Comments on: Europe’s Middle Class Stagnant

By: jtb-in-texas

jtb-in-texas — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:29:49 +0000

I think it proves that ~~leftist~~, excuse me, progressive government policies can be seen to destroy the wealth of the working classes... But what do I know? I'm just a Conservative...

By: Diggs

Diggs — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:29:47 +0000

"Instead, Ms. Salgado cut her fish purchases to once a week, switched to supermarket brands and away from health-food stores, and halved her visits to the psychotherapist. She spends some weekends with her children, Violeta, 9, and Juan, 4, at her ex-husband’s parents’ home in the countryside — a stressful arrangement, but one that enables her to avoid expensive weekends in Madrid." Wow, having to vacation in the countryside while cutting in half the number of visits to the psychotherapist! These poor folk would cling to guns and religion had they not voted away the right to own the former, and evolved past the ability to understand the latter.

By: C.Wagener

C.Wagener — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:34:14 +0000

Perhaps Europe is simply embracing Rev. Wright's philosophy and rejecting middleclassness.

By: Grewgills

Grewgills — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:18:44 +0000

Potentially more disturbing — especially to the political and social order — are the millions across the continent grappling with the realization that they may have lives worse, not better, than their parents.

On the bright side their lives will almost definitely be far more prosperous for far less work than that of their grandparents.

In recent years, the American Left has pointed to similar trends in the United States and blamed deregulation, a flattened tax code, and other public policy decisions which have had the effect of letting the very successful keep more of their money while leaving those lower on the economic scale unprotected and having to compete with Third World labor. That essentially the same thing is happening in Europe, where even the most conservative governments are well to the left of any mainstream American Democrat and socialization of the economy is much more pervasive, would seem an indication that public policy is not the primary factor.

The policy trends are much the same in Europe as well, though the starting and ending points are different than in the US.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:58:06 +0000

One of the policies involved is immigration policy. You can't expect to import large numbers of uneducated peasants and expect your social structure to remain stable.

However, I'm not quite as desperate about the situation as many seem to be. Similar things were said about the Irish peasantry who came here in numbers 150 years ago and the Italian and Eastern European peasants who came a century ago. We adapted and our European cousins can, too. I think they'll have a harder time because their societies are more inclined to define themselves ethnically.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:43:30 +0000

Over the period of the last 30 years there have been a number of policy decisions and technological developments that have worked synergistically to provide an advantage to the ownership of assets over labor. Capital has become much more efficient. It's a worldwide phenomenon—not limited to the United States, to the U. S. and Europe, or even to OECD nations.

There's no way to roll back the technology and trying to do so would be damaging but I think that changing the policies a little would probably be prudent. The concern, of course, is that policies would be changed too much and be too economically disruptive.