SUICIDE-THE EURO -AUSTERITY AND EUROPE

9/10/2012

This is a must read article how austerity measures in European

countries suicides up 40%

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/10/business/italy-economy-suicide/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

Joe

Just a caution - the United States is not a small European Country that you can drive across in one day. It is a major economic and military power with global influence. The United States has the most productive work force in the world. That means we don't have 35 hour work weeks, eight weeks mandated summer vacation and pensioned retirement at 55. Our meager insurance programs do not provide for long-term recovery in a health spa following plastic surgery (which I understand has been eliminated in some countries). We don't provide government funded child care. Our taxes are small and we do not have a value added tax. Our opportunities for people to find work in diverse industries is greater than in individual European countries. We live in urban cities and sprawling countrysides, and our states are as diverse as our people. Housing costs in Europe are much higher than in many states here; dwellings are smaller. Automobile ownership is not as widespread and the taxes associated with licenses and insurance are quite high. Gasoline has always been very high. We have always risen from adversity when cool heads prevail.

Added to DK's caution, I might add that although there are similarities between European countries, they are still different. Making a case "for all" when discussing one country in particular is misleading and usually creates false assumptions. Part of the problem with the EU is trying to bring them all under an pre-determined economic umbrella. For some countries it can work, for others, it just won't work. How people conduct business in general varies widely. Sometimes what some do doesn't appear to make sense, yet they get the result they seek. Can you imagine what would happen if each US State operated independently and had to be self-sufficient? Consider that some countries in Europe are the size of a single US State. Pulling them together as a European Union is no easy task considering different languages and mentalities. One can expect problems, but to take any problem and try to make a case that it applies to everyone equally is nonesense.

9/11/2012

I think each country in Europe should have stayed with

their own currency, England was the only one that did.

In this country in the 1700's each colony had it's own

currency this caused a major headache when you went from

NY to say Virginia you had to change money, so the new Govt.

decided it had to be one currency for everyone, can you imagine

today if 50 states each had their own currency, chaos !

Cheers...Joe...

Joe, you supplied the answer to your own comments. It is why a common currency was instituted in Europe.