themselves into prosperity...
More taxes and benefits for everyone!
Europe loves John Kerry and he has a plan, it's a match made in heaven.
That is exactly what went through my head... Their solution? More government programs. Wasn't "sustainable development" (euphemism for governmnt interference) part of the plan?
Socialism is an inherent evil. There can be no debate about that. We have all the data we need.
Yep. And I suspect it will meet with the same success.
"If we don't focus strongly on growth, productivity and employment, we will not provide the means to keep the social model," Kok said...
If we substitute "growth, productivity and employment" with "Capitalism", and "social model" with "socialism", the equation becomes: If we don't have capitalism, we won't be able to keep socialism!
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