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Europe is now drowning under the cost of welfare bills

Europe is now drowning under the cost of welfare bills thumbnail
Pensioners count the money in their pocket
The UK’s total spending on social protection is only slightly below the European average at 16.5pc of GDP Credit: Ian Jones

When she isn’t shipping in more Syrian refugees, or trying to find new ways to destroy the Greek economy, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is fond of quoting an alarming statistic: Europe accounts for just 7pc of the world’s population, and 25pc of its GDP, and yet it also accounts for a massive 50pc of its welfare spending.

The point is an important one. Europe’s welfare spending is out of control, and is on a scale that is both lavish and unaffordable compared with the rest of the world. There is a problem, however. Neither she, nor any other political leader in Europe, has the will to do anything about it.

Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, has this week published updated figures on the total welfare bill across Europe. It is rising, and in some countries is getting up to a quarter of national output. Meanwhile, the percentage of spending on stuff like infrastructure or education, which increase an economy’s potential output, is falling.

So long as that is true, it is very hard to see anything other than a bleak future for any of Europe’s economies.

If you dip into the blogs, there is a mildly entertaining debate about whether Merkel’s often-quoted figures are correct. On close inspection, it turns out that nations that make up the EU currently account for 7.2pc of the world’s population and a shade over a quarter of total output. When the World Bank crunched the numbers on social spending, however, it found that in fact Europe accounts for a massive 58pc of global welfare spending.

What is certainly true is that Europe’s welfare budget has turned into a juggernaut that is careering out of control.

On the World Bank data, the United States accounts for 18.8pc of global welfare spending, as you might expect from the world’s biggest economy. But Germany, around a third of its size, currently spends 12.5pc of the global total. France, a smaller country still, accounts for 9.9pc. The UK racks up close on 7pc. Contrast that with some far bigger, and faster- growing, countries. China, with 20 times our population, accounts for 2.4pc of the total. Russia accounts for 2pc and India just 0.6pc.

Piggy bank

 

According to Eurostat, the total cost of welfare across the EU now amounts to 19.5pc of total GDP, compared with 17.5pc as recently as 2006. If you restrict that to the eurozone countries, the total rises to 20.5pc. In Denmark and France it is now close on 25pc.

For all that the Left complains about austerity in this country, our total spending on social protection is only slightly below the European average at 16.5pc of GDP. In controversial areas such as disability benefits, where the Government has now abandoned some modest cuts, we are in line with the EU average, spending 2.8pc of GDP. (Our welfare bill is only less than average because a fantastic performance on job creation means we spend just 0.2pc of GDP on unemployment, compared with a eurozone average of 1.8pc, and 2pc in a country such as France).

Overall, in almost every country, it is going up. With ageing populations, that is hardly likely to decrease – poverty-stricken Greece is now spending 15pc of GDP on pensions, and Italy 14pc. Europe is literally drowning under the cost of its welfare bills.

At the same time, spending on the things that might make the economy more productive is actually going down. Take infrastructure. Total spending on that across the EU has dropped to 2.7pc of GDP. The three biggest countries in the eurozone – Germany, France and Italy – have reduced their infrastructure spending by between 15pc and 20pc over the past decade.

Europe has a rich legacy of constructing buildings, bridges and transport links
Europe has a rich legacy of constructing buildings, bridges and transport links

 

That compares badly with the rest of the world. The United States is often criticised for the state of its airports and roads. But it is now spending 3.4pc of GDP on infrastructure. Japan is now spending 3.6pc. Europe spent plenty of money in the past, so there is a rich legacy of buildings, bridges and transport links. But if you don’t keep repairing those things, and don’t keep building new ones, they go into decline very quickly. Or take education. Spending on that is either stagnant or declining right across Europe. In Italy, for example, it has gone down from 4.6pc of GDP to 4.2pc since 2007. And yet all the evidence suggests higher spending on education improves the level of human capital and makes the economy more productive very quickly.

Across the EU, welfare spending is three times the total spending on the next biggest expense, healthcare, which accounts for just over 7pc of the total. At the same time, spending on things that might actually improve its long-term competitiveness is going down.

Of course, it is important to have welfare systems in place so that those in need are looked after. It is one of the hallmarks of a civilised society. No one wants to see the disabled left to fend for themselves or allow pensioners to remain in poverty. The trouble is that welfare spending is pure consumption. It does not represent any kind of investment and it doesn’t pay for itself. The money for it has to be found from the productive part of the economy, and it has to be raised somehow – the more you spend on it every year, the more you have to tax or borrow to keep the books in balance.  At a certain point, it becomes a drag on the productive economy.

Treasury

 

There are too few people producing stuff, and the levels of tax they are required too pay are too high to keep them motivated. You can debate where that point is, but a limit has to be set somewhere and at some point it has to stop rising.

Merkel gets many things wrong. But she is right about the levels of welfare spending being far too high. Until that starts to change it is hard to feel optimistic about the prospects for the European economy.

telegraph



66 Comments on "Europe is now drowning under the cost of welfare bills"

  1. forbin on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 8:46 am 

    yah right , the cream floats to the top

    lets re-write this to its correct version

    The trouble is that Elites spending is pure consumption. It does not represent any kind of investment and it doesn’t pay for itself. The money for it has to be found from the productive part of the economy called the working class, and it has to be raised somehow from them without them realizing their being fleeced – the more the Elites spend on themselves every year, the more they have to tax or borrow to keep the books in balance ( for themselves – government books dont count).

    At a certain point, the Elites becomes a drag on the productive economy.

  2. frankthetank on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 9:22 am 

    Just print more. Its so easy. Open the spreadsheet in Excel and enter more zeros. duh.

  3. Davy on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 9:48 am 

    Europe is an example of the unsustainable in multiple ways and one of the most glaring is its social compact. Nowhere do people live so well in a holistic way. I am referring to the size of the European area and population. You can cherry pick smaller examples. The end is near for prosperity in Europe and everywhere else it is just Europe has a long way to fall.

  4. Practicalmaina on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 10:09 am 

    I disagree Davy, they are more sustainable than the US in virtually every way. We may have more area and more resourses per capit but we are the kings at abusing said resourses.

  5. penury on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 10:14 am 

    When takers out number givers bad things happen. Bad days are coming. A lot of them.

  6. joe on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 10:32 am 

    Rather see welfare in the hands of an ungrateful ignorant jihadi refugee than as pork for the MIC to waste or given as free guns and bombs to the Jewish State or Saudis or Egyptians to bomb civilians with.
    How does Egypt justify its 1bln dollar a year check?

  7. twocats on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 10:40 am 

    labor plus energy inputs equal profits only if the labor costs and energy costs are low enough that the items produced can be sold at a profit.

    there are simply fewer and fewer instances where this equation is holding up. (and this is why debt levels refuse to go down). it’s not about laziness or productivity or where the products are made (though that would reduce the welfare aspect if each country made their own stuff by and large). its about the growing expense of energy itself. and even a low cost producer like china, which isn’t as constrained by issues of profitability, is having trouble finding work for all its workers.

  8. peakyeast on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 12:03 pm 

    I agree that Europe is drowning in expenses.

    But it is not the social pact – its the neverending growth of stupid rules and more bureaucrats coupled with an invasion of useless breeders.

    Our “clever” bureaucrats sought to solve the demographic problems by importing rabid religious goat herders and thinking there was no problem getting them to be useful in a high tech society.

    But the reality is that about 50% of the immigrants from MENA are just sitting on their flat ass claiming to be mentally sick. Somalis for example has a unemployment rate of 99%. – I.e. Utterly useless people – ALL of them. Even after living in Denmark for years they still breed 12 children and throw their garbage bags out the windows. And their 12 children grow up and go on social welfare.

    Btw. it has recently been video documented that the islamic witch doctors called imams actually teach their demented disciples how to cheat the system by faking mental diseases and urging them to stay home and not work.

    It was a vastly ignorant strategy and even in the face of almost complete failure they still cling to the “plan”.

  9. Davy on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 12:43 pm 

    PM, if you will read my comment again you will see I am not doing an anti-Merikan comparison. I am talking Europe and the global world in general. BTW, how well do you know Europe? Sounds like you want to make brownie points with the anti-Merikan sowing circle. Stick to the facts and avoid agenda and your message will be more moderate.

  10. Practicalmaina on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 3:00 pm 

    Peak yeast how many makers are in the us making things of vital importance? Farmers and doctors nurses teachers ambulance drivers firefighters and people making life and death medical devices, who else can’t we live with out? Ok in our current ago system we need the rockman, but this is a few% of the population that is not pointless takers. I see know value for a corporate lawyer unless they have a concious, which is rare, ditto for everything else in buisness.
    Davy, not trying to be anti American and an ass kiss, I just see Europe being friendlier to the earth and more catius about ago practices ect. They are overpopulated and struggling with a myriad of issues. I know Europe better than the average meridian but not as good as those Europeans 🙂

  11. Practicalmaina on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 3:07 pm 

    I don’t want to have to bring out the big guns and say I’m a Europe expert because I have consumed a beer from just about every European country. 😉 I think the argument about who is more screwed is pointless though, if you live in a coastal city with inaquate flood insurance, your screwed, if you live a ways from your food source you are probably not gonna do well wether you are in Asia Europe or Manhattan. You are in an area that stands to weather changes well, so am I IMHO.

  12. Go Speed Racer on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 4:19 pm 

    Liking what Forbin said.

    Also. Did ya ever notice the rabid right wingers are opposed to wealth redistribution — whenever it is taking money from the elites, and give to the wage slaves.

    However if the wealth redistribution is taking the money from the wage slaves, to give to the elites, then the rabid right wingers are A-OK with that.

  13. twocats on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 6:26 pm 

    Europe is an example of the unsustainable in multiple ways and one of the most glaring is its social compact. Nowhere do people live so well in a holistic way. [davy]

    that is an interesting way to put it Davy – they have such good lives, they are really going to suffer when it all collapses 🙂 i think the Germans have a word for that!!

    i think the confusion between PM and Davy was just the word “sustainable”. Davy wasn’t saying per capita wastefulness, but Europeans do live really well, and that standard of living is going to be hard to maintain. That’s not super controversial and I think PM would in general agree.

    The point PM is making , and I can confirm this for most “cultural” europeans (for peakyeast’s sake) I’ve met, visited, is that they are relatively modest in their material outlook and consumption patterns. Yes the overall standard of living is high, but having the fanciest, biggest toys just doesn’t carry as much social value as it does in the US. Not universally true, more of a cultural seam.

  14. HARM on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 7:55 pm 

    This is from the Daily Torygraph, so no big surprise. A more accurate headline would be “Europe is now drowning under the cost of Subsidizing a massive Housing/credit bubble and bailing out overleveraged banks”.

  15. makati1 on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 8:33 pm 

    The takers are growing in the Us as more than half of the population is either supported directly by payroll or financially subsidized by social safety nets like food stamps, unemployment, welfare, etc. Medicare and Medicare is growing outrageously thanks to Obamacare. Social security is growing slowly as it has been frozen for years.

    Most who are ’employed’ are trading services, not material goods. That will crash and burn soon as there will be no need for expensive coffee shops or manicures or even barbers. Not to mention financial advisors, bank tellers, dog walkers, landscapers, car washers, etc.

    The current drive towards a ‘cashless’ society is happening because TPTB know what is coming and they want TOTAL control of the sheeple. If they can freeze your debit/credit card so that you cannot buy necessities, like food, and there is no cash, you are screwed. Gold will likely be confiscated for the same excuses that they want cash banned. But it is all about TOTAL control.

    BTW: if you do the same numbers as a PER CAPITA comparison, you will likely find that the Us’ social costs are almost the same, per person, as Europe’s. Figures lie and liars figure. There are so many hidden subsidies in America that they may just exceed those of Europe where they are more in the open.

  16. makati1 on Thu, 24th Mar 2016 8:35 pm 

    “… more than half of the population is either supported directly by payroll…”

    Should be: “…more than half of the population is either supported directly by GOVERNMENT payroll…”

  17. kanon on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 12:10 am 

    The confusion between PM and Davy is that Davy, for all his usually intelligent posts, has fallen for the Europe baiting that is a consistent feature of US propaganda (freedom fries anyone?). The Wall Street and MIC elites do not want to lose any perks to a better life for the average Joe. The subject article is another example (Europe spends too much on its people), but clearly the Europeans have allowed the financial sector and NATO to become too influential.

  18. GregT on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 12:59 am 

    kanon,

    Davy is incapable of objectivity when it comes to the US empire. His indoctrination runs far too deep. Intelligent for sure, and worthy of respect, but he will probably never be able to separate himself from his nationalist programming. Many here have tried to get through to him, but he hates us all, and continues to call all of us anti-Americans. Even those among us, who are Americans.

  19. peakyeast on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 4:33 am 

    I can tell for certain that the majority of the Danish population looks towards USA with disbelief. We are stunned at how corrupt your leadership is. How you managed to ruin your society by focusing everything on greed and egotripping.

    The majority of the population would NEVER want to go to american standards of welfare or living. Actually many find the US disgusting when looking at how you treat those you stole the country from and the poor, disabled and so forth. Your legal system is a huge joke that has very little to do with justice. Your punishments are cruel and hysterical. Your police are mad killer dogs – not to serve citizens equally, with dignity and reason. And I could go on and on and on.

    US is a sociopathic egocentric society with a madman warmonger government – and that should be something for Europe to copy?

    Gotta be kidding me. We want nothing of your stuff. Thats something the 0.1%s want – and forunately its a long haul even for them to ruin European socialism.

  20. theedrich on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 4:55 am 

    Merkel’s middle name is really “Arschloch.”  She, like all the rest of the European elites, wants the White (but not the non-White) European population to go extinct ASAP.  The true aim of the vast squandering of Europe’s wealth on welfare is simply to keep the originally indigenous proles voting for their genosuicidist elites.  No one cares about the future, or about the fact that the Euro-idiots are eating their own seed grain.

    The financial exhaustion has already started around the European periphery, with the PIIGS becoming more desperate by the day.  But that makes no difference to the overlords.  The main thing is to keep the band playing.  On Thursday, 2014 March 24, Socialist par excellence Papa Frank, on a day of religious significance (“Maundy Thursday”) was scrubbing the feet of Muslims, Hindus and assorted other non-Christians to show just how ecumenical he was.  (Never mind that, according to his Gospel myth, Jesus washed the feet only of his Jewish disciples.)  It looks like the story that Frankie wants to fuse Christianity and Mohammedanism into a single Robin-Hood religion called “Chrislam” is correct.  Certainly the European elites are doing their best to replace their native populations with Third World dross.

    The faster the welfare budgets of Europe exhaust its treasuries, the better.  It is long past time for the piper to be paid.  Maybe the imported Mohammedans will show some few of them just where the genosuicidists’ “compassion” is leading.  Frank and the elites, of course, will themselves never admit that all of their nicey-niceness to the headchoppers will not stop the increase in suicide massacres.  Because at bottom they are themselves in fact sociopathic whitened sepulchers.

  21. Davy on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 6:14 am 

    Kannon, are we talking about Europe or Merika? Because this article and my post were about Europe and not about Merika. Europe is a continent I have a very good understanding having living there. I was married at onetime to a Spanish/French woman and now married to an Italian. My daughter has lived all her life in Spain. I lived in Germany for a year and latter traveled most of Europe for business in the early 90’s. I visited Spain every year to see my daughter for 16 years.

    Why do you anti-Merikans have the obsessive need to always turn a subject into an anti-Merikan sowing circle? I stand by my comment that has nothing to do with the US propaganda machine. The truth of the coming descent is Europe is living better than anywhere because Europeans know how to live great if you give them the opportunity. Because of this Europe has the furthest to fall not because they deserve it because of what they have achieved. Americans and Chinese don’t know how to convert wealth into a good life. Look at the American culture and the current Chinese culture of two dominant rich countries. Especially the US that has squandered huge wealth on a culture of consumption and exploitation now being emulated by China and the rest of the global world. Europe is part of the failed modern culture but on a relative scale they are on the better side of bad.

  22. Davy on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 6:33 am 

    Oh come on Greg “indoctrination and nationalistic programming” give me a break. You just don’t like what I say because I am a thorn in the anti-Merikans side. I try to balance extremism for a life I know and a life most Canadians and other anti-Merikans think they know. I despise many of you but not hate. I despise you anti-Merikans because you hate me and my country. Many things about my country deserve hate but not blanket hate. I resent being told daily and with extremism how bad everything about me is. You assholes don’t know my local and my life. This is a big country and very easy to cherry pick the worst as Ape Hole, Makati-dumb, Toronto Anonymous, and Truth is he is a liberal dumbass from Montreal do with passion and fervor.

    It is amazing how Canadians find their identity through hatred for America then try to deny they hate America because it is such a shameful cultural defect. You then have the anti-Merikan Americans who want to be part of the group so they show how much they hate America. Hell, I hate plenty about American but I am not into extremism and you Greg and your board bud-spuds are extremist. Ape Hole is an extremist. He admits his Merikan hate as a badge of honor. Nearly all his post reference America negatively in some way. How is that balanced? Anyone who likes Makati shows their extremism. The guy preaches daily hate, resentment, and extremism. He revels in the idea of death of all Americans at all levels. Greg you are an intelligent guy but not objective and your credentials do not deserve your high and mighty attitude.

  23. Boat on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 8:11 am 

    Why do you doomers feel the need to hate anyways.

  24. Boat on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 8:11 am 

    Why do you doomers feel the need to hate anyways.

  25. russell santangelo on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 9:09 am 

    So Europe produces 25% of the world’s GDP. In another generation when the welfare population is in the vast majority, the GDP will drop to that of the third world.

  26. Cloud9 on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 9:57 am 

    I have witnessed the North African invasion over the last decade into Western Europe. It really doesn’t matter whether you are walking the streets in Paris or Berlin there is a general loathing of these people. As fossil fuel depletion accelerates, the current political and economic systems in play will collapse. Even without the influx of foreigners, the current operating system is not sustainable. Add in cultural conflict and the possibility of a consensus forming on how to deal with the ongoing contraction becomes impossible. As the dark ages descend on Europe, the primitives may be more adept at survival than their more culturally advanced neighbors. As the infrastructure fails, the inner cities will spill out into the countryside in an effort to survive. As the devolution unfolds, what remains of Western European culture will more than likely reside in the Alps and Eastern Europe.
    I think we all need to look a medieval architecture. As the neighborhood goes south, mont and baily construction should become the rage. Le Mont Saint Michel is a classic example of the architecture popular during times of chaos.
    https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/images/stories/mount_saint_michael.jpg&imgrefurl=http://worldbeautifulplaces500.blogspot.com/2011/11/mount-saint-michael.html&h=272&w=448&tbnid=S6UBhSjH_eueDM:&docid=Kx9n8jmBFo9i4M&ei=-FD1Vo_aDsXReIaglLAF&tbm=isch&ved=0ahUKEwiPtv_Vi9zLAhXFKB4KHQYQBVYQMwhEKB0wHQ

  27. makati1 on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 10:05 am 

    The Us is already in the 3rd world, so why should Europe be any different?

  28. GregT on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 10:32 am 

    “I despise you anti-Merikans because you hate me and my country.”

    I don’t hate anything, or anybody Davy. I learned a very long time ago that hate is a useless emotion. With your background, you should also understand this. I only tell it as I see it. The truth. Nothing more, nothing less. If the people in control of the area, within the human lines drawn in the sand, that I by chance was born into, were responsible for so much human suffering around the world, I would be the first to speak out against them. But I would not hate or despise them Davy, I would feel sorry for them. They know not what they do.

  29. GregT on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 10:46 am 

    Cloud9,

    “I have witnessed the North African invasion over the last decade into Western Europe.”

    The way I see it, you have three choices.

    1) Get used to living with your fellow human beings, and learn how to get long.

    2) Get involved in the local white supremacist movement, buy a gun, and enjoy living in a civil war zone.

    3) Move somewhere else.

  30. GregT on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 10:49 am 

    Get along, not get long.

  31. Davy on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 11:00 am 

    Greg, action speak not words. You are among the most moderate of the extremists and one I have tried many times to call my friend but in the end you can’t get over your dislike for anything American including me. If I were to become a Makati you would be all Lovey dovey as you are with him. So, no Greg, your words are empty to me. Many love you here but birds of a feather flock together.

  32. JuanP on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 11:02 am 

    Why spend money on the population’s welfare when they can spend it all in weapons and illegal terrorist wars like the USA? These Europeans are batshit crazy. We have to teach them free market capitalism and real democracy, US murdican style.

  33. GregT on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 12:09 pm 

    Davy,

    If you were able to identify yourself as an individual human being, as opposed to being a member of some larger group, that you have never met, or even interacted with, that doesn’t have the slightest concern for you, then maybe we could see eye to eye. As you have clearly pointed out time and time again, this will not happen. You and I are on completely different levels of awareness, and understanding. I do not believe in nationalism. I believe that nationalism is one of mankind’s greatest shortcomings.

  34. Apneaman on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 12:10 pm 

    Davy is a bed wetting fairy and I fucking hate him.

  35. JuanP on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 1:05 pm 

    Davy, If you were representative of your people and your country, then I would be proud to say that I am certain to deeply dislike both since you are a despicable human being, but I don’t because you are not representative of your people, you are much worse than the average US murdican, you are representative of the worst of your country, and you shame your people and your nation every time you post one of your stupid comments. You are a disgrace of a human being. You are not worth the air you breathe, scum!

  36. Davy on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 1:22 pm 

    Greg, like I said your words are empty. For many of you Canadians nationalism is hate and resentment of the US. That sums up you and your most of your fellow Canadians on this board. Just listen to Ape Hole and you see pure EXTREMISM mixed with hate and a desire for damnation. He reminds me of a Baptist preacher gone mad. Paulo is a lone example of sense from Canada. Too bad more people everywhere are not like him.

  37. Cloud9 on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 1:26 pm 

    G.T. to be able to get along with others presupposes that there is a level of tolerance in the others that will allow your existence. As things get more desperate, all of us may very well be forced back into our clans and tribes by the circumstances around us. I witnessed this in the prison system. There gangs predetermined your affiliation based on your ethnicity and skin color. You either hung with your own or you became somebody’s bitch. Sometimes you were killed. The closest most solid unit in difficult times is family. I found Ferfal’s book informative on how the collapse plays out for average people. http://ferfal.blogspot.com/
    Throw in the oil and water mixture of Islam and secular Europe and you complicate the equation for the common person even further. A study of Kosovo may be a window into Europe’s future. You might want to follow the writings of a guy who calls himself Selco. http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/a-survival-q-a-living-through-shtf-in-the-middle-of-a-war-zone_10252011

  38. Davy on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 1:31 pm 

    OH BOY, Juan speaks. Juan, go home and quit freeloading on us here in the US. We don’t need unwanted “Aliens” who hate us. Go back to you little dumbass South American country and fade away into the bush. I am so glad you didn’t have children so we wouldn’t have more freeloaders sucking our riches away.

  39. Apneaman on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 1:47 pm 

    Davy, your riches, that you got through a genocide of peoples that were already here for 12,000 years, are long gone and the rest of the world has had enough of your thieving and murder. You friendless in a world of 7.4 billion. You may still have a couple of convenience allies, but they will turn the minute they get the chance. You’re murdering expansionist scum who have turned on each other. Makes for great entertainment from where I’m sitting. Trump 2016 Bahawhahahahahaha

  40. John Kintree on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 2:10 pm 

    The biggest single item dragging down my family’s finances is the cost of private, for-profit health insurance.

  41. John Kintree on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 2:15 pm 

    Guess which country I live in?

  42. Apneaman on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 2:19 pm 

    Davy, when you say riches, I guess you mean mommy and daddy and their 1%er friends riches right? cause working people don’t seem to have any. Maybe they will just take it all back? The hard way.

    Mocked and forgotten: who will speak for the American white working class?
    When you listen to poor people who work with their hands, you hear a uniform frustration and a constant anxiety – but it’s not just about economic issues

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/24/white-working-class-issues-free-trade-american-south#comment-71217508

    “This is why I call the people the “great unwashed” because politicians and journalists are disconnected from reality, and combined, they will absolutely bring about the collapse of the United States. We will, no doubt, see the USA ultimately split into at least four separate nations that are divided but still “united” as states.”

    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/north_america/2016-u-s-presidential-election/press-politicians-are-the-problem/

  43. Steve B on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 2:39 pm 

    Working class is shrinking in the USA because more and more people are either getting too old or getting HIGH.

  44. BobS on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 3:15 pm 

    Beware millenials Socialism not what you think. To quote some great minds,”socialism is a great system, until you run out of other peoples money” America is next in this tragic line.

  45. BobS on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 3:17 pm 

    Beware millenials, socialism not what its cracked up to be. It becomes a very weak system when you start to run out of other peoples money.

  46. beamofthewave on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 3:19 pm 

    or getting leaded, hard to have productive citizens when they are brain damaged.

  47. GregT on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 3:50 pm 

    Cloud9,

    If it is of any conciliation, I myself chose option #3. I moved. I’ve read both Ferfal’s and Selco’s writings, and the first takeaway that I heeded was to get myself a firearm. As Ferfal so apply points out, any gun is better than no gun. If you have one and you never need it, great. If you don’t have one when you do need it, not so great.

  48. GregT on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 4:00 pm 

    “For many of you Canadians nationalism is hate and resentment of the US. That sums up you and your most of your fellow Canadians on this board.”

    There you go again Davy. Putting words into my mouth. Telling me that I believe in something that I do not.

    Are you able to figure out how dysfunctional that is? Why people are tired of your accusations? Perhaps if you were able to separate yourself from your murderous tax farm, you might be able to figure out why
    so many think that you are purely delusional.

  49. GregT on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 4:06 pm 

    Sorry Cloud9,

    Consolation. Stupid auto correct.

  50. Boat on Fri, 25th Mar 2016 4:14 pm 

    The middle class in the US made between $42,000 and over 100,000. The lowest class median made 28,000.

    The world median income is around 10,000. As usual you cherry stat picking, anti US are long on hate and a box of bricks when it comes to common sense.

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